Portfolio Committee on Safety and Security
Public Hearings
14 August 2000

We believe that history has something to teach us as far as the control of firearms by governments is concerned. We will look at the democratically elected Government of Germany’s 1928 law and compare this with the proposed Firearms Control Bill (Gov. Gaz. No. 21193) of South Africa.

The 1928 "Law on Firearms and Ammunition" - written by a freely elected democratic government - was the foundation of Nazi "Gun Control."

The 1928 Law required licensing of everyone who had anything to do with firearms and/or ammunition.

Specifically, the 1928 Law required:

• registration (via licensing) of everyone who had anything to do with firearms (Manufacture, Repair, Purchase/Sale, Possession, Carry, Hunting);
• registration (via licensing) of everyone who had anything to do with ammunition (Manufacture, Reloading, Possession, Purchase/Sale);
• that licenses to acquire firearms be issued only to persons of "undoubted reliability";
• that licenses to carry firearms be issued only to persons of "undoubted reliability" and only if proof of need were supplied;
• surrender of firearms to the authorities by any person ineligible under the law to own them (a five-month grace period was provided between the law's publication and its effective date);
• special licensing of any person having more than five firearms "of the same type" - or more than 100 cartridges;
• that the head of a household be responsible for any minor in the household who violated the law;
• record-keeping on firearms and purchasers.
• a firearms carry permit had a validity of 3 years from the date of issue.

As a result of this law, virtually everyone in Germany who owned a modern firearm on the law's effective date - 1 October 1928 - had to make him - or herself known to the authorities. Registration became confiscation as permits were not renewed later by the Nazis.

The 1931 "Law on Unauthorized Use of Weapons" targeted knives and truncheons, the "weapons of choice" of Nazi and Communist party thugs. These gangsters brawled in the streets to prove the "superiority" of their ideas. Law-abiding citizens were as upset then as are decent South Africans now by drug dealers' settling disputes over "sales territories" by abuse of firearms. The German government moved to punish - on equal terms - both the political thugs and those who carried knives or truncheons for protection against the political thugs.

This was done in the Fourth Regulations of the President for the Protection of the Economy and Finance and on the Defence of Civil Peace (8 December 1931).

Under these regulations:

• the police could order everyone’s firearms and ammunition – and even items not normally used as weapons – to be put in police custody, "If the maintenance of public security and order requires it";
• "proof of need" was made a condition for issuance of all licenses (not just the carry permit under the 1928 Law of Firearms and Ammunition);
• mandatory prison sentences were imposed on anyone who professionally sold or transferred a firearm or ammunition, without a license;
• truncheons and stabbing weapons were subject to the same licensing requirements as firearms, in terms of their manufacture and sale.

 The freely-elected governments that treated the law-abiding the same as the criminals soon vanished. The toughest criminals — the National Socialists (Nazis) — won.

The South African Ministry of Safety and Security has proposed a new Firearms Control Bill.  Although the stated purpose is to reduce crime, it is in fact a bill that can be used to disarm law abiding citizens.  At the meeting of the Portfolio Committee on 24 May 2000 it was admitted by a proponent of the bill that it was the first step toward a total "gun-free" South Africa!  Law abiding citizens would then no longer be allowed to own firearms for self-defence. Should this happen, potential victims would be defenceless as criminals do not obey such laws.

Firearm owners' rights to life, property, freedom of association, privacy and movement are threatened by this proposed bill.

• The Minister of Safety and Security may declare any firearm to be prohibited if in his opinion he considers it in the interest of public safety or for the maintenance of law and order (Section 4(3)).  Any firearms that are prohibited may not be possessed or licensed.
• One will have to prove need of a firearm for self-defence before The Registrar may issue a license therefore (Section 15(2)).  Licenses for different categories of  possession will expire and reapplication will have to take place.
• Ammunition is restricted to 200 cartridges for each firearm and 2400 per annum (Section 94). 
• Members of a military force of another country visiting SA in terms of an international obligation between that country and South Africa, are exempt from this bill - why would this clause be needed? (Section 99(3)) How is it possible that foreign soldiers should be granted a right that citizens are being denied – in our own country?
• Should a firearm owner fail to take the prescribed steps for the safekeeping of any firearm he/she may be declared unfit to possess a firearm by the Registrar (Section 105(1)(d)).
• According to this Bill (Chap. 15) you are guilty until proven innocent and presumption of innocence is not guaranteed.  You would need to prove reasonable doubt to your charge in terms of an offence of which the possession of a firearm or ammunition is an element.  Presumption of innocence has been foundational from the Mosaic Law through the Magna Carte (1215), the English Declaration of Rights (1689), the US Bill of Rights, etc. but this has been replaced by the French Revolution's "guilty until proven innocent."
• The Minister may declare any premises to be firearm free zones (Section 143). Churches, shebeens and schools have been mentioned as possible areas.  It is ludicrous to think that criminals are going to leave their firearms at home in a safe whilst entering a firearm free zone. This just makes the working environment of criminals safer.
  
  The St. James Massacre in 1993 and the East London pub attack of 1993 are examples of lives saved by licensed firearm owners returning fire.  Various schools (which are firearm free zones) attacked in the USA prove that these zones do not prevent homicidal attacks.  Innocent people had to try and defend themselves against thugs with nothing but their bodies.
  
  The Nazi "Weapons Law" (18 March 1938) and its regulations built upon the foundation of "gun control" inherited from the democratic government. Only a few changes were needed, but some of those were very important:
• Jews were barred from the firearms business;
• Handguns were singled out for special controls;
• Nazi Party organizations were exempted from "gun control";
• Anyone, "who it is feared may endanger public security," could be barred from owning any type of weapon;
• It was prohibited to possess .22 calibre cartridges with hollow-point, hollow-cavity or notched bullets.

This new law and its regulations completed the fabric of gun control in Germany. The first test of the Nazi system took place in the Autumn of 1938.

On 11 November 1938 the Nazis prohibited Jews from owning any weapons. These new regulations were issued one day after a nation-wide attack on the Jewish community - Kristallnacht, the night of broken glass - by the Schutzstaffel, [the SS, or Storm troopers, were the Nazi party's fighting force]. The pretext for this attack was the shooting of a German diplomat in Paris by a gutsy Jew, whose parents had been victimised by the Nazis.

The attack focused on Jewish property: many synagogues were burned. Jewish businesses were looted (hence the broken glass). Even so, hundreds of Jews were killed or wounded.

Under the new regulations, any Jews who still owned weapons were required to turn them over to the authorities at once, and without compensation. Violators faced a mandatory prison sentence and a fine. These new regulations were to be enforced by any available means.

Decent Germans, already effectively disarmed, were helpless. No foreign governments complained much. Disarmed, Germany's Jews - and those throughout Europe - were left to their fate.

It is worth pointing out that in the past century, mass exterminations of civilians (i.e. non-combatants) have occurred only where "gun control" prevailed: Native Americans (1860-1890), Armenians (by Turks, 1915-17), Jews and Gypsies (by Germans and allies, 1933-45), Soviets (by Communists,1929-34; 1936-39; 1949-52), Chinese (by Communists 1949-52, 1966-76), Ugandan Christians (by Idi Amin regime, 1971-79), Cambodians (by Communists, 1975-79), and Kurds (by Iraqis, 1975-91), e.t.c.

Let this be a lesson for us here in South Africa today. The proposed Firearms Control Bill could very easily be used by future political tyrants, that could possibly come to power by democratic means, to enforce a wicked agenda that can lead to the loss of many lives.

Charl van Wyk
(Director)