Fewer people are being shot dead in South Africa thanks to stricter gun legislation, according to a 17-year study drawing on mortuary data. SA Medical Council researcher Richard Matzopoulos, writing in this month's edition of SA Medical Journal, said this is proof that gun control works.Matzopoulos examined all deaths caused by gunshots as recorded in mortuary data from 1997 to 2013 and identified 105 694 gun murders in 17 years.The gun-related deaths dropped from about 9540 a year between 1997 and 2000 to 3793 around 2007, a decrease of more than 60%.This coincided with the gradual implementation of stricter firearm legislation which was introduced in 2000 and fully enacted by 2004.Firearms-related deaths increased slightly in 2008 to 2011. It is believed a 2010 bid to speed up the issuing and renewing of gun licences to reduce backlogs contributed to the increase in gun-related deaths in 2011, the study suggested.In the US there are increased calls to tighten firearms legislation following the country's deadliest mass shooting at a gay nightclub in Orlando, Florida.According to a study that used data from the World Health Organisation, and Cambridge University's 2013 Small Arms Survey, there were 12.7 guns per 100 South Africans, compared to 88.8 in the US. The study said that in 2012, South Africa's gun homicide rate was 9.41 per 100,000 head of population, compared to the US at 10.2.From 2004, South Africans can own only one gun for self-defence and background checks of potential firearm owners were mandatory. These included interviews of spouses and friends.Most civilians do not qualify to own fully automatic weapons of the type often used in mass killings."Buying a gun is an onerous process," said Gun-free South Africa's Adele Kirsten, "and it should be".But pro-gun lobbyist and lawyer Martin Hood said the data in the Matzopoulos study were too broad.Hood said he wanted to know how many gun deaths cited in the study were the result of the use of illegally obtained firearms.He said his experience as a lawyer was that most gun-related crimes were committed with illegally acquired firearms and not by the more than 1million legal owners of an estimated 2.5million guns.But Kirsten counters that the more legal guns there are, the more opportunity there is for theft of firearms.Older police data showed that on average 18 to 20 firearms are lost or stolen from civilians every day, and two to five from the police, she said.An earlier study by Matzopoulos showed that between 2001 and 2005, as gun deaths dropped, murders by stabbing or other forms of assault did not. From this he concludes that the gun legislation passed in 2000 was effective because only gun-related deaths decreased, not all unnatural deaths.Gun-control advocates argue that gun legislation is an easy way to reduce murders in the short term whereas societal interventions, such as improving early childhood development and reducing poverty, take years.In 1999, about 45% of murder victims were shot; now the figure is 33%, said Kirsten. The murder rate has also dropped.Hood suggested that Matzopoulos's study was biased because he is a board member of Gun-free SA...