Dear Mr. Francois Beukman

My name is Schalk Engelbrecht du Toit I am a law abiding citizen of the Republic of South Africa.
I am writing to you today with a mix of emotions after reading the proposed amendments to the firearms control act. I have seen the official media release that it has not yet been submitted to parliament, but not yet still means it’s going to be.

We all have the right to life it is in the constitution.
The new draft states that owning a firearm is not a right but a privilege. I am not a big person I don’t think I would be able defend myself from a determined attacker with just my bare hands let alone several attackers, the new draft in affect then states that I a South African citizen does not have the right to life, life in affect then becomes a privilege. How on earth could someone write this or even come up with such a phenomenal stupid idea?

The police are not capable of fighting crime proactively, they are a reactionary force and they are not even capable of doing that effectively. How am I supposed to protect my wife and child from violent criminals? Call the police and wait?

The new draft also wants to severely limit the number of firearms a person can own and add more restrictions on the type of firearm you may own. How will this help anyone except criminals?

It is a proven fact that the police lose 8 time more firearms than the citizens of South Africa, the assault rifles that everyone are so scared of (Oh and then AR does not even stand for Assault Rifle) do not come from civilians they come from the police and South African National Defense Force. Firearms are safer in the hands of the citizens of South Africa so why punish and limit the law abiding citizens why not punish the criminals and incompetent members of SAPS and SANDF?

By its very definition a criminal is someone who does not care for the rule of law and does not abide by it. So by passing this new draft in any form what so ever will only succeed in disarming law abiding citizens and empowering criminals.
Should the government and parliament of South Africa not rather focus on empowering and protecting its law abiding citizens?

SAPS can currently not handle the administration burden generated by the firearms control act. They rarely keep to the 90 working days set out in the law for firearm license applications, if you think about it they are breaking the law, the very people who are supposed to follow the law are breaking it on a daily basis, and then they call on law abiding citizens to be punished.

By reducing how long a firearm license is valid and in some cases by up to 50% they are doubling their workload how will they manage the new workload when they cannot even effectively handle the current one? Are you starting to see how totally and utterly absurd this is getting.

I call on you to put in motion a process to kill this proposed amendment to the firearms control act even before it is submitted to you, no form of this draft should ever see the light of day.

Regards
Schalk du Toit
Please feel free to contact me.