The FCA is a racist evil

**Jack** · 25-09-2009, 10:26

Taken from the Times.

http://www.timeslive.co.za/business/article123071.ece

Gun control a ‘racist evil’
And it affects mostly blacks, says a dealer
Sep 20, 2009 11:16 PM | By ZWELI MOKGATA

Geoffrey Southern struggles to contain his anger at the South African government over "evil" gun-control laws. Speaking from his newly established gun dealership, Southern Arms in Sandton, and surrounded by a variety of long and short weapons, he describes a government conspiracy to disarm and control the South African masses.

Southern is one of hundreds of gun dealers who were forced to close down their shops when the Firearm Control Act (FCA) was enacted in 2000. After 16 years in the small- arms business, he has seen the highs and the lows of the industry.

“I’ve lost two businesses to the act,” he says, “In 1999, while it was still a bill, I lost 80% of my turnover and went from employing 12 people to just one person.”

His first dealership, Red’s Range located on Commissioner Street in the heart of Johannesburg, was started in 1997.

It went from generating R250000 in sales to just over R50000. But while most of his competitors have left the industry, Southern’s love for guns has kept him in the game despite the fact that he is bringing in barely enough to pay costs.

He says: “Gun control is a racist societal evil, where the elite aim to defend their power base and increase control over the masses ? it’s black people who are worst affected.”

Southern says there were abaout 650 registered dealers before the act, but this fell to around 230 in 2001.

The Black Gun Owners Association of South Africa points to a bigger decline, from 700 dealers registered with the SA Arms Dealer’s Association, to fewer than 100 over the past five years.

Gun Owners of South Africa brought a court action in the Cape High Court against the ministry of police last week claiming 1million firearms were handed over to the police over the past four years, but that compensation promised by the act was never paid out.

Albios Khoele, chairman of BGOASA, says that South Africa currently has 3.5million firearms licensed to 2.5million people, 1.5million of whom are black.
“Under the act, owners were required to renew their licences by the end of June this year, but only 600000 of them made applications,” he says.
He says that most of those who did not renew their licences were black gun owners because they were not adequately informed either by mail or telephone.

Shortly before the renewal deadline was reached on June 30 this year, the South African Hunters and Game Conservation Association submitted objections to the FCA and some of its amendments, winning a stay of prosecution for those who had not renewed their licences.

The current government, as in the apartheid era, wants to disarm South Africans to prevent revolutionary uprisings, says one of the customers who walks into Southern Arms to pick up 200 rounds of ammunition.

“Every country needs to have its own citizen militia,” says a customer, “otherwise who’s going to keep the government accountable?”

But Pam Crowsley, chairwoman of Gun- Free South Africa’s Gauteng chapter, feels that the FCA is a necessary measure to ensure the safety of communities.

She says: “If you want to own a firearm, you should undergo an approval process ? ensuring that only people who are competent and have a real need may keep firearms.”

Under the FCA, a licence applicant must undergo a rigorous training course, a background check, assessment of premises for a gun safe — bolted to concrete — and interviews with three people close to the applicant. The process takes a minimum of six months compared to the previous situation in which a licence could be issued within six weeks of application.

“We read about people shot in gun accidents every day,” Crowsley says. “In July, three children were shot and earlier in the year seven children were shot, and these were only those we saw in the newspapers.”

Southern, however, says restrictive gun laws have farther-reaching consequences.

Brandishing a South African R5 assault rifle from his rack, he says: “About six to eight years ago South Africa stopped manufacturing small arms, shutting down the two local manufacturers, Lyttleton Engineering and Vektor.

“These were the main suppliers to the police and armed forces. Now the police are sitting with old firearms and have to import inferior products from Italy at two to three times the cost of locally made weapons.”