Emeka Nwandiko
Bathed in fluorescent light, Lisa Bornman points a 9mm Taurus pistol at a red bull’s- eye and fires.
Despite the debate raging in the country whether handguns should be banned, Bornman takes weapons training to protect herself. She is part of a growing legion of women who believe a gun is the means to wrestling back their independence lost in the spiralling crime wave.
Bornman used to panic when when the garden gate rattled at night. She felt vulnerable stopping at intersections in her car. But not anymore.
“I don’t want to live in fear,” says Bornman, who recalls an attempted break-in at a farm where she lived two years ago. Since then she has carried a .22 Star pistol which she says has given her the confidence to go where she pleases.
Recently released research shows that owning a gun does not translate into actual security for its owners. A four-month study of police dockets in Johannesburg showed that only 8% of crime victims had their gun with them at the time of the offence committed against them.
Gun Free South Africa found that 78% of victims’ guns were stolen during the crime, while only 22% were able to use their gun for self-defence.
For Rosa da Silva, keeping a 9mm revolver at home offers her a slim chance of protecting herself and her daughter from marauders.
According to the Victims of Crime, a report released last year, one in eight women were victims of crime compared to one in six men.
But Palesa Makhetha, of People Opposing Woman Abuse, believes the figure is lower because “women take more precautions by restricting their movements”.
Says Makhetha: “It is not unheard of women imposing a 7pm curfew on themselves so as not to be a victim of crime. A man will not think twice of walking from one end of Hillbrow to the other at 1am”
“Rape and crime is always in the back of the minds of women because they are more vulnerable than men.”
Sitting adjacent to Bornman in the firearms class is a senior administrative clerk at Krugersdorp police station, Rina Jacobs.
Jacobs keeps watch on the proceedings. It has not escaped her attention that over the past two years there has been an increase in handgun applications by women. She estimates that the requests have doubled from 20% to 40%.
Nationally it is difficult to ascertain the extent to which women are applying for handguns. The South African Police Service does not keep records according to gender on the grounds that it is discriminatory.
But if such figures were available, they would be slanted because a loophole in the law allows a licensed gun owner to lend their weapon to another person.
But most women are concerned about the violence perpetrated by men. “You have to stand up and not let it happen to you because you are a female,” says Pinky Hendricks, a bodyguard and firearms instructor.
Such comments have prompted feminist Jacklyn Cock to caution that “firearm feminism” will result in a vicious circle that involves women increasingly challenging male authority, resulting in increasing male violence against women, leading to increasing numbers of women buying guns to protect themselves.
But the women buying guns are prepared to die for their rights rather than be victims.
“If someone was going to rape me I would shoot. I would not wait until he was on top of me,” says Desire Smith. Smith considered getting a gun, but has not done so because of the complexity in the law about when to fire a handgun.
The grinding poverty that most black women have to endure (according to the Victims of Crime survey, people earning less than R3 000 are likely to be targets) has hampered the efforts of many to get a gun.
“I would have fought back if I had a gun,” says Lorraine Monnapula who recently had her cellphone stolen.
Monnapula feels besieged in the township of Vosloorus where hijackings, break-ins and jewellery snatchings are rife. “I would feel safer if I had a gun,” she says wistfully, but on a salary of under R2 000 it is a protection she cannot afford.
At the Highgate shopping mall in Maraisburg, a gun store has a lay-buy scheme for customers struggling to make ends meet.
A potential customer walks in and inquires from assistant Nettie Ngubeni what gun she should buy. But not before telling her tale of woe.
“At Randpark Ridge they [robbers] pointed a gun at my head,” she demonstrates her near brush with death by shaping her fingers into a gun pointed at her temple. “They stole all my money. I don’t want that to happen again,” she says, holding a 9mm Jennings in her left hand.
“What is important is the stopping power,” Ngubeni explains. “But we have to train you. We have dropped the price of lessons from R200 to R160. We will teach you how to shoot and how to keep your gun safe .”
Ngubeni, a gun instructor who teaches women in Zulu and Sotho, said most women customers chose revolvers because they were easy to conceal and fire. “Most women are afraid in a situation, they just want to point and shoot.”