South Africa extends gun amnesty

JOHANNESBURG - South Africa has extended a gun amnesty aimed at getting illegal firearms off the streets for another three months, but gunowners say it is unlikely to net weapons used for vehicle hijacks or murders.

South Africa's violent death rate is 6 to 8 times the global average and the country awash with an estimated 500,000 to 4 million illegal firearms.

Police are to carry out ballistic tests on the 18,668 illegal weapons handed in to link them to unsolved crimes, a policy which gunowners' groups say will deter criminals.

"If you look at the dictionary definition of an amnesty, it says that if you give something up you will be forgiven," said Martin Hood, spokesman for the South African Gunowners Association (SAGA).

"What they are saying here is that if the gun was involved in a crime, they will arrest you."

The firearms range from handguns to assault rifles, landmines, 24 mortars and a limpet mine. Another 25,440 weapons held legally were handed in during the first quarter of 2005.

Ministry of Safety and Security spokesman Trevor Bloem acknowledged that gun testing and a requirement on those handing them in to give names and addresses may put off some gunowners but said the aim was not to trap them.

"The aim is to get illegal guns off the street, not arrest people," he said.

"If a gun is matched (to a crime), investigations will follow, but that does not necessarily mean the person who handed it in will be prosecuted. There will be further investigations."

The deadline has been extended after the number of illegal weapons handed in rose as the initial March 31 deadline approached. Police were now planning a crackdown on illegal weapons once the new deadline expires on June 30, he said.

Gunowners say many of the illegal firearms handed in were inherited firearms the owners no longer wanted, as well as heavy weapons including mortars, missiles and grenades which were a legacy of apartheid era arms stockpiles.

But Institute for Security Studies senior researcher Noel Stott said the real problem was much smaller guns used in vehicle hijackings, robberies and domestic disputes.

Many of these were smuggled across the border from Mozambique in the 1990s after the end of its civil war.

"It's not a blanket amnesty," he said."There have been amnesties in Brazil that have seen something like 200,000 (weapons) handed in, but then there were no questions asked."

- REUTERS