Firearms: Stab wounds more than gunshot wounds

2 August 2016

The recent burglary at the SA Naval Base in the Western Cape where various firearms and ammunition were stolen, and the jail sentence pf 18 years of a police member, Col. Christiaan Prinsloo who had stolen 2 400 firearms from police custody in Gauteng, and were sold to gangs, places the use of weapons in the spotlight again.

“Pres. Jacob Zuma and the minister of police, Mr. Nathi Nhleko, are always quick to say firearms should be reduced as it is the biggest cause of violent crime. The reality is that more people have died in the past five years from stab wounds than have died from gunshot wounds,” Dr. Pieter Groenewald, the chief spokesperson on police for the Freedom Front Plus, says.

Since 2011 until the end of 2015, 38 725 peopled died as a result of stab wounds and 25 869 people died due to gunshot wounds. This appears from a reply in parliament from the minister of health, Dr. Aaron Motsoaledi, in response to a question of Dr. Pieter Groenewald of the Freedom Front Plus. These statistics are based on the number of corpses in state mortuaries, according to the Forensic Pathology Services of the department of Health.

“These statistics proves that Zuma and Nhleko are wrong. If a comparison is made with the murder figure of the police, and it is accepted that all gunshot wounds were also murder, which is not the case, gunshot wounds were responsible for 35% (34,9; 35,1; 35,1) of the murder figure in the past three financial years. Stab wounds in the same period were, however, responsible for 50,5% (59,8; 45,6; 46,2) of the murder figure. This statistic is once again proof that legal firearm owners are being unfairly and unnecessarily targeted as if the ownership of firearms is the biggest cause of violent crime in South Africa,” Dr. Groenewald said.

Issued by Pieter Groenewald, FF Plus chief spokesperson, 2 August 2016