South Africa grapples with a staggering homicide rate, ranking among the world’s most dangerous places. Amidst rising crime levels and dwindling public trust in law enforcement, the allure of licensed firearms for personal safety grows. Yet, an expert analysis unveils a complex reality: while firearms offer some protection, they also pose grave risks. From legal ramifications to heightened violence, gun expert Guy Lamb navigates the contentious terrain of firearm ownership, urging a nuanced understanding of safety in South Africa.
By Guy Lamb*
South Africa has one of the highest homicide rates in the world, eclipsed only by Honduras and a handful of Caribbean island states. Furthermore, South African police crime data shows that South Africans experience above average levels of robbery, assault and rape.
The 2022/23 Victims of Crime survey, which surveyed a representative sample of 42,746 South Africans, showed that the population had been feeling acutely unsafe. Only 37% indicated that they felt safe at night in their communities. Public trust in the police has also fallen, declining from 38% in 2015 to 27% in 2021.
Illegal guns play a significant role in the high levels of violent crime in the country.
In June 2021 the police minister reported that there were more than 1.6 million private licensed firearm owners in South Africa who owned 2.7 million firearms. Since then, there have been close to 500,000 new firearm licence applications, according to the 2021/22 and 2022/23 police annual reports. Hence, it’s likely that there are around two million licensed firearm owners and about three million licensed firearms in the country.
The Small Arms Survey, which is widely regarded as the most reputable international source of information on firearms, has calculated that South Africa is ranked tenth globally in terms of licensed firearm ownership.
This begs the question: given that licensed firearms are being acquired by many South Africans for personal safety reasons, is a licensed firearm an effective means of self-protection in South Africa?
After researching firearm crime and violence in Africa for more than 20 years, as well as serving as an arms trafficking expert for the United Nations, I have concluded that firearms can provide a degree of safety to users, but more importantly, they present a range of risks for users and society at large, especially if they are in criminal hands.
Getting a gun license in South Africa
South Africa has strict firearm control legislation, and applying for a firearm license is a time-consuming process.
The Firearms Control Act (2000) stipulates that firearm license applicants must:
- be 21 years of age or older
- not have a criminal record or a history of substance abuse, violence or negligent handling of a firearm
- pass background checks conducted by the police, and competency tests relating to firearm safety and knowledge of the relevant laws.
Applicants for a license for self-protection need to provide the police with a compelling written motivation.
Owning a licensed firearm is also costly. An entry-level handgun costs around R9,000 (about US$485). A license applicant is also required to have a gun safe at home that is approved by the South African Bureau of Standards. The cheapest gun safe costs about R900 (about US$48).
Guns, crime and safety
A key issue in South Africa is that criminals frequently possess firearms. Furthermore, a study of offenders with residential robbery convictions showed that firearm owners had been targeted by criminals for valuables, including firearms. It also showed that criminals were likely to shoot household members if they felt threatened.
Drawing on anecdotal evidence, firearm interest groups in South Africa have strongly promoted the personal safety advantages of firearm ownership. They claim it provides firearm owners with lethal technology to defend themselves, their families and their property.
However, there have been no credible South African studies to substantiate such a position.
In the US, a few studies have suggested that, in certain contexts, the possession of a firearm may discourage criminal attacks.
The crime prevention potential of firearm possession has nonetheless been challenged by a recent review of US studies by Rand, a respected think tank. It suggests that widespread legal firearm ownership cannot be convincingly linked to crime prevention.
A recent South African study indicated that there was a higher risk of homicide during a robbery if both the perpetrator and victim had firearms. This was particularly the case for men as they were often more confrontational than women in such situations.
Studies from various countries have shown that other risks firearm owners and their families typically face include homicide, intimate partner violence, suicide, and accidental shootings.
Although most murders are committed with unlicensed firearms in South Africa, my research has shown that licensed firearms stolen from, or lost by, licensed owners have been acquired by violent criminals.
