WFSA Current News - May, 2005

May 16, 2005

Gun law inefficiency in South Africa
            Three gun owners’ groups in South Africa have described their dissatisfaction with the country’s gun laws, as now being experienced under the 2000 Firearms Control Act. The government has been warned to expect the mounting of court actions to redress what the lawful firearm owning community describes as mounting injustice about the processing of their licensing applications and other related requirements.
            Martin Hood of the South African Gun Owners Association said: "All that the Central Firearms Registry said when it began implementing the new legislation was that licensed firearm owners would be timeously informed when they were due to renew their licences but to date very few have received those notices." It is reported that the Registry then refuses to renew or issue licences to those who have not renewed them.
            The Black Gun Owners Association’s representative, Abios Khoele, was quoted in the Sunday Independent article as saying that its members are now increasingly becoming convinced that their licence applications will be refused. (http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?set_id=1&click_id=15&art_id=vn20050515105735291 C803713)   

May 15, 2005

Philippine gun summit calls for stricter gun laws
            Aiming to extend further already increased legislation from 2003, President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo yesterday pushed for more rigorous legislation against gun ownership, and also for increased penalties for crimes committed with guns.
            The Manila Bulletin in running the story (http://www.mb.com.ph/MAIN2005051434742.html) has also described the President as decrying the visual media’s constantly glorifying of violent behaviour. She named not only the cinema and print media, but also song lyrics.
            The paper quotes her as saying: “I fear that our culture today is generating far too much violence and having an increasingly harsh impact on our young and more vulnerable.” She spoke in favour of the “value of peace and respect for human life", and lamented the loss of “faith and sense of moral purpose”.
            She also appealed to the "cultural role models" in the entertainment industry to rein in "the glorification of violence that coarsens the value of life itself."

May 13, 2005

Swiss debate gun restrictions
            The online swissinfo.org has run an article on the Swiss reaction to moves sweeping through Europe to try to force gun registration on as many countries as possible. If Switzerland signs the Schengen Accord, which is aimed at improving border security, it will simultaneously come under the European Union requirements for both acquiring and holding firearms.
            Under the Accord, it is expected that a European firearms passport will be introduced, with the intention of allowing hunters and sports shooters to pass through other Schengen signatory countries with temporary import of sporting arms. In addition, the Accord provides for three firearm classifications (prohibited, requiring licence, and requiring a more simple registration). Various requirements are also relevant to ammunition.
            The Swiss Minister for Justice, Ruth Metzler, called for gun registration as far back as 2003. Switzerland, with a gun density higher than that found in the United States, remains a thorn in the side of those activists who insist that all lawful gun ownership fosters criminal behaviour. If that were the case, the country would be riddled with crime, because its lawful gun saturation is so high.
            There is no evidence that gun registration carries any beneficial result in bringing down crime rates. Switzerland is a land full of shooting ranges and sporting competitions held on them for people of all ages, including school children. Military-style arms are found in homes throughout all cantons, and crime rates are extremely low.
           The law has been described as an imported farce by one shooting group.
http://www.swissinfo.org/sen/swissinfo.html?siteSect=111&sid=5736420&cKey=1115885433000

May 11, 2005

Papua New Guinea need for better border controls
            The discussion pressing for gun law changes in Papua New Guinea moved in a new direction today with an announcement reported in the PNG Post Courier. The committee set up to report on the matter nationally has indicated that it will push for increases in controls on the border with Indonesia.
            The chair of the committee, Major-General Jerry Singirok (ret), has said that it is now established that there has long been an illegal gun trade between the two countries. Modern arms are evidently procured in Indonesia and then smuggled over the unguarded border.
            There are said to be very substantial stretches of border between the two countries that are completely unmanned.

May 3, 2005

Papua New Guinea arms conference
            The Australian Broadcasting Corporation has today run an article about the coming arms conference to address the illegal arms trade in Papua New Guinea .
           The Internal Security Minister, Bire Kimisopia, said that one focus of the seven-day meeting program will be the security of armouries. Others will include the correctional services, the police and the defence force.
            Large repositories and governmental services have always been a main source of illegal arms for criminal activity, and it is refreshing to see this emphasis instead of the more common and less fruitful one directed at lawful gun owners.
http://www.abc.net.au/ra/news/stories/s1359064.htm

May 2, 2005

New Kenyan wildlife bill
            The Wildlife Conservation and Management (Amendment) Bill, 2004 placed before the Kenyan parliament last year has been revived. An article in today’s Daily Nation calls the present approach to wildlife management a total failure, and applauds this new attempt which recognizes sustainable use as a valid principle for property owners in managing the wildlife on their own land.
            The article explains that while in the past there has been technical acceptance of both consumptive and non-consumptive utilization of game animals, in practice it has been non-consumptive that has been heavily favoured.
            Refreshingly, the article says: “historical evidence shows that the country is largely beholden to the landowners who have continued to conserve and protect wildlife on their land despite hostile policies and economic disincentives”. Years of prevention of trophy hunting and game harvesting have caused a profound degradation in wildlife populations. The attention of wildlife authorities has been heavily concentrated on protection and government lands. Lack of policy stability and poor economic returns have handicapped property owners in their own ability to support wildlife. The net result has been loss of numbers and worsening conditions for many species.
            The article calls for a fresh examination of the bill, which would have as part of its platform the legitimacy of hunting.