Sleeping with a gun under your pillow in South Africa is not that uncommon. Given the soaring crime rates, people live in a constant state of fear and understandably many have taken precautionary measures to try and protect themselves and their loved ones. Sometimes this heightened state of anxiety and terror can result in tragedy – as witnessed last week, when a Sandton man mistakenly shot and killed his domestic worker’s 12-year-old son whom he mistook for an intruder. A few years ago, a former Springbok rugby player shot and killed his own daughter, after mistaking her for a car thief. According to the International Action Network on Small Arms (IANSA), a global movement against gun violence, South Africa has the fourth highest gun homicide rate in the world. The organisation is calling for a Gun-Free 2010 World Cup in South Africa, following the shooting of an ANC councillor and member of the World Cup local organising committee earlier this year. Cost of a bullet But firearm injuries are not just disabling to the individuals and communities they affect, studies show they also place a huge burden on state hospitals. A recent study published in the South African Medical Journal* states that 127 000 individuals are treated at South African state hospitals each year for non-fatal firearm injuries. The study estimates the average minimum cost for treating a gunshot injury at a tertiary hospital in South Africa in December 2006 was R15 722 ($US 2230). Based on extrapolated results from the study, the treatment of gunshot injuries at Tygerberg Hospital in 2006 cost the state a whopping R7 825 500 ($US 1 110 000). The study included all patients with firearm-related injuries who were seriously injured and required admission for more than 12 hours. Gunshot trends - study findings Young male adults made up the majority of gunshot victims (87%) with an average age of 28 years. Most of them were unmarried (89%). Most patients sought medical care between 7pm and 7am and mostly over weekends. The distribution of bullet entry wounds shows that most of gunshot injuries were in the legs, chest area and head. The average length of stay was 5.8 days at an average cost of R2 714 ($US 385) per day. Most patients (95%) underwent diagnostic imaging and 38% required surgical procedures in theatre. Blood products were given to 16%. According to the study, the greatest costs were: admission and duration of hospital stay, including ambulance transport and haemodialysis (64%), followed by diagnostic imaging (14%), surgical procedures (12%), and blood products (11%).** Researchers recommend that “a national costing initiative, utilising a standardised costing system, is urgently required to efficiently determine the real costs of trauma to South Africa’s already under-resourced health system”. The Firearms Control Act In South Africa, the Firearms Control Act (2000) replaced the Arms and Ammunition Act (1969). The new Act introduces more rigorous firearm control processes and procedures in South Africa, according to the Institute for Security Studies (ISS). The Firearm Control Act has forced licensed gun owners to re-apply for their firearm licenses, with more stringent testing and background checks applied. However, in June the Pretoria High Court ruled that licences obtained under the 1969 firearms legislation will be deemed valid for now. This means that millions of gun owners who have not yet renewed their firearm licences in terms of the new Firearms Control Act have been granted temporary relief. According to the ISS website, many firearm control civil society groups, as well as many individuals have identified the establishment of the Firearms Control Act in South Africa, as a constructive attempt by government to decrease the number of firearms in circulation, as well as to stop small arms-related deaths. However, concerns over the security of the impounded firearms have also been raised. In response to a question in parliament earlier this year, the Ministry of Safety and Security acknowledged that some 8,286 firearms, which had been recovered by the SAPS, had subsequently been lost, stolen or otherwise misplaced, said the ISS website. Gun-Free 2010 World Cup Joseph Dube, IANSA Africa Coordinator said the 2010 World Cup was an opportunity to rid South Africa of the tyranny of gun violence forever. Writing for The Times online, Dube said every football stadium in SA should be declared in gun-free zone in accordance with the Firearms Control Act of 2000. He also called for an immediate moratorium on the carrying of guns and that no new gun licences should be issued