Outdated firearm control laws in Southern Africa are contributing to the proliferation of illegal guns in the region, a recent study claims.
The study entitled The Law of the Gun: An audit of firearms legislation in the SADC region was conducted by local NGO SaferAfrica in cooperation with the London-based Saferworld. The study found that most Southern African Development Community (SADC) member states have dangerously inadequate gun-control laws.
Their limitations include the lack of suitable penalties for illicit firearm possession and trade in SADC countries; ineffective controls on civilian possession and use; an almost complete absence of legislation regulating firearm brokering, and inadequate extradition agreements.
Ric De-Caris, programme manager of SaferAfrica, says these deficiencies create loopholes through which transnational crime syndicates can operate. “If you’re a crime syndicate that operates across borders and the legislation in bordering countries is weaker, criminals can operate more freely from those countries.”
The lack of adequate laws regulating sales, says De-Caris, allows unscrupulous gun brokers to act as go-betweens in illicit gun trading.
The study calls for the SADC states to make firm commitments to firearm laws in line with regional and international agreements including the United Nations Programme of Action’ the SADC Firearms Protocol and the Bamako declaration. These agreements call on states to institute coherent and stringent firearms legislation.
The SADC Firearms Protocol provides the most important move towards harmonious gun control legislation in the SADC region.
It was drafted by the Southern Africa Regional Police Chiefs Cooperation Organisation in 2000 and signed by all SADC states in 2001 except Angola. It has, however, only been ratified by five states and is therefore not legally binding. SafeAfrica hopes it will be ratified by the end of the year.
South Africa’s Firearms Control Act of 2000 conforms to most of the guidelines laid out by the SADC Firearms Protocol. But the Act has not yet been fully implemented. Most other SADC countries fall well short of the guidelines the protocol sets out.