During 1996 it became apparent that the Minister of Safety & Security, Sydney Mufamadi was planning to implement much stricter firearm legislation. It was also apparent that the Minister was aware that there would be some opposition to this, primarily from SAGA (the South African Gunowners Association) and SAAADA (the SA Arms & Ammunition Dealers Association), but that he had decided to ignore this opposition and carry on regardless. There can be no doubt that the authorities see gun owners as the problem and not part of the solution.

It was felt that a new body should be created to represent all gun owners. In order to protect the rights of firearm owners it was vital that we all become involved and present a credible, unified front covering the broadest possible spectrum of shooters and gun owners. This new body should also become more pro-active in protecting our interests.

To this end a meeting was held in February 1997. A large number of bodies with interests in firearms were invited to attend (annexure A). The meeting was unanimous in it’s support for the concept and an interim committee was elected. This committee was tasked with drafting a constitution and in general creating this new body, to be called The National Firearms Forum.

The Firearms Forum was then officially constituted on August 2nd 1997, and a committee was elected to manage the activities of the Forum. Various bodies have joined the Forum (annexure B) and have vouched their support.

This brings us to the point where we are now. It is now the responsibility of the Forum to plan and co-ordinate the efforts required to promote and protect our rights as firearm owners.

One of the major problems facing the Forum is the almost total apathy and lethargy of the firearm owning community in South Africa. There is a very real danger that many of our members will just sit back in the foolish belief that this committee will single handedly deal with the problem. An example of this is the lobbying guidelines sent out months ago. To my knowledge not a single member body has acted on these or even distributed them to their members.

We must emphasize to all concerned that the function of this committee is to lobby at national level and to prepare strategy guidelines for the member bodies. These strategies must be carried out by the members. Without their active participation this Forum becomes an empty shell with the committee limited to acting as a spokesman for the combined membership.

Should this happen we are doomed to failure.

I hope and trust that we can prevent this.

1. Recruitment

To broaden the membership base of the forum to include every possible organisation or body which has an interest in the continued ownership of firearms.

To achieve the active participation and support of these bodies.

To keep the member bodies fully informed of our activities and progress.

To provide all interested parties with useful information to counter anti-gun propaganda and advance our cause.

To inform the individual gun owner of the threat and motivate them to resist?

To offer whatever support we can to the members to disseminate information.

To establish channels of communication with the authorities, in particular Central Firearm Register, SAPS legal division and the Minister.

To establish and maintain contact with other pro-gun groups world wide.

3. Media

To monitor the media for firearm related issues.

To respond to any anti-gun articles raised in the media.

To attempt to obtain positive pro-gun media coverage as often as possible.

Draft and distribute as complete a list as possible of contact info for newspapers, SAPA, Reuters etc..

To create a more positive image of firearm ownership with the general non gun owning public.

To lobby directly with the authorities at national level.

To encourage, co-ordinate and where possible assist the member bodies with lobbying at local and regional level.

To identify and influence the companies that sponsor anti-gun groups such as Gun Free South Africa.

To encourage the formation of regional forums.

To offer whatever assistance possible to the regional forums to fulfil their task.

The entire reason for the Forum was to unite as many organisations as possible. We have succeded in obtaining support from a broad spectrum but there are one or two notable exceptions. We should continue to identify and attempt to recruit bodies to the forum.

There are still some organisations that either refuse to accept that there is a threat or that believe that they can protect their own interests while sacrificing those of other pro firearm groups. We must convince these groups that our combined interests can only be protected by standing together. The alternative is the piecemeal erosion of our rights which has happened in every other country in the world.

If neccessary the individual members of such organisations should be asked to influence their management to join and support the Forum. There is a considerable overlap of members in the various shooting communities. Our member bodies should promote the Forum to their own members. In so doing this should result in the neccessary cross polination to draw in other bodies.

As the activities of the Forum receive more public exposure there should also be an increase in membership.

While recruitment should be an ongoing issue I believe that we must now concentrate our efforts on items of higher priority.

A lack, or even simply a perceived lack of communication may be one of the forum’s largest potential problems. It is also perhaps the thing that the committee has the least control over.

Due to the very nature of the forum it is totally reliant on the member bodies for the dissemination of information. It is vitally important that the member bodies keep their members informed. The only feasible way for the Forum to communicate to individuals is through the member bodies, who would in turn pass on this information. Many member bodies already have some form of newsletter that can be used for this purpose.

Electronic communication can play an extremely useful role. The Forum should consider establishing a web page for the dissemination of general information, e-mail is also an excellent method of quickly and inexpensively sending information.

Communication with the general public is an even more complex and sensitive issue. The problem is essentially that we have nothing concrete to attack. No new legislation has yet been drafted. The Minister is "simply" busy investigating a "new policy". Although we are fully aware of his intentions and of how quickly they can become law there is very little here that would disturb the general public.