until the end of the tournament. "2010 is not only a chance for South Africa to showcase its beauty and thriving businesses to the world, but a chance for the government to show that it is tough on gun crime," he said on the IANSA website. (Thania Gopal, Health24, July 2009) * Data was collected from Tygerberg tertiary teaching public hospital in Cape Town, 128 out of 203 gunshot victims were admitted for more than 12 hours ** These figures exclude the costs of staff salaries and laboratory and pharmacy costs. *** The costs in the study were published in US dollars, these were converted to South African rands, using mid-market rates from 31 December 2006 – when study occurred). References: Norberg, J, Nilsson, T, Eriksson, A, Hardcastle T, “The costs of a bullet – inpatient costs of firearm injuries in South Africa, South African Medical Journal, June 2009, Vol.99, No.6, pp 442-444. Times Online, http://www.thetimes.co.za/News/Article.aspx?id=914936 International Action Network on Small Arms (IANSA), http://www.iansa.org/index.htm Institute for Security Studies, http://www.iss.co.za

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	interesting 2009/07/03 03:56:51 PM Lets not wait till 2010 to decide that guns are a bad idea. It shouldnt be about the world seeing, it should be about protecting the people in the country. Its scary finding out you fit the description of the majority of gunshot victims in the country. 28 male and unmarried... i should wear a bullet proof vest. - Elliot   The problem 2009/07/06 12:22:38 PM is not really licensed firearms. It has always been the HUGE amount of illegal firearms out there that has been used to commit crimes. So disarming legal firearm owners will just render them helpless against criminals, it won' t solve the problem. - JK   If guns kill people then... 2009/07/06 12:24:33 PM pencils miss spel words, cars make people drive drunk, spoons made Elvis fat. - Paul   Guns? 2009/07/06 12:37:49 PM So, I would love to see stats on knife injuries and the costs of that. Probably as bad if not worse. Should we vote for a knife free SA? 2010? As with so many things, only the law abiding citizens will follow a " gun free 2010" , which thats not where the problem is, now is it? No new licenses be issued? What a joke, the criminals dont apply for a gun license for crying out loud. - Aus   Guns? Who needs guns?!? 2009/07/06 12:51:35 PM Rather have a gun and not need it than need a gun and not have one. One criminal, one bullet!! - Whitman Blogger   trends 2009/07/06 12:55:40 PM The trend findings you quote also seem remarkably to mirror that of likely criminal perpetrators against whom the only defence may be use of a firearm ? - K1d   Total crap 2009/07/06 12:58:38 PM This article is based on hardline gun-free propaganda. As a scientist I am always amazed at how statistics are used (manipulated) to make a point, mostly political. Crime tend to be related to socio-economic circumstances and its actually very difficult to show a relation between legal firearm ownership and gun-crime. Guess why: Criminals don' t legally own a gun and dont really care foe whichever Firearms control act is in place....anywhere in the world. The UK is a good case in point here. - Francois   Guns 2009/07/06 01:03:36 PM Innocent South Africans cannot have guns but the crimminals can!!!!! - Trish   Criminal PACKS 2009/07/06 01:04:56 PM The problem is that in SA criminals hunt in packs - read any crime report. How does anyone propose I defend myself , wife and 3 daughters against a pack. Should I just submit and add 1 murder (myself) and 4 rapes to the statistics or maybe one warning shot might save the day. So much for a gunfree idea. Can IANSA perhaps solve this riddle first. - Eduan   a Big smile... 2009/07/06 01:05:32 PM As long as there is one single illegal gun in the hands of a criminal, I will keep my gun and will gladly waste the bastard with a smile on my face if he tried to hurt anybodyI know ...or dont know for that matter.. - a big smile   Statistics prove... 2009/07/06 01:09:05 PM Stats prove exactly what you WANT them to prove. Leave out the fact that gangs and alcohol are involved in most of the shootings, and the picture changes. The number of licenced firearms has little or nothing to do with crime and criminal shootings. Crimes prevented by firearm ownership can never be evaluated as statistics are not collected on non-events. - G A Barry   Guns 2009/07/06 01:12:18 PM The current gun ownership clearly does not work. The previous gun laws did not work. Maybe time for a re-think. What about - all adults over the age of 20 are compelled to own and carry a gun. The criminals will think twice. Wife beaters will think twice. This will create some jobs and boost the economy. This will help to thin out the population. - Roy Greig   Liberal Propaganda, here we go again... 