Gun deaths spike to 33 daily – more than car crashes

Every day, 33 people die because of guns, with Gun Free South Africa (GFSA) calling for stronger laws and strategies to control firearms ownership.

“More people are shot and killed than die in road traffic accidents, the latest national mortality surveillance study shows,” said Clair Taylor, a researcher for GFSA.

The lobby group, fighting against gun violence, said statistics showed that since 2016, the killing of people using guns was continuing unabated.

Gun deaths rise in last decade

“The most recent annual crime statistics show violent crime has risen significantly in the past 10 years, with a 62% increase in murder – from 17 023 murders in 2013-14 to 27 494 in 2022-23. There is an almost 50% increase in attempted murder, from 16 989 to 25 131,” Taylor said.

“In most of the incidents guns were used, that is why we will continue to push government to implement proper strategies and laws that will help to get rid of guns in our communities.”

Taylor said the group was concerned about the ongoing gang violence in the Western Cape, as well as the recent mass killings in Eastern Cape, Gauteng and KwaZulu-Natal.

The responsibility for enforcing gun control and ensuring public safety rests squarely on the shoulders of the government, she said.

In September, 18 people were shot dead in Lusikisiki, Eastern Cape, while seven family members were killed in Orange farm in Gauteng last month.

Police data indicates that guns were used in 12 000 to 16 000 murders in South Africa over the 2023-24 year.

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Study finds more people die from gunshot wounds than in accidents

A 2023 study, conducted by the Medical Research Council, showed between 2020 and 2021 more people died by guns compared to road accidents.

The provincial age-standardised road traffic mortality rate was lowest in Gauteng (12.9 per 100 000 population) and KwaZulu-Natal (15.5 per 100 000 population).

“It was highest in Mpumalanga (27.3 per 100 000 population), Limpopo (22.0 per 100 000 population) and the Free State (21.2 per 100 000 population),” the study read.

Gun survivor Shirley Brown, from Benoni, said she lives with a bullet trapped in her neck after she was shot by an unknown perpetrator in 2018.

“I was outside cleaning when I heard a sound. I woke up in hospital. Doctors said if they remove the bullet I might get paralysed because it was trapped near the spinal cord.

“I believe guns must be owned by law enforcement agencies, not community members,” said Brown.

“Now I am scared of guns and I wish to live in a world where there are no guns.”

Prof Richard Matzopoulos, unit director at the South African Medical Research Council burden of disease research unit, said gun deaths had been increasing and attempts at tightening legislation had failed.

“The draft amendments to the Firearm Control Act should help to strengthen efforts to reduce gun violence.

“Every country in the world with a high murder rate has a large proportion of murders due to guns. There is very little variation globally for other forms of murder.

“In other words, guns are a requirement for a high murder rate. If you remove guns, you can’t have a high murder rate,” Matzopoulos.

Increasing the number of guns in a community would increase the murder rate, while reducing access to guns will reduce the murder rate, he said.

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Still, owning a gun is the right of law-abiding South Africans

But South African Gun Owners’ Association chair Damian Enslin said: “We believe in the right of law-abiding citizens who chose to own firearms for self-defence.

“Such law-abiding citizens should have the right to do so, and thus community members who legally obtain firearms should be entitled to defend themselves, their family, friends and communities lives.”

He, however, said there was a need for effective policing of illegal firearms by police.

The criminals seemingly have easy access to illegal firearms, which are obtained from across the border, from SA Police Service (Saps) and the SA National Defence Force (SANDF), through corruption, Enslin said.

“Government and Saps need to establish special units to tackle the source of illegal firearms and special units should be established to combat organised crime, and corruption within Saps and the SANDF,” he said.

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