It’s all about EWC.

On Friday, the ANC published the draft of the Firearms Control Amendment Bill in the Government Gazette.

One of the critical features of this particular Bill is essentially banning all handguns in South Africa. As per the bill, gun rights will now only reside in sports shooting and hunting alone, elite sports that most South Africans cannot afford to partake in. This Bill says the reasons for self-defence will no longer be a justified reason to become a licensed firearm owner.

From January to March of this year, close to 5000 people were murdered and 12,000, were sexually assaulted. We know that South Africa is a profoundly violent and criminal country. The police have admitted that they cannot fulfil their constitutional mandate.

Colonel Prinsloo, an employee of SAPS, sold 2000 guns to gangs in the Western Cape. Those guns were responsible for the deaths of over 1000 people and close to 100 children. He was recently granted parole after spending less than a quarter of his prison sentence. The SANDF is no better; dozens of rifles and millions of rounds of ammunition have been stolen from army bases across the country. The government has become the greatest purveyor of illegal weapons on the street of South Africa – but they want to ban civilian ownership of firearms.

The banning of handguns has little to do with the expressed intention of the Minister or the President; taking a glance at Parliament offers a more compelling reason. EWC, prescribed assets and the NHI are all expropriation bills. The ANC want to take your stuff and not pay you for it.

To ensure that that expropriation is done without retaliatory force, the ANC has undertaken this measure to ensure that we cannot provide resistance when they come for us. This is why the Amendment Bill essentially makes owning a gun for average South Africans impossible.

Banning handguns only has one function, to make expropriation without compensation easier to achieve. The ANC is intent on taking your wealth and not paying you for it. They know you won’t allow them to do so. They know that guns, particularly handguns, are powerful force multipliers that negate their power.

Banning handguns has nothing to do with preventing crime and everything to do with enforcing the National Democratic Revolution.

The consequences of the Bill are apparent. Criminals will continue to have access to guns (since the police sell guns to them), but ordinary people will become criminals to defend themselves; they will be in unlawful possession of a handgun.

This Bill is a grotesque infringement on the human rights of South Africans. The right to life and safety will be extinguished should it pass.

But you can fight it by commenting on the Bill through Dear South Africa‘s website. They make public participation simple; please make use of their service.