Chapter 4

THE NEED TO REDUCE FIREARMS

Chapter overview

The chapter considers the attitudes towards firearms within the community. There is strong support for the reduction of firearms within the community, but this is not necessarily translated into a willingness to take action to reduce firearms.

Desire for reduction in firearms

The starting point in trying to identify who would be willing to take action to address the current situation of small arms in their community is to identify those categories of respondents that wish to see a reduction in firearms: those who display sympathy for the cause. These respondents were identified by direct response to questions of this nature.

All the residents in the sample - considering the percentage responses by demographic information such as settlement area, gender and age - are supportive of a community where firearms are absent or better controlled. All the respondents expressed a great willingness to live in an area where they did not need a firearm. All the respondents from Lekoa-Vaal hostel wanted to live in an environment without firearms, as compared to the 77.6% of the Kwa Mashu urban informal respondents (the lowest settlement area responses to this question). The range of 22.4% between the highest and the lowest response at this end of the spectrum is insignificant. There is no doubt that residents in the sample would prefer to live in a community where firearms were not needed. It was found that respondents from Lekoa-Vaal hostels (98.2%) were most sympathetic to living in a community without firearms, while relatively speaking the Tsolo-Qumbo respondents were least sympathetic (88.4%). More female respondents (95.3%) supported living in a community with no firearms than male respondents.

In response to the question, "Do you think there is a need for improved control over the number of guns in your area?" those respondents most supportive were people from Lekoa-Vaal hostel areas (98.1%), Kwa Mashu formal area (95.3%) and Lekoa-Vaal informal area (94.8%). Those people that felt the least need for improved control over firearms in their community were from Tsolo-Qumbo (76.6%).

The respondents under the age of 20 (91.8%) felt more strongly than respondents in other age groups that controls over firearms should be improved. Respondents from all settlements, though to a lesser extent Tsolo-Qumbo, wanted to live in an area where there were fewer firearms needed and better control over existing firearm stocks was achieved.

The respondents under the age of 20 (91.8%) felt more strongly than respondents in other age groups that controls over firearms should be improved. Respondents from all settlements, though to a lesser extent Tsolo-Qumbo, wanted to live in an area where there were fewer firearms needed and better control over existing firearm stocks was achieved.

Kwa Mashu and Tsolo-Qumbo focus groups: attitudes to firearms

Attitudes to firearms are not necessarily clear cut. On the one hand, people recognise the negative impact of firearms in, but on the other hand, when it comes to issues of their own security they are prepared to own, or live in a household that possesses, firearms.

Firearms in a community perpetuate a cycle of firearm proliferation. Respondents felt that people obtained firearms in response to criminals obtaining firearms. There was a feeling that protecting oneself and one's family against an attack by a firearm was only possible with another firearm.

The attitudes of the male and female respondents were slightly different. The male respondents were less likely to condemn firearm ownership that the female respondents. However, in the final analysis, both male and female respondents approved the use of firearms for protection. Using women as disarmers of men would not prove a useful approach. Female respondents felt they had little influence over whether their husbands or partners carried firearms. They felt that the men in the community would only stop carrying firearms if the security improved.

Views of the youth of Tsolo-Qumbo

All the participants believed that firearms were dangerous, but several of these youths would like to own one.The main reason for this is that many rural villages in the Tsolo and Qumbo are unsafe.

The people in these areas feel threatened by people from surrounding villages, as well as by the so-called anti-crime organisations. The youth believe that a gun is the only thing one can use for self-defence.

Women in both areas are strong believers that prayer is the only solution to the problem of firearms. Most of the female participants do not like firearms. Female participants believe that the only thing that can stop their husbands or boyfriends from carrying a firearm is a peaceful society. The males interviewed spoke more favourably of guns than the women and they seemed to advocate a more direct approach to the problem of guns than prayer. The male members of the community traditionally used sticks for self-defence, but men now believe that they cannot use a stick in self-defence when they are attacked with a gun. Male respondents felt that a stick was no longer safe for protection because people now used guns to fight and to protect themselves. It was argued in some groups that traditionally men used to feel proud when they were known as 'good stick-fighters'; now that respect was earned by owning a gun.

In both areas young boys and girls believe that using a gun is not very difficult - one simply has to aim and shoot. It seems that the youth see a gun as a toy for playing a game. This leads to the mishandling of guns and unnecessary shooting accidents.

Views of the youth of Kwa Mashu

The young people expressed a number of different attitudes and feelings towards firearms. Some of these feelings included:

If one is properly trained to use the gun it can be used for protection.



If you have a gun you can be brave and not scared of anything.



Owning a firearm creates enemies.



The difference between a licensed and an unlicensed gun is that unlicensed guns are used by criminals.



Guns are something that criminals have and use to terrorise the community.



Guns kill children.

Of the 20 young people, only eight said they would own a firearm and all these eight cited self-protection as the reason they would own a firearm. The other twelve said they would not own a firearm since guns do not offer good protection. The reasons they gave included:

A firearm has many enemies.


Guns make the owner a target of the gangs and criminals.


Guns are a risk.


Children can access the guns and hurt themselves.


If you are not trained in its use a gun can be used against you.

Six of the 20 young people were female. The female young people all felt that an end to gangsterism and crime would dissuade their boyfriends from carrying firearms. Two of these young women said they would not allow their boyfriends to carry a firearm, and their boyfriends would stop carrying firearms if asked to.

The other four stated that they could not interfere in such matters. Two of the other four said that they doubted their boyfriends would stop carrying guns if asked. The other two did not know what their boyfriend's response would be.

Views of the women of Kwa Mashu

There were differences within the group regarding how people felt about firearms. A number of the women said that they felt that firearms were needed for self-defence. One of these women said she herself owned a gun because she owned a business and could not rely on the police to protect her. At least two of the women said they were scared of firearms. Three women felt that firearms were dangerous.

All the women distinguished between legal and illegal firearms and felt it was acceptable to have a legal firearm but unacceptable to posses an illegal firearm.

The women felt that it was acceptable for their husbands or boyfriends to have firearms as long as they were licensed. In addition to this, the motivation for carrying the firearm must only be for self-defence purposes. However, the women cautioned that carrying a firearm makes one a target of crime. When the female respondents were asked whether they could stop their husband or boyfriend from carrying a firearm, the general response was that their partner would be unlikely to listen, especially if he was carrying the gun for security reasons.

Willingness to discourage firearm ownership

This section considers those questions from the survey that could be used to demonstrate willingness to take action to reduce firearm ownership. The highest level of support for taking action to discourage people from owning firearms was expressed by the respondents from Kwa Mashu formal area (90.8%), Kwa Mashu informal area (91.8%), Lekoa-Vaal hostel area (92.7%), and the female respondents (89.9%).

Interpretation of findings

The variations within the sample across settlement area, gender and age were not significant enough to single out one sub-sample as being substantially more convinced of the need to reduce firearms than any other group, with the possible exception of the female respondents, respondents from Tsolo-Qumbo and the respondents under the age of 20 years.

The overwhelmingly supportive response to this question on the need to reduce firearms gives a clear mandate for the provision of better control in the three case-study areas.

Respondents want to reduce the number of firearms in their areas, and they would be willing to take action to do so - if and when the security situation improves. Female respondents were more supportive of this than male respondents.