The Democratic Alliance (DA) has warned that the government’s proposed Firearms Control Amendment Bill represents a direct assault on South Africans’ constitutional rights, arguing that it would give the Acting Police Minister unchecked power to decide who may legally own a firearm.

Ian Cameron, who chairs Parliament’s Portfolio Committee on Police, said: “If what we have seen of the latest Firearms Control Amendment Bill is accurate, this proposal gives the Minister of Police the power to decide who may live safely and who may not in terms of being lawfully armed. That is unconstitutional, dangerous, and incompatible with any democratic system that respects the rule of law.”

Cameron said the Bill ignored the state’s own evidence about what drives gun crime in South Africa. He cited a 2015 review by the Civilian Secretariat for Police Service (CSPS) and the Wits School of Governance, which found that the problem lay not with law-abiding citizens but with widespread corruption, mismanagement, and data failures within the South African Police Service (SAPS).

That review described the Central Firearms Register (CFR) as: “technically collapsed, institutionally incoherent, and incapable of maintaining accurate records.” It warned that adding new layers of bureaucracy before fixing CFR capacity would: “destabilise the entire regulatory regime.”

It also found: “no demonstrable correlation between the Firearms Control Act and reductions in violent crime,” instead noting that crime drops coincided with: “periods of effective, intelligence-led policing.” The report confirmed that the SAPS, the South African National Defence Force, and other state agencies were: “the largest single sources of illegal firearm leakage, not licensed civilians,” and that the loss of thousands of SAPS firearms each year: “fundamentally undermines the moral authority of the state to demand compliance from citizens.”

“Instead of fixing SAPS capacity and integrity, the state wants to disarm those who follow the law,” Cameron said. “Disarming law-abiding citizens will not stop violent crime. It will only make communities more vulnerable. The Bill strips self-defence of legitimacy by demanding ‘exceptional circumstances,’ limits ammunition to 100 rounds per firearm, criminalises collectors, and gives the Minister unchecked discretion over who may own a firearm. It does nothing to address SAPS corruption, stolen police firearms, or the collapse of enforcement systems, which the CSPS itself identified as the real cause of gun-related crime.

“As the Democratic Alliance, we will oppose this Bill in its current form with every democratic tool available, whether through Parliament, through public mobilisation, and other relevant platforms or remedies. We will defend the right of every responsible South African to lawful protection and ensure that facts, accountability, and constitutional rights triumph over political control.”