Social Media Briefing:The 17% Deception:
Deception Via Obfuscation

Much of the data introduced and propagated by Gun Free South Africa (GFSA) since the late 1990's deserves closer scrutiny. SafeCitizen is conducting detailed research into the information placed in front of our Parliament and Law makers by GFSA - your civil rights with regard to the safety of your person, family and community are at stake and SafeCitizen is committed to speaking the truth to authority.

Law abiding South Africans who choose to own a licensed private firearm for self defence and specifically as an effective way to give effect to Sections (11) and (12) of the Bill of Rights, (the Right to Life and the Right to be free of all forms of violence), have been disadvantaged, and continue to be directly affected by the free reign that GFSA has enjoyed in influencing our lawmakers against private firearm ownership.

The Specific Statement

On the table today is a statement by GFSA Claire Taylor in 2015, which claims that "firearms played a major role in these murders, with guns used in 17% of the cases seen".¹ Taylor was addressing the prevalence of guns within the context of domestic violence and quoted this statistic - and the nonsensical categorization of the figure as "major"- at a presentation on November 10th arranged by GFSA for Members of Parliament, Parliamentary researchers, Police Generals, various stake holders and the media at a hotel conference center in Cape Town.

An obfuscation applied to create a false impression

Femicide, as with any unlawful death is a tragedy, and SafeCitizen stands with law abiding persons everywhere in their concern around this issue. To firstly claim (GFSA) that 17% (of femicide wherein guns were used) is a major percentage of the murders, flies in the face of grade school mathematics, and to then forward that categorization of "major" as an obtuse suggestion that femicide will be halted or curtailed if guns are removed from the home simply beggars belief. No rational person can step away from the truism that "an evil person with murder on his/her mind will use whatever means of killing is available".

The Relevance of this Deception in the GFSA narrative

Why is this research relevant and important in 2020? Simply because our lawmakers have been influenced by what they have heard and are hearing now, and because GFSA link most media statements back to their claims over the past years.²

The research around the deception highlighted in this briefing comprises part of a larger body of work to be submitted to our lawmakers and civil society by SafeCitizen. We intend to actively engage with government and civil society structures that feed into our legislative processes.

#SafeCitizen is determined to expose untruths and bring you the facts. We invite any persons or institutions mentioned herein to disprove our assertion that misleading information has been intentionally placed in the public realm and encouraged to proliferate.

The persons and families in South Africa who receive free armed protection or who can afford to pay for armed response comprise a very small and privileged part of our nation. As for the rest, they must arrange their own protection – and a police van arrives after the fact. The right thing to do is to speak the truth to authority, and we challenge GFSA to focus on the real source of stolen firearms and acknowledge the fact that stripping law abiding firearm owners of their best means of lawful self defense will create many more fatalities at the hands of violent criminals.

¹https://genderjustice.org.za/publication/stop-guns-in-domestic-violence/

²Gun Free South Africa annual reports. https://www.gfsa.org.za/about/annual-reports