The state provides guns to criminals

Ian Cameron, Chairperson of the Portfolio Committee on Police, said that the state intentionally or unintentionally provides firearms to criminals.

Cameron shared his views on South African gun violence and illicit firearms during an interview with Chris Steyn on Biznews TV.

He said that the latest SA Police Service Data showed that in the four financial years, 41,297 murders were committed with illegal, unlicensed firearms.

In contrast, 393 people in South Africa were killed with legally licensed firearms in the same period.

“The government’s obsession with targeting lawful gun owners is entirely misplaced and politically motivated,” Cameron said.

“What adds insult to injury for the state is that out of those 41,297 murders, 166 of them were committed using firearms that once belonged to the state.

“The state itself very often, whether intentionally or not, provides firearms to illicit firearm networks or illicit firearm owners.”

He said that there was an important message in these statistics. “Over the years, we’ve seen an onslaught from organisations like Gunfree South Africa,” he said.

“We saw attempts to change firearm legislation back when Bheki Cele was still the Minister of Police.”

Cameron accused elements in government of pursuing a political agenda to disarm citizens and centralise state power.

This is happening despite the government’s failure to curb illegal arms trafficking or protect the public.

He argued that giving the state a monopoly on arms leaves regions controlled by cartels, as was seen in Venezuela and cartel-controlled regions of Mexico.

“Disarming citizens leaves law-abiding people helpless when state security capacity collapses or is outmatched by organised crime,” he said.

“If they should ever succeed with this draconian and absolutely ridiculous piece of legislation, it would result in tyranny. We’ve seen it around the world.”