{"id":62,"date":"2004-07-01T18:52:00","date_gmt":"2004-07-01T23:52:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/madstone.net\/?p=62"},"modified":"2004-07-01T18:52:00","modified_gmt":"2004-07-01T23:52:00","slug":"how-do-we-protect-ourselves-without-guns","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/madstone.net\/?p=62","title":{"rendered":"How do we protect ourselves without guns?"},"content":{"rendered":"

David Yutar<\/strong>
\n
July 01 2004 at 09:53AM <\/p>\n

“How will we protect our families now? Criminals prefer unarmed victims and so does the African National Congress.”<\/p>\n

That was the message from members of Victims Against Crime who demonstrated outside parliament to protest against the new Firearms Control Act.<\/p>\n

The legislation, which became law at midnight, introduces new and stringent measures to regulate gun ownership by private citizens.<\/p>\n

Charl van Wyk, chairman of Victims Against Crime, said his group regarded the new law as nothing short of “illegitimate” and an infringement of the citizen’s “inalienable right to defend himself and his or her family”.<\/p>\n

Van Wyk was the congregant who shot back at the attackers who stormed the St James Church on July 25, 1993. The attackers killed 11 worshippers.<\/p>\n

Van Wyk said the act would make it a privilege to own a firearm whereas, under the previous law, it had been a right.<\/p>\n

“In terms of the new law, a person will have to prove his need (to possess a firearm).<\/p>\n

“You will have to prove that (possession of a firearm) is essential and, only if that need cannot reasonably be satisfied by means other than the possession of a firearm, may a licence be issued to you.”<\/p>\n

He said “a law that made it impossible to defend one’s family was an illegitimate law”.<\/p>\n

The new act also encroached on a person’s rights to privacy and to property, and it violated the presumption of innocence by placing the onus on a gun owner to show that his or her possession and use of a firearm was lawful, Van Wyk said.<\/p>\n

Van Wyk claimed that no research had been done into defensive gun use in South Africa.<\/p>\n

“The times that firearms are used (by law-abiding citizens) in a positive way far outweigh the cases where it has negative consequences,” said Van Wyk.<\/p>\n

The Human Sciences Research Council conducted a survey that found that firearms were used in self- defence on about 81 000 occasions each year, he said.<\/p>\n

Moreover, Magnum Magazine had done a survey showing this figure to be higher at over one million cases a year.<\/p>\n

Steve Swart, of the African Christian Democratic Party, was also present at the protest and said his party had voted against the new law.<\/p>\n

He said the cost of implementation was exorbitant and that the money should rather be used to better equip police officers to combat crime and take the approximately four million illegally owned firearms off the streets of South Africa.<\/p>\n

“We support the right of responsible firearm ownership to enable the citizen to protect himself and members of his or her family,” he said.<\/em>
\n
Read More…<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

David Yutar July 01 2004 at 09:53AM “How will we protect our families now? Criminals prefer unarmed victims and so does the African National Congress.” That was the message from members of Victims Against Crime who demonstrated outside parliament to protest against the new Firearms Control Act. The legislation, which became law at midnight, introduces … Continue reading “How do we protect ourselves without guns?”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[30],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-62","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-post"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pgY3e-10","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":64,"url":"https:\/\/madstone.net\/?p=64","url_meta":{"origin":62,"position":0},"title":"Texas teenagers burned after powder from shotgun shells explodes","author":"Jorah","date":"July 6, 2004","format":false,"excerpt":"(Going for the Darwin Award in Texas) Tuesday, July 6, 2004 (07-06) 08:00 PDT HOUSTON (AP) -- Two teenagers were injured in an explosion when they used a sledgehammer to extract gunpowder from shotgun shells and bullets, police said. Authorities were investigating whether the 16-year-old boys were trying to make\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Post"","block_context":{"text":"Post","link":"https:\/\/madstone.net\/?cat=30"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1454,"url":"https:\/\/madstone.net\/?p=1454","url_meta":{"origin":62,"position":1},"title":"Our Overlords Are Not Our Friends","author":"Jorah","date":"February 13, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"I've lately been pondering how many of the ills that beset the ordinary poor, working class, and middle-class person in the world can be linked directly to the power that the ultra-rich have & will do anything to protect. If you scratch the surface of organized religion, politics, poverty, law\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Social commentary"","block_context":{"text":"Social commentary","link":"https:\/\/madstone.net\/?cat=46"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":807,"url":"https:\/\/madstone.net\/?p=807","url_meta":{"origin":62,"position":2},"title":"Cold air, false history, and privilege","author":"Jorah","date":"December 20, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"I\u2019m not sure I have the skills or knowledge to turn this into a decent blog post, but I keep finding myself mulling over these ideas so I figured I\u2019d write them down, trying to clarify my thinking. During the summer of 2015 I was reading the news about the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Philosophizing"","block_context":{"text":"Philosophizing","link":"https:\/\/madstone.net\/?cat=59"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":924,"url":"https:\/\/madstone.net\/?p=924","url_meta":{"origin":62,"position":3},"title":"Nice looking first aid kit","author":"Jorah","date":"November 12, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"from Building A Hiker's First Aid Kit Do you hike with a first aid kit? And if you carry one, have you taken inventory of it lately? A first aid kit is one of the Ten Essentials you should always take on a hike, and it\u2019s especially important on an\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "First Aid"","block_context":{"text":"First Aid","link":"https:\/\/madstone.net\/?cat=75"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":861,"url":"https:\/\/madstone.net\/?p=861","url_meta":{"origin":62,"position":4},"title":"“I don\u2019t need to march for any rights,” she said.","author":"Jorah","date":"January 22, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"I spotted this post on Facebook today written by a Trump supporter in response to the women\u2019s march, a woman with an Hispanic-sounding last name. ========================================================= I am not a victim. I don\u2019t need to march for any rights. I have the same rights as anyone else. I\u2019m not raising\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Social commentary"","block_context":{"text":"Social commentary","link":"https:\/\/madstone.net\/?cat=46"},"img":{"alt_text":"Marcher in New York City on Jan. 21, 2017. Photo by Robert Stribley, used with permission.","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/madstone.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/no_one_is_free-2.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/madstone.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/no_one_is_free-2.jpg?resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/madstone.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/no_one_is_free-2.jpg?resize=525%2C300 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":984,"url":"https:\/\/madstone.net\/?p=984","url_meta":{"origin":62,"position":5},"title":"The Grand Yarn Tour… July 5, 2008","author":"Jorah","date":"July 6, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"My lovely bride and I went on a shopping trip we could ill afford yesterday. We dubbed this The Grand Yarn Tour. I'd heard that Charlotte Yarn was having a customer appreciation day on Saturday and Sunday, the 5th and 6th, so we decided to drive up there, even though\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Post"","block_context":{"text":"Post","link":"https:\/\/madstone.net\/?cat=30"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"http:\/\/www.assoc-amazon.com\/e\/ir?t=macmethods&l=ur2&o=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/madstone.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/madstone.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/madstone.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/madstone.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/madstone.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=62"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/madstone.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/madstone.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=62"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/madstone.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=62"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/madstone.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=62"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}