2009/07/06 01:24:08 PM Always about the guns but about the criminals? That' s the real problem here. How many times have law abiding Citizens actually saved their lives by having a gun? As an ex cop i can tell you many times!There is a difference between initiated and retaliatory force. If you do not make this distinction –  if you do not see the difference between attacking someone and defending against that attack you are, in effect, declaring both attacker and defender to be morally equal.I' ll stick to my guns thanks - Bennet   Agendas galore! 2009/07/06 01:25:59 PM Stating that one or two incidents of friendly fire should result in the public loosing their right to protect themselves is selfish and is a front for propaganda to get negative laws past. - Jaco   to Roy Greig 2009/07/06 01:35:52 PM That is indeed the correct thinking. In the wild West and South of the current USA that is almost the case at present. I think criminals there tread very lightly and carefully. When they see a potential victim packing a sixgun I bet you they think twice. - Eduan   BAN 2009/07/06 01:39:21 PM When Mozambique' s Samora Machel was elected presedent, one of the first priorities was to disarm everyone except the military. IT WORKED. If any person is found with a firearm in their posession they are immediatly put in prison and proving one self not guilty is very difficult indeed. Mr Zuma must do the same in South Africa - Barry   The safest thing to do... 2009/07/06 01:44:08 PM ...is to outlaw cars. They kill far more people in accidents than guns. It is said that more people died on the world' s roads than it' s modern wars. Perhaps it should be remembered that it is people who kill people using what every tool available. - Hennie   To Barry 2009/07/06 01:50:44 PM I repeat my question to you - if no guns exist in SA (which would be wonderful) - how do you propose to defend yourself against a pack of four knife-wielding intruders when they come knocking at your door at midnight ?? And don' t think they won' t murder you - as the male defender you will be the first to go. - Eduan   Gun Free Fruit Cakes 2009/07/06 01:55:06 PM I see the well paid propagandists at gunfree are at it again. The question is why does the media give space to what is obviously propaganda and firearm owners can never even get space to respond. Does gunfree sell more newspapers when every media poll has show a majority support for armed self-defences? What is the cost of Gun Control R2Billion and countless lives lost and women raped who could not defend themselves. 1000 policemen daily chasing legal gun owners Eish!! - Bianca Jones   I' M ALIVE 2009/07/06 01:55:07 PM If it weren' t for my legally owned firearm I would not be alive today. Nor my wife and daughter. The robbers did not have licenced firearms, I shot back and because of that both are serving 15 years. If I did not have firearm??? Consider ALL the facts before you write a silly article such as this, please. - bernard   We need a HERO! 2009/07/06 01:55:22 PM Or maybe a working Policing system. Better chance of Spyderman or Batman comming to save us. - MACH1000   To Barry 2009/07/06 01:56:41 PM Now that' s a real Dictator like comment. IT ALSO WORKED for Hitler IT ALSO WORKED in Rwanda.These murdered people were also unarmed by their marxist governments.Many innocent lifes were lost because people were disarmed... Legally Armed LAW ABIDING Citizens and guns are not the problem,Violent non law abiding Criminals are the problem.The UK is a gunfree Country but has more levels of violent crime than SA.Criminals will always be armed (knives, crowbars etc.) even if no guns are available. - Bennet   Gun free? HAHAHAHAHA 2009/07/06 01:56:46 PM I' m starting a campaign for a penis-free South Africa... it will stop the rape crisis in its tracks! I was planning to cut my own penis off as a token, but then I realised that it would be mis-represented as a knife crime and knives would be banned... then what would I cut my biltong with? GFSA- you need to wake up... the criminals LOVE you... none of their victims will be able to fight back effectively. - Battlegoose   Cost of a Bullet 2009/07/06 02:02:39 PM There will never be a gun free South Africa or anywhere else in the world for that matter. As Francois says, stats can be manipulated both ways. The new Firearm control bill is two things, firstly a first prize A-grade debacle and secondly a thinly veiled attempt at disarming the general populace. Accidents do happen with firearms but lets face it folks, guns don’ t kill people, people kill people. Sure there can be good coming from the bill but the way it’ s been handled… .. Well it deserves to be boycotted and ridiculed and rejected as has happened. The question is “ Where to from here???”  