Only the police should carry guns

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Only the police should carry guns'

August 30 2007 at 03:48PM

Four months after launching the Azanian People's Organisation's no-guns campaign, party president Mosibudi Mangena still possesses a firearm of his own.

Mangena, who is also minister of science and technology, made the admission this week, but said his party colleagues were aware of the fact, and that he intended to get rid of it.

He launched the campaign, which called for a ban on civilian ownership of guns, at Kagiso on the West Rand on April 21.

"An immediate and important step we can take as a country to reduce levels of serious and violent crime, is to remove all guns from civilians," he said in a speech at the event.


'Only the police and the army should be allowed to carry guns'
"Only the police and the army should be allowed to carry guns."

He told Sapa this week however that he still owned a pistol he had had since 1995, when he bought it for protection "as a political person running around all over the country".

South Africa had only just emerged from the conflict of apartheid, and "things were pretty rough".

"Having a gun for protection at the time looked like a good idea," he said.

But he had decided even before the launch of the Azapo campaign that he should hand it over to the police for disposal.

'Having a gun for protection at the time looked like a good idea'
"I strongly believe that in a society that is so violent and where guns are responsible for so many horrendous crimes such as murder, hijackings and armed robberies, that it is incumbent upon us as a society to remove those instruments that make it easier to hurt people."

He said he had not had time to go to a police station to hand it over, but intended to do so before the end of the year.

"I know I should have done that by now," he said.

In the meantime, it was locked away safely. - Sapa
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http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?set_id=1&click_id=15&art_id=nw20070830142422801C523661
 
where guns are responsible for so many horrendous crimes such as murder, hijackings and armed robberies,
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Wrong answer. People can be responsible. Objects are inert.
 
Should I need access in a civil war scenario I can get a gun fast enough. In the meantime I am not at all interested. I have a better chance of talking my way out of ****. May it never get to that! Amen!
 
BTW, if the minister of DoC controls the goings on concerned with Internet connectivity in SA, what is the minister of science and technology doing? Seems like a tiny little profile if he can stay busy with gun lobbying???!???
 
If policemen are the only ones that should have a firearm, how are we supposed to defend ourselfs from corrupt officers?
 
Slight off topic, but relevant to thread.

Does anyone have information on what sort of weapons criminals use? I can understand where the assault rifles come from but the hand guns?
 
Fudzy said:
Slight off topic, but relevant to thread.

Does anyone have information on what sort of weapons criminals use? I can understand where the assault rifles come from but the hand guns?
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A lot of them are police issue or "liberated" police handguns
 
Hell, the Yanks just misplaced like 190 000 guns and you think the SA government can keep track of its guns? They can't even issue IDs.

There are always some idiots that think a request to the public to hand in their guns will convince the criminals to surrender their guns.

Compound bow ftw. No license required.
 
Well the point I'm trying to get at is that it seems there are alot of 'domestic' guns that get stolen or go missing. If the number of people owning guns increases we'd see more of these guns getting stolen lost and thus increase the number of crimes involving guns. On the other hand, the number of foiled attempts should go up by those carrying the guns too.
 
Gru said:
A lot of them are police issue or "liberated" police handguns
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I know this is a problem, wasn't there a case of a whole lot of guns being stolen from a police not some time ago?
 
I think this gent needs to go and look at the police firearm registers.
The POLICE themselves do not have a very good track record when it comes to this.
Officers have sold and even rented out firearms. Some have 'lost' more than one and are still on the force.
Who is the bigger threat here, The public that has to go through a battery of tests before getting a license, or some pseudo cop that who's gun is for hire?
The R4's and R5's that are being used in cash in transit heists, they are all military issue.
 
The police officers are killing their whole family with their service firearms down here in Cape Town. So guns are not for all policemans
 
The argument against this is very simple:
  1. You'll end up with just the criminals having guns
  2. Citizens need something to protect themselves with against their government should it become abusive

Banning civilian ownership of firearms is just taking away another freedom - sure with something as dangerous as a firearm you need very strict regulating (inspections of safes firearms are kept in etc). I don't intend to own a firearm anytime but I'd like to have the option open just incase one day...

And how many crimes are committed with registered guns?
 
Only the police and army should have guns... just like a real dictatorship, right? If you ban civilians from having arms, you effectively create the condition where the only people with easy access to arms are... the government ...which (as we all know) is dominated by a single political party.

In South Africa we don't have anything in our constitution like the USA's Second Amendment (the right to bear arms). The right to bear arms is important when it is interpreted as 'the right to take up arms against a corrupt or tyrannical government'.

I don't think government should ban civilian firearm ownership, or we'll land up with a situation where criminals and government can get guns, and law-abiding citizens can't.
 
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