2004 Volume 1

Declaring Premises Gun Free Zones

By Charl van Wyk

The City of Cape Town's proposed policy relating to declaring certain premises gun free zones is dangerous.

As a start, we need to ask the question: Do laws prohibiting guns in certain places really prevent homicidal tragedies?

There is a striking paradox associated with mass murders. They are far more likely to occur in areas that have been designated gun free zones.

Worldwide, office buildings, hospitals, convenience stores, TV studios, chain restaurants and day care centres, have all been targets of homicidal maniacs. These are exactly the types of premises that South African leaders want to consider declaring gun free zones. In other countries, mass murders have taken place in such places after them having been declared gun free zones.

In 1999, John Lott and William Landes published a US study of multiple shooting incidents. They showed that mass shootings occur less often in areas where responsible citizens may carry weapons.

Do mass shootings ever occur in police stations, pistol ranges or at gun shows? No mass murderers select soft targets for their acts of violence. Expecting a suicidal individual to honour a law prohibiting firearms is sheer utopian fantasy.

In Europe, 16 people were killed in a public school shooting in Germany in April 2002. Another two public shootings were the killing of 14 regional legislators in Zug, a Swiss Canton (Sept. 2001) and the massacre of eight city council members in a Paris suburb in March 2002.

According to John R. Lott, Jr, all three of these European killing sprees had one thing in common: they took place in gun free zones. Firearms surely make it easier to kill people, but firearms also make it easier for people to defend themselves.

The City of Cape Town's proposed policy risks leaving potential victims defenceless.

In the US, thugs using firearms at elementary or secondary schools between 1997 and 2002, killed 32 students. The total includes gang fights, robberies, accidents and the so-called "school shootings." All these attacks took place in gun free zones.

In Israel, however, teachers and parents serving as school aids are armed at all times on school grounds, with semi-automatic weapons. Since this policy was adopted in 1971, attacks by gunmen at schools in Israel have ceased.
On 1 May 1993, armed gunmen killed four people when they attacked the Highgate Hotel Bar in East London. An armed patron managed to chase away the attackers by returning fire.

25 July 1993 was the fateful day that the St. James Church in Kenilworth, Cape Town, was attacked by armed gunmen. 11 People were murdered and 53 injured. The SA Police testified that my returning fire prevented further loss of life.
Pubs and churches have been mentioned as possible areas to be considered for gun free zone status, yet in South Africa we have proof of armed citizens saving lives on such premises.

The Heidelberg Pub massacre of 1993 and the King William's Town Club attack by armed thugs (1992) took place in areas that will soon be proposed as gun free zones in South Africa.

The City of Cape Town must be aware that if they create a gun free zone, they are liable for any harm it causes. Why would the City of Cape Town rather see law-abiding, disarmed citizens die, than risk armed citizens harming a criminal?

Gun free zones are dangerous.