There have also been reports of licensed firearms being used in fatal road rage incidents. Licensed firearms have also featured prominently in studies on intimate partner femicide and domestic violence.
Firearms account for 8.6% of suicides in South Africa. This is close to the global average for firearm suicide, although countries with lower levels of firearm access tend to have lower percentages of suicide by firearm use.
A Red Cross Children’s Hospital study has indicated that the accidental shooting of children is also a problem in South Africa.
In short, firearm ownership is accompanied by risks of injury (and death) for firearm owners and their families.
Legal risks of firearm misuse
Firearms may provide firearm owners with a means of self defense in confrontations with criminals, but the unlawful use of a licensed firearm can have negative legal consequences for firearm owners, including criminal convictions. For example, a firearm owner may be charged with committing a violent crime if they use unreasonable and disproportionate lethal force when confronted by a criminal threat.
Hence, South Africans who are eligible to apply for firearm licenses for self-defense purposes should carefully reflect on risks that possessing a licensed firearm may present to them and their families before applying. Prospective gun owners may also want to consider whether there are less risky alternatives to firearm ownership, such as improving their security in the home and joining a neighborhood watch or community safety group.
Guy Lamb* Criminologist / Senior Lecturer, Stellenbosch University
This article was first published by The Conversation and is republished with permission
Right of Reply: Your firearm ‘expert’ misses the target
In response to criminologist Dr. Guy Lamb’s article on gun use in South Africa, Jonathan Deal argues against blaming guns alone and highlights the complexities of crime, defending firearm ownership as essential for self-defence despite risks.
By Jonathan Deal*
Within the context of the hackneyed debate around guns as a driver of crime and a means of self protection, criminologist Dr. Guy Lamb is introduced by Biznews editor as a ‘firearm expert’. The Biznews preface to Dr. Lamb’s article, comes out punching for the anti-gun lobby – grudgingly conceding that firearms offer ‘some’ protection, while asserting that they [firearms] pose ‘grave risks’.
Public trust in the police down to 27% (2021)
Dr. Lamb acknowledges that South Africa has one of the highest homicide rates in the world, referring to South African Police Services crime data which reflects that South Africans experience above average levels of assault, robbery, and rape. Pointing to the 2022/23 Victims of Crime survey, he asserts that the population feels acutely unsafe – with only 37% of almost 43,000 citizens surveyed, indicating that they felt safe at night in their communities. Dr. Lamb cited that public trust
in the police declined from a shocking 38% in 2015 to 27% in 2021.
I would hazard a guess that in the three years 2021-2024, that number is even lower than 27%. I can’t fault these figures and the grim reality that they present for law-abiding South African citizens.
It is when Dr. Lamb tramps down the familiar path about Illegal guns ‘playing a significant role’ in the high levels of violent crime in South Africa that he loses credibility in this debate. Without exception, every single anti-gun argument in any country seeks to pin the phenomenon of violent crime on a gun.
Entrenched in this facile approach, appears to be the notion that by reducing the availability of guns in society, we will experience a net gain in the reduction of violent crime. Perhaps it is assumed that persons pre-disposed to criminal behaviour will steer clear of their criminal tendencies in the absence of a gun.
There would be millions more licensed gun owners
Dr. Lamb confirms that there are about two million licensed firearm owners and approximately three million licensed guns in South Africa, as if these figures, whether tripled, halved or divided by ten would make any difference to the reality of violent crime for the law-abiding man in the street. And if one were to attach any value to these figures, one could also suggest that if there weren’t a financial barrier that places gun ownership out of the hands of millions, there would be millions more licensed gun owners.
A firearm is the only tool that will place a single defender on an equal footing with overwhelming criminal odds
Calling on a 20-year history of researching firearm crime and violence in Africa and serving as an arms trafficking expert for the United Nations, Dr. Lamb agrees that firearms can provide a ‘degree of safety to users’. Naturally, he will not be motivated to admit that a licensed firearm in the hands of a law-abiding citizen – and especially a woman – is the only tool that will place a single defender on an equal footing with overwhelming criminal odds. He claims instead, that firearms present a range of risks for users and society at large, qualifying that statement by saying – ‘ especially if they [guns] are in criminal hands.