One thing is certain beyond argument, “ When guns are outlawed, only outlaws will have guns!”  - Barry   Strange 2009/07/06 02:55:50 PM How these decent law-abiding 28 year old unmarried males all get themselves shot over weekends. Must be the guns, can' t be the gang wars! - WRM   I agree 2009/07/06 03:20:18 PM Lets start a Criminal Free South Africa. We won' t need jails or half of parliment or half of the police. Lets have laws against murder, robbery, rape, highjacking and unlicenced guns. Maybe even a law against corruption. Did I mention a law against murder. Lets only have law abiding citizens in South Africa. We can start by making my home a criminal free zone. Sounds stupid, but it might work. lets ban criminals. you thing they might obey those laws ? Maybe the Police could enforce those laws. - Mark   Lies,damned lies and statistics! 2009/07/06 04:05:51 PM Claiming that " many people"  support the FCA is absolute nonsense! The statistics you quote on firearms injuries and costs are similarly very suspect as they make no distinction beteen gangsters injured on the Cape Flats (notorious for gang-bangers'  shootouts) and law-abiding citizens injured by shooting - but then such spurious statistics have been used for years by the likes of J.Dube and his foreign-funded GFSA to try to brainiwash us into thinking that legal guns are the problem - hogwash! - donorfatigued   My firearm saved our lives... 2009/07/06 04:17:59 PM ...on the 1st of March. Unarmed we would have been at the total mercy of the two armed home invaders who attacked us. No study, no clever spokesman, no politician can protect my family as effectively as a firearm. How dare they even THINK about taking away our means of surviving? - Paul   keep your guns 2009/07/06 10:16:55 PM how about stats showing the millions of rands legal, private firearm ownership has protected/saved  the lives saved  the deterrent value etc... i recall reading stats stating that 70% of people using their firearms for selfdefence were successful in their defence! what about a citizens freedom of choice and shouldering the responsibility that comes with it.... in a land where everyone and thing has its rights. - Abdullah   Guns 2009/07/07 07:10:57 AM After all the law abiding people of U.K. were told to hand all firearms the crime rate went up by 63% and now there are more illegal guns on the streets that there were ever legal firearms this was proved by the famous NEW SCOTLAND YARD police department now they say we have a problem to get rid of these. EX BRIT and i have legal firearms in this contry - Clifford Brookes   Crowbar free SA!!! 2009/07/07 09:27:48 AM -|-//www.iol.co.za/index.php?set_id=1& click_id=13& art_id=nw20090707083128927C631157 Apologies for the non-News24 link, but they didn' t see fit to post this story. Seems guns are no longer the tool of choice. - Battlegoose   Gun Free South Africa... what a joke 2009/07/07 09:28:19 AM A classic example of how ridiculous these people are... in a television debate a year ago, the spokesperson of GFSA said that in the case of a armed robbery, she will use her powers of conviction or other means to fend off the perpetrators. How will she do that... shout at them (!?), hit them with her powderpuff (?!), talk them into submission (?!). What do they smoke, because no realistic person of sound mind can make statements like that and expect to be taken seriously!! Sad isn' t it?? - Renier Schuld   @ GFSA 2009/07/07 10:32:18 AM By this time I think you people would have grasped that IT IS NOT the legal gun owners that is the scurge in our country. When the s**t really hits the fan and robberies and murders committed with illegally owned guns are totally out of control (isn' t it already?) you will no doubt do what every full blooded liberal do: vote with your feet. What are you smoking people? Wake up and smell the murders commited everyday with illegally owned guns!!! - Gerrie   My Gun 2009/07/07 04:25:26 PM take away my legally owned firearm . Then i will buy an an illegal gun . I am a victim of armed robbery . These guys do not listen to reason , they come to kill . i am now paralysed and will protect my family . - Jem
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