Issue of who loses guns is still not clear-cut

In the face of it, the news that the vast majority of firearms which disappear are in the hands of civilians both individuals and companies, such as security firms at the time, leads one to two conclusions.

First, civilians are careless with the way they store and care for weapons. That, in turn, would appear to lend considerable weight to the government’s argument that there needs to be tighter control over gun licences.

Secondly it could well be a myth that firearms stolen from the police and the military are responsible for a significant amount of violent crime.

Official figures state that the SA Police Service (Saps) “loses” about 700 guns a year mainly pistols, but including R4 and R5 assault rifles and shotguns.

In comparison, says the 2000-2014 Police Secretariat Firearm Report, 176 000 cases of lost or stolen firearms were reported, with a paltry 19% recovery rate.

Of these weapons, 132 126 were lost or stolen from individuals and 17 159 from security firms, with an average recovery rate of just 20%.

According to University of Stellenbosch criminologist Dr Guy Lamb, licensed civilian firearm holders and security firms accounted for 70% of all stolen or lost firearms, meaning civilians lost about 9 000 licensed firearms a year.

“Yes, police are obviously a problem, but nowhere near as big a problem as licensed civilian firearm holders in terms of volume of guns that go to the illegal sector,” he added.

However, independent security expert and Firearms SA founder Ian Cameron claims that between 2005 and 2017, the police lost more than 26 000 firearms and most ended up in the hands of criminals as the recovery rate was less than 7%.

Cameron remarked: “I think the police is the biggest supplier of guns to criminals in SA, whether deliberately or not.”

Cameron said that in a six-year period, between 2013 and 2019, Saps lost more than 10 million rounds of ammunition, while there were 82 000 firearms the SA National Defence Force could not account for, as admitted
to the standing committee on public accounts in 2011.

So, it looks as though the issue of who loses guns is not as clear cut as it first appears.

A major point of concern, which doesn’t appear to have been addressed by anyone involved in the debate, is why the authorities lump both “stolen” and “lost” firearms together for statistical purposes.

There is a world of difference between a weapon being stolen or lost. Given that weapons are, by law, supposed to be secured, what exactly is the definition of “lost”? Could it be that at least some of those weapons would have been “lost” rather than handed in when licences expired and owners did not want to renew them?

These different reasons for the disappearance of firearms should be categorised separately, if for no reason other than it gives experts, as well as society in general, a way to assess whether gun crime is really out of control.

However, following on the violence in KwaZulu-Natal and Gauteng where armed civilians filled the gap left by an almost entirely absent security apparatus, and protected private property any use of figures in relation to gun ownership need to be accurate, and carefully scrutinised, lest the government come to conclusions which disarm people and leave them vulnerable.