Gun owners might soon have another amnesty period in which to surrender unwanted or illicit firearms. As police destroyed more than 14000 firearms yesterday, Deputy Police Minister Maggie Sotyu said that a six-month amnesty was under consideration.About 3247 of the weapons destroyed at a steel plant in Vereeniging, in the Vaal Triangle, yesterday, were originally issued by police.In the past four years police have destroyed 120000 guns and more than 1million rounds of ammunition.Of the 14382 guns destroyed yesterday, 3 418 were recovered in KwaZulu-Natal. Western Cape contributed the second-highest number of guns (2553), followed by Limpopo (1 155), Mpumalanga (666) and Free State (577).About 8000 of the guns were revolvers.With an average of 18 people shot dead daily in South Africa anti-gun lobbyists welcomed the destruction of firearms and the proposed amnesty.Adele Kirsten, spokesman for Gun Free South Africa, said a multipronged approach was needed to reduce gun violence."Our experience is that you have to control your legal stock, which is where national firearm legislation is critical. But this has to be combined with the mopping up of the illegal pool of firearms and stopping the leakage of weapons from a legal status into an illegal status, be it from the state or civilians."Kirsten said amnesties were an opportunity for people who no longer wanted their weapons to surrender them voluntarily.Sotyu said a six-month amnesty was being discussed as a way to prevent legal firearms falling into the hands of criminals and stopping illegal weapons being circulated in South Africa."It is not about disarming citizens and taking away their rights. It is about ensuring the safety and protection of all," she said.National police commissioner General Riah Phiyega said that at one point the police were losing about 5000 firearms a year. This has been reduced to 771 in the last financial year.Phiyega slammed corrupt officers involved in the illicit dealing of weapons...