Of course a gun in criminal hands is a risk to society at large. And of course a gun in law abiding hands is an asset to society at large.
Dr. Lamb’s references to the process by which South Africans lawfully acquire firearms and the cost of the firearms is accurate, and serves only to underscore the strict controls and cost of owning a
private firearm in South Africa – hardly illustrating a wholesale licensing of guns for criminals by the government.
Turning to guns, crime and safety, Dr. Lamb tritely contends that ‘criminals frequently possess firearms ’. Of course they do. My contention is that a criminal who cannot lay his hands on a firearm will possess a knife, an axe or perhaps an iron pole – in fact any weapon that will provide him with a physical advantage in his criminal enterprise.
The claim that firearm owners are targeted more than non-firearm owners is not based on fact and is simple to argue against by suggesting that any burglar is concerned with unlawfully acquiring valuables that belong to another person. Of course firearms are sought after by criminals, but it is simplistic to suggest that criminals only target homes where they know there are firearms.
Similarly, the suggestion that criminals are likely to shoot armed household members makes a mockery of the well-established trend of violent assault and raping that accompanies home invasions and criminal attack on unarmed people. Of course criminals will shoot if they feel threatened, and to suggest that they only shoot, torture, beat and rape when they are faced with someone who owns a gun does nothing to support Dr. Lamb’s position.
Glibly, he suggests that there are less risky alternatives to firearm ownership, such as improving security in the home and joining a neighborhood watch or community safety group. This when South Africans are already barricaded behind double gates and electric fences, and protected by armed response companies. It requires little imagination to speculate on how successful a response company would be if it advertised ‘all our officers are unarmed’.
The difference between an armed responder and an armed home-owner is the panic button
Simply stated – the difference between an armed responder and an armed home-owner is the panic button. They are both armed, and I’d be surprised if the anti-gun lobby in South Africa eschewed armed response in favour of a billy club, a whistle and a can of pepper spray.
Dr. Lamb writes that the anecdotal evidence proffered by South African firearm interest groups, that there is a personal safety advantage in owning a firearm, lacks a credible South African study in support thereof, by default making the point that there is no credible South African study that proves the opposite.
He cites a US-based study challenging the notion that legal firearm ownership cannot be convincingly linked to crime prevention, conveniently ignoring that the demographics, culture, almost complete lack of police control on violent crime as well as the proliferation of guns from State and military actors, combined with the copious flow of small arms from other countries in Africa has precious little to do with the South African citizen who needs a gun to protect his family. Dr. Lamb writes that a firearm makes a perpetrator-victim encounter worse by increasing the risk of homicide, but neglects to mention whether that homicide includes the perpetrator’s own death.
Intimate partner violence and suicides are by no means reserved for gun owners
His penultimate point in this hackneyed argument is that intimate partner violence, suicide and accidental shootings are additional and undesirable by-products of owning a gun. This discounts the fact that intimate partner violence and suicides are by no means reserved for gun owners. And even if accidental shootings in South Africa increased exponentially, it would be tough to argue that law
abiding citizens ought to be stripped of a fundamental means of protection from South Africa’s uncontrolled criminals.
Dr. Lamb concludes: ‘In short, firearm ownership is accompanied by risks of injury (and death) for firearm owners and their families’.
In reality, a lawfully owned firearm is an intrinsic and necessary instrument in any country. It enforces the rule of law, protects our leaders from assassins and provides the man in the street with a means to stay alive in this violent country where criminals ply their trade without hindrance.
*Jonathan Deal is the founder of Safe Citizen, a community based NPO. He is a veteran firearms instructor, sport shooter and a respected member of the firearms fraternity. www.safecitizen.co.za
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