Chairperson of the Portfolio Committee on Police, Francois Beukman, has called for the introduction of further measures to stop the use of firearms by criminals in violent crime.<\/p>\n
In a statement released by parliament on Wednesday (16 May), Beukman said that recent incidents of cash-in transit heists and brazen robberies where high-calibre automatic firearms were used was of a great cause of concern to the committee.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe high incidents of gun deaths on the Cape Flats, especially of young children, should be tackled head-on by the relevant law-enforcement agencies,\u201d Beukman said.<\/p>\n
The portfolio committee believes the following five steps should be prioritised if the police are to be effective in dealing with the proliferation of guns:<\/p>\n
The\u00a0Portfolio Committee said that the long-awaited Firearms Amendment Bill should be tabled as soon as possible.<\/p>\n
With a version of the bill having existed as far back as 2006, a more recent 2015 iteration<\/a> <\/strong>of the bill calls for a number of amendments to current gun laws in the country – including much stricter regulations on ownership and sale of guns in the country,<\/p>\n Beukman emphasised that the high rate of gun-related deaths warrants an increase in efforts to deal with the proliferation of illegal firearms by South African law-enforcement agencies.<\/p>\n \u201cThere is also a huge responsibly on citizens to report any information about the ownership of illegal guns to the Saps,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
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