Gun Free SA shoots down Cameron’s call for more arms amid gun violence epidemic

Hours after 19 people were murdered in two tavern massacres in Soweto and Pietermaritzburg, Gun Free SA lambasted a Twitter post by controversial community policing activist Ian Cameron, suggesting that South Africans be armed to defend themselves against attacks.

On Tuesday police minister Bheki Cele lost his composure in Gugulethu when Cameron, a director of community safety at Action Society, questioned the police’s failure to combat crime.

Cele was attending a community policing engagement in Gugulethu when Cameron was given an opportunity to speak.

The minister did not take kindly to Cameron’s statement and told the activist he was not new to human rights battles.

Later, when Cameron was trying to respond, Cele told him to “shut up” a number of times and told him to “listen” or “get out” before Cameron was forcibly escorted out of the venue by policemen.

To suggest that one way to deal with gun violence in our country is for everyone to be armed, it is not only ridiculous, it’s dangerous.

—  Adele Kirsten, Gun Free SA founder 

On Sunday Cameron took to Twitter to voice his opinion on the tavern shootings, Cele and the Firearms Control Amendment Bill, which, among other things, seeks to remove self-defence as a reason to own a gun.

The post reads: “So 14 people shot dead in Soweto, 4 shot dead in Pietermaritzburg, yet the minister of police is helbent (sic) on disarming law-abiding armed citizens. More citizens must surely be able to defend themselves as the majority of people have no protection from police.”

The post drew outrage among Twitter users, with one replying: “At this point we should be fighting to reduce the number of firearms in our streets. We cannot all be armed ... We don’t want America here”.

The police ministry did not respond to a request for comment, but Gun Free SA founder Adele Kirsten shot down Cameron’s post.

“To suggest that one way to deal with gun violence in our country is for everyone to be armed, it is not only ridiculous, it’s dangerous.

“Imagine the situation if patrons in those taverns had guns. We would have seen many more deaths. Guns are not the solution.

“No-one has produced evidence to date that guns are effective for self-defence. In fact the evidence is overwhelmingly in the other direction that guns put you at risk and are not effective for keeping you safe. The only way to make us safe is to reduce access to guns.”

Kirsten said the bill is on the table, but government is dragging its heels.

“Government has had consultations with stakeholders, including Gun Free SA over the last six months.

“Minister Cele needs to bring that bill to parliament. We need to move swiftly and boldly because we know most of this bill is aimed at reducing gun availability and in particular access to hand guns. This will help reduce gun deaths in SA.”

Kirsten said the news of the mass shootings “is shocking and yet it is not new”.

“We know that every day in SA 23 people are shot and killed.

“We have a gun violence epidemic in SA. We know the most effective way to reduce the risk of gun death is to reduce gun availability.

“Right now we have guns flooding into the legal market and then they move into the illegal market.

“We have to stop the movement of guns into our society and the best way to do that is to reduce availability and restrict access to the types of guns you can have and the ammunition you can possess.”

In a recent opinion piece, published by the Sunday Times, public health professionals from the University of Cape Town, Groote Schuur Hospital and the SA Medical Research Council collectively described gun violence in SA as an epidemic.

“Peer-reviewed research has repeatedly shown that the Firearms Control Act (2000) saved thousands of lives between 2000 and 2010, while in 2011 gun violence started rising due to lax gun controls and increased gun availability.

“The solution to gun violence is to go upstream and limit the number of guns in our communities.”