Gun Control Legislation Without Public Input: A Threat to Democracy and Safety
You cannot fight crime by drowning citizens in red tape while leaving criminals free to roam.
Written By: Reuben Coetzer
South-Africa is a country plagued by rampant crime, persisting violence and fearful citizens as a result. No matter where you find yourself in South Africa you are in danger of being a potential victim of crime if you have not already fallen victim to it. South-Africa however as a country do not suffer from a lack of laws, neither are the existing laws aimed at preventing crime particularly flawed. Instead South-Africa suffers from a lack of law enforcement and a lack of political will to tackle the real root causes of crime affecting ordinary South-Africans on a daily basis.
Instead the South-African government’s answer to rampant violent crime is not to fix a failing police service, not to clean up our inner cities, not to confront our porous borders that flood our communities with illegal weapons, but to instead turn its legislative crosshairs on law-abiding citizens through the Draft Firearms Control Amendment Bill. These amendments have the potential of disarming citizens who take up arms to protect themselves, not by choice but out of necessity, since the government and the police force have already and are continuously failing their core responsibilities to create safe communities for all.
The Draft Firearms Control Amendment Bill is being forcibly steamrolled forward in secrecy by the government creating an even further distrust between government and the very communities affected by these policies who have already suffered at the hand of the government’s lack of law enforcement.
What is particularly concerning regarding this legislation is that critical stakeholders who are directly affected by these policies like legal firearm owners, the security industry, civil society and advocacy groups, and women who rely on firearms as a last line of defence have not even been consulted for input at all.
A Familiar Pattern of Autocracy
South Africans have gotten all too used to seeing this pattern before when it comes to law and policy making - the government doesn’t like to consult the very citizens they are meant to serve. Whether it relates to education, the economy or gun control, the government prefers to sit in their ivory towers formulating ideological legislation to score political points without interference or input from citizens. Public consultation is seen as a mere tickbox exercise while it is meant to be a foundational pillar of our democracy.
South Africa’s Constitution clearly states that our country is a participatory democracy. Laws that affect citizens must be shaped by and for citizens, not imposed upon them. Yet when it comes to the Firearms Control Amendment Bill the government instead has showcased a blatant disregard for this fundamental principle of participation by excluding gun owners, security experts, and vulnerable groups from these deliberations exposing a dangerous trend of governance that is not reflective of the spirit and purpose of the Constitution.
This is not only dangerous as it relates to our democracy and democratic principles but it also risks passing legislation that is ill-informed and misrepresents the needs of ordinary South-Africans on a ground level. The government has adopted the attitude that they know better, that they are more in touch with the issues of crime than the very communities having to deal with it every day while government officials are wrapped in a blanket of VIP protection.
Firearm ownership in South Africa is not a luxury hobby of the wealthy. It is a lifeline for farmers in remote areas, for women threatened by abusive partners, for small business owners in high-risk environments, and for security professionals who are tasked with protecting us daily. To legislate in the form of a puppetmaster over their heads is not just disrespectful—it is reckless.
Criminalising the Innocent While Ignoring the Guilty
The irony with this is impossible to ignore: while SAPS struggles to track illegal weapons and smugglers move guns across unguarded border posts at will, the state is investing political energy in criminalising compliance. It is the law-abiding firearm owner who faces more hurdles, while the gangster in Hillbrow or the smuggler from eSwatini carries on untouched.
You cannot fight crime by drowning citizens in red tape while leaving criminals free to roam. Secure the borders. Equip and reform SAPS. Confront corruption. But do not punish citizens trying to protect themselves and their families for the state’s failures to do so.
A Call for Transparency and Participation
Our demand at Free SA’s is not radical; it is constitutional, rooted in the fundamental principles of participatory democracy. Halt the Bill. Open up the public consultation process and have a fully fledged consultation with all stakeholders affected by these proposed amendments and produce legislation that doesn’t just speak to the needs of all South-Africans but that has been crafted by the very voices and ideas of ordinary South-Africans.
Public participation is not a mere tick-box exercise; it is the lifeblood of our democracy. The government cannot claim to protect us while ignoring our voices. Make your voice heard on our website at freesa.org.za before the deadline of 30 September. We must ensure that our voices do not just resonate on the streets and on social media but in the halls of Parliament itself. All submissions are part of the official consultation process.
https://www.freesa.org.za/no-one-left-behind-include-firearms-stakeholders-in-legislative-debate/
Reuben Coetzer is the Spokesperson of Free SA.