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05-12-2017, 08:20 #1
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Gun Free South Africa – Who are they and what are their aims?
This article is around 3000 words long, and it is impractical to copy and paste it here. Please read it on the link provided. I will paste the conclusion at the bottom.
http://paratus.info/2017/12/05/gun-free-south-africa/
Conclusions
GFSA claim to represent the voice of the “unarmed majority”. They also claim to enjoy widespread public support. This is disingenuous. The majority of their financial support stems from the Open Society Foundation and organisations and individuals affiliated with it. Either directly or indirectly. To the contrary, there is no indication of any meaningful popular civil support for GFSA at all.
Gun Free South Africa specifically mention that their Twitter following grew from 150 in 2012 to 450 in 2013. At the time of writing it sits at 985. This is not a figure indicative of any broad public following or support. In comparison, Gun Owners of South Africa (GOSA) boasts a diverse membership total of over 34 000. I would think that this is considerably more representative of civil society.
So what is GFSA then?
Gun Free South Africa is the proxy of multinational corporations, NGOs and special interest groups. They also receive funding from foreign governments, as evident from the Finnish embassy’s contributions to them. Most telling of all, they are in the pocket of George Soros and his OSF; without their financial support, and that of affiliated organisations, they will effectively cease to exist.
An organisation majority funded by a foreign NGO is pursuing a civilian disarmament agenda disguised as “common sense gun control”. And they are foisting this agenda on South African citizens by claiming it is in our best interests. This is a direct subversion of our democratic processes and institutions. That government has allowed Gun Free South Africa to give such extensive input into the formulation of firearm policy and legislation is alarming. Especially so when government frequently leave other stakeholders outside the participation process.
The recently published revelations of state capture by Jacques Pauw lends such concerns further gravitas. To what level are our political parties beholden to outside influences (and their money) that they will entertain entities such as GFSA, who have no visible popular support among the citizenry?
We can say the same about our supposedly independent media. Gun Free South Africa enjoys disproportionate amount of press and airtime to state their case. But firearm rights organisations seldom enjoy the same courtesies unless they raise objections. How much money do our media outlets receive from the OSF and its affiliates? The OSF-SA annual reports suggest that the amount is significant. If this is true, then they are not particularly independent at all.
Gun Free South Africa is certainly not the voice of the “unarmed majority”. They are not the voice of anyone except the special interest groups that fund them. And their influence on our legislative and public policy processes is a danger to our democracy. A danger that we no longer can ignore.
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05-12-2017, 08:49 #2
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Re: Gun Free South Africa – Who are they and what are their aims?
Very interesting read thanks for posting.
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05-12-2017, 09:02 #3
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Re: Gun Free South Africa – Who are they and what are their aims?
Great article, thanks Manservant
The press need to be taken to task every time they quote an organization with no popular mandate and no backing to any of their claims at all.
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05-12-2017, 14:23 #4
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Re: Gun Free South Africa – Who are they and what are their aims?
Great read!
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05-12-2017, 15:36 #5
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Re: Gun Free South Africa – Who are they and what are their aims?
Really worth a read
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05-12-2017, 21:16 #6
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Re: Gun Free South Africa – Who are they and what are their aims?
Mr Soros for you....
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05-12-2017, 22:03 #7
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- Feb 2013
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Re: Gun Free South Africa – Who are they and what are their aims?
Well done on a very informative albeit infuriating article.
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06-12-2017, 17:40 #8
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- Mar 2010
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Re: Gun Free South Africa – Who are they and what are their aims?
These things are always worth publishing, but its old news that has been well known for two decades. I personally got SAB to admit that they had given GFSA money. That was in the early days. In GFSA's first year several corporates gave them money, to the tune of about 1.50 million if memory serves. That was a tidy mount at that time, enough to keep an organization of half a dozen people going. It dried up soon afterwards as the donors realized the true nature of GFSA. SABS wouldn't admit that directly, but the wording of their reply to me made it clear that they realised they had been conned.
But, as I read this stuff and the responses I get a depressing sense of dejavu. We are re-inventing the wheel having forgotten (or ignored) the experience of those who fought this battle when it was much more intense than now. Zoo Keeper is right - GFSA needs to be challenged continuously. But who will do it and how ? I can tell you how - the key question is the who ? Membership of organisations is useful to the organisations because they need some money for expenses and need to show a membership base to be taken seriously. The other side of the coin is that they have to service the members instead of fighting the battle. One real activist is worth a thousand members, but experience has shown that VERY few people are prepared to get their hands dirty, and the pattern has always been lots of talk but little action.
That's why GFSA has wiped the floor with us. They will carry on for as long as it takes, and they think in terms of decades, to whittle us down bit by bit. It took 80 years in the UK. They are not fools; they are trained propagandists, very difficult to combat as those who have fought against them know very well.
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