Calls for Gun Control After Family Massacres, South Africa Discusses

• Experts have noted the urgency of implementing stricter gun control in the country after recent incidents
• This was after 18 people were massacred in Lusikisiki in the Eastern Cape, and four people were killed in Orange Farm in Gauteng
• South Africans held a discussion online about the experts' suggestions and shared various views

Tebogo Mokwena, a Briefly News current affairs journalist in Johannesburg, South Africa, covered police investigations, police shootouts and court cases at Daily Sun for over three years.

JOHANNESBURG — Gun Free South Africa has called for more effort in clamping down on unlicensed firearms in the country.

Is gun control an issue?

SABC News reported that the organisation's researcher, Claire Taylor, called on the government to intervene in the country's unlicensed firearms crisis. This call came after 18 people were murdered in cold blood in Lusikisiki in the Eastern Cape recently.

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Taylor said the organisation called for two interventions and noted that 33 people are shot dead daily. They called for a firearms unit whose purpose is to recover and destroy illegal firearms. They also called for more efforts to prevent licensed guns from falling into the wrong hands.

South Africans discuss

South Africans on Facebook found the topic worthy of intense discussion.

Anele Anale Sihange said:

"Stricter gun laws only affect gun owners who abide by the law. Most of the guns are illegally-owned guns, stolen guns from either SAPS officials, SAPS stations or private homes."

Rabbeca Mutanga said:

"Government must take all the guns from ordinary people. Only the police and soldiers must be allowed to have guns."

Bathandwa Dumakazi Mphankomo Pita said:

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"Start investigating the police first, especially in Gauteng."

Dinga Dinga MK said:

"All provinces must release their police from the high levels and send them on a mission to search guns house-to-house."

Six killed in Eastern Cape

In another article, Briefly News reported that six people were massacred in Qumbu in the Eastern Cape.

Four other people were injured in the shooting, which followed the fateful Lusikisiki massacre. South Africans expressed concern for the Eastern Cape and its safety.

Source: Briefly News