NATIONAL NEWS - A 2017 version of the draft Firearms Control Act is floating around the halls of the safety and security ministry and, if passed, will make life a lot harder for those wanting to purchase or continue to own a firearm for self-defence.
Minister Bheki Cele’s office would not confirm or deny the existence of the bill and instead referred The Citizen to the SAPS, which has not responded.
Police portfolio committee chairperson Francois Beukman said he had not received any formal referral with regard to the bill.
“The only draft legislation that is before the committee is a Private Members Bill from Mr Pieter Groenewald that proposes certain technical amendments to the Firearms Amendment Bill,” Beukman said.
Interest groups and gun-owners should await the formal publishing of the draft legislation once finalised by the department and Cabinet.
“It is indeed premature and not correct to overreact to a dated internal document without formal status and without approval by the Executive,” Beukman said.
Beukman said once the Firearms Amendment Bill was tabled all relevant parties would be given the necessary opportunity for input.
The draft bill, released by Gun Owners South Africa (Gosa), follows a June Constitutional Court finding, which stated gun ownership was not a fundamental right under the Bill of Rights.
“It is a privilege regulated by law, under the Firearms Control Act,” Justice Johan Froneman wrote at the time.
Skip forward a few months and the draft amendment act seeks to insert a new section “that provides that an applicant must provide to the satisfaction of the Registrar a valid reason for requiring a firearm licence, failing which a firearm licence may not be issued”.
It goes on to say self-defence, the protection of another person or the protection of property, other than circumstances constituting a valid reason set out in chapter six of the Act, does not constitute a valid reason.
According to the version of the Firearms Act on the South African Police website, chapter six deals with the “Import, export and carriage in-transit of firearms and ammunition”.
