The Firearms Control Draft Amendment Bill is still pending and the FF Plus expects that it will not be finalised before the end of this year, for several different reasons.
One of these reasons is the steady stream of objections in the form of petitions and submissions received from about 170 000 members of the public and various organisations.
It is encouraging to see that public protest and inputs may indeed have an impact on unilateral and draconian decisions by government.
Another reason is that the Bill is no longer being treated as a priority by the Portfolio Committee on Police.
This does, however, not spell the end of the absurd Bill; so, the FF Plus will keep a close eye on the process to see whether the Department and Cabinet pay any attention to the objections or not.
Some of the proposed regulations that were met with opposition affect the hunting community, but it was mainly the proposal that the category for owning a firearm for the purpose of self-defense must be abolished that evoked wide-spread resistance from the general public.
The proposal is a poorly disguised attempt at disarming the public.
In a country where the crime rate is skyrocketing, imposing such a regulation would leave South Africans in an extremely vulnerable position seeing as it will deny them their right to protect themselves, their loved ones and property against criminals.
Read the original article in Afrikaans by Dr Pieter Groenewald on FF Plus
