New research by the Institute of Race Relations (IRR) exposing gaping holes in the arguments for taking away the gun-owning rights of law-abiding citizens will be examined in a livestream discussion hosted by the IRR tonight.
The research is contained in the report, ‘Don’t Add Chaos to Disorder: exposing the weakness of key civilian disarmament arguments’, authored by senior IRR analyst Nicholas Lorimer, and presented by IRR CEO Dr Frans Cronje at the Gun Summit organised by the Democratic Alliance on Tuesday.
It exposes the fallacious arguments used to justify stripping law-abiding citizens of their firearms.
Tonight’s livestream discussion, titled Guns & Liberty, forms part of the IRR’s campaign to resist the ban on guns for self-defence proposed in the Firearms Control Amendment Bill, now before Parliament.
Joining host and IRR Head of Campaigns, Gabriel Crouse, in tonight’s discussion will be guests Paul Oxley, chairman of Gun Owners South Africa, Tshepi Mmekwa, an advocate for women’s gun rights, Andrew Soutar, gun rights activist, and Jonathan Fouché, chairman of the South African Arms and Ammunition Dealers’ Association
In a press statement yesterday, the IRR pointed out that the government’s ‘misguided effort’ to reduce gun rights ‘is justified by the state as a measure intended to make South Africa safer. Ironically, it will likely make South Africa less safe, as criminals will still have access to firearms of all kinds.’
It added: ‘While they are willing to expose citizens to greater vulnerability in an environment of high rates of violent crime, politicians backing the bill have chosen to beef up their own security by increasing the budget for the VIP Protection Services to R3.232 billion.’
Watch tonight’s discussion, from 7pm, at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pN0SHqzVFtQ