Gun lobby fired up over US back-up  


January 26, 2006

 By Di Caelers

The pro-gun lobby is set to spark renewed controversy over South Africa's Firearms Control Act, and the head of Gun Owners of America is here to help fire up opposition.

The fight is to repeal the stringent act, introduced formally in mid-July of 2004, and which The Gun Owners of South Africa call "the single most dangerous piece of legislation thus far unleashed on the South African public".

Tonight, the South African pro-gun group is to hold its "public launch" at the Parow Civic Centre, urging South Africans to attend to show their "resistance" to the act.

On the podium will be Larry Pratt, executive director of Gun Owners of America, who believes South Africans should pack more guns - and the greater the firepower, all the better to take on the criminals and lower the national murder and crime rate.  


Pratt said this week he was visiting South Africa to research first-hand the Firearms Control Act, which was too strict and allowed criminals to get away with murder. He said a worldwide trend dictated that when strict gun laws were introduced, violence increased. Britain, with its almost total ban on guns, was one of "the most violent societies in the industrialised world".

The Gun Owners of South Africa want the "fatally flawed" act repealed because law-abiding people will be "stripped of their defences", and crime will spiral out of control. Gun Free South Africa says guns destroy and kill, and are a threat to democracy.

yeah no kidding. isnt SA just about one of the most dangerous places of the last 10 years?