State has responsibility to regulate, control guns - Gun Free SA

The organization addressed the media on Wednesday regarding a class action suit it will institute against the police.

Gun Free SA's director Adel Kirsten says they believe the entire SAPS value chain is problematic.

"It is clear then that the state and in particular the SAPS, the ministry of police, is liable for the harm caused by the actions of its employees and therefore the state must be held accountable. SAPS failed to uphold its constitutional statuary and its international obligation under the global gun control laws.

"Under the constitution, the state has the duty to protect the right to freedom and security of the person including the right to be free from all forms of violence. The state has a particular responsibility that it has to control and regulate its guns for the sole purpose of preventing division into the illicit market."

Kirsten added that the police system needed to be fixed as little to no attention is being paid to the fraudulent issuing of licenses through the central firearms registry.

"It is from the point of manufacture all the way through to the point of sale, the point of use and to what we call the life cycle of the gun which is its distraction that means the system needs to be fixed. In 2011 there were reports of problems with the whole management of firearms.

"Gun Free SA started picking up in early 2011 about the fraudulent issuing of licenses through the central firearms registry, the falsification of training certificates, the movement of guns out of SAPS 13 stores and what we need to remember is that this kind of lack of or inadequate management of firearms, the poor enforcement of the existing law as well as insufficient state control of firearms, this happens over the last ten to 15 years in the context of the hollering out of our state institutions."

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