The Minister need only issue a statement that he is looking into "improving" firearm legislation and that nothing has yet been decided. The general public would no doubt approve of this and ignore our concerns as paranoia. Remember that less than 5% of South Africans own firearms, the vast majority of the public either do not share our concerns or are actively opposed to our views. While we need to inform the general public of the situation we must be cautious of alienating the support we will need in the future. I am sure we are all aware of what happened to the boy who cried wolf.

There is also the very real danger that non-specific public attacks on the Minister will harden his attitudes toward us and make it more unlikely that an acceptable solution will be found.

For the moment then our efforts should primarily be focussed on the firearm owning public. We should inform and mobilise our fellow firearm owners, perhaps in the form of a petition calling on the Minister to consult us in forming his policy.

The forum already has very good channels of communication with the SAPS and other authorities. The major exception being with the Minister and his political advisors. The attitude is quite simply that the official policy is to "drastically reduce the number of legal firearms". This is to be achieved by introducing punitive regulations which will force legal firearm owners to dispose of their firearms. The policy makers know that we oppose such measures and so see no point in discussing this matter with us. There are however indicators that this may be changing. The authorities must be made to realise that they must consult firearm owners and the priority should be to have reasonable and realistic legislation which we would support.

In light of events around the world and the activities of the United Nations it is important that we have good communications with other pro-gun groups internationally. The anti-gun groups are very well connected and co-ordinated. There is much we can learn from their activities in other countries. This was the motivation for the founding of the World Forum. Even although there is considerable expense involved (R25 000) we must become full and active members of the World Forum.

We should establish a system of monitoring all forms of media for articles relating to firearms. These articles should be forwarded to the forum for a co-ordinated response. Individual members should also be encouraged to respond to any such articles.

Member bodies should encourage their members to write pro-gun articles of their own. These can be submitted to local and regional media but should also be forwarded to the forum for possible submission to the national media. SAGA has appointed a media consultant who should be particularly effective in this respect, provided he is supplied with material to work with.

Member bodies should also establish whether any of their members have any "contacts", skills or influence that could assist the Forum with the media.

The Forum should, with the assistance of it’s members, compile and distribute as complete a list as possible of contact information for the various media.

It must be remembered that firearm owners are a small minority in South Africa. Proportionally roughly the same as the UK and well behind countries such as Australia, Canada and New Zealand which have had restrictive legislation forced on them.

To prevent the same fate happening to us we will need the support of the general public as well as ALL firearm owners.

Unfortunately the majority of people have accepted the propaganda of the anti-gun lobby. Particularly with the high violent crime rate in South Africa many people would happily sacrifice firearm ownership in the false belief that this would reduce crime. Because they have no contact or association with firearms they simply do not understand or support our standpoint. Again the lessons of other countries are clear, without the support of the general public we cannot win.

We must make the public aware of the true facts surrounding firearm ownership and the many legitimate uses for firearms, including legal self defence. We should take every opportunity to expose the public to positive firearm information. Instead of quietly going about our business we should constantly bombard the public with information showing the legitimate use of firearms.

Other than the media one of the best ways to do this is to get them involved on a practical level. Every sports body and shooting club in the country should make the effort to host a public day. The various SAGA festivals are excellent examples of how this can promote our image.

Clubs can also offer their services to charitable bodies as a means of raising funds. Competitions can be hosted at no or minimal cost with the procedes going to charity.

Hunters and game farmers could consider making a public donation of hunted animals to the needy. In the USA this has become a very large co-ordinated programme feeding many thousands of people. Imagine the positive press if hunters jointly presented a few hundred carcasses to the poor. Spread around the country but done on the same day the publicity would be very effective. The cost of such a project spread between the various hunting and game farming groups would be a sound investment in public relations.

One of the popular attacks on firearm ownership is highlighting tragic firearm accidents. This form of attack is very difficult to respond to factually. Pointing out that far more people are struck by lightning for instance does nothing to address the public perception that firearms cause tragedy.

The National Rifle Association of America has a well developed and successful child safety programme called Eddie Eagle. This programme is designed simply to reduce the potential for accidents involving children and firearms. Because of it’s neutral, purely safety orientation this programme is very difficult for the anti gunners to object to.

The Forum intends to implement this programme in South Africa. The ideal situation would be to obtain a high profile sponsor and then to have the Government to officially adopt the programme in all schools. Properly managed such a programme would be a major boost to our public image, reinforcing our position of safe responsible firearm ownership.

Guidelines for lobbying at local and regional level have already been sent to all member bodies. It is extremely important that they be distributed to regional and club level and implemented.

It may seem pointless to have your local politicians address this issue but it is an essential component of our fight. Simply having politicians discussing the issue internally will make the central decision makers more aware of the resistance and should make them consider their actions more carefully. It is also far more difficult for politicians to ignore questions from within their own parties than from us.