Wyndham Hartley
7 January 2005
Cape Town — The chaos surrounding the relicensing of legal firearms deepened yesterday with promises that the standards to apply to existing owners would be challenged in court if left as published by the National Qualifications Authority.
There have also been charges that standards for the relicensing of existing weapons are being manipulated to make it as difficult as possible to challenge them. The draft unit standard for an individual to renew a gun licence was published only in mid-December while the time allocated for public comment runs out this Sunday.
Questions have also been asked about the composition of the Standards Generating Body that produced the draft standard, as there is no civilian representation and more than 90% of the members are police or correctional services officers.
At issue now is that the unit standard published for renewal of licences requires that existing legal gun owners be tested on the contents of the Domestic Violence Act, the Criminal Procedure Act and parts of the constitution, although the law says that only knowledge of the Firearms Control Act is required.
The legal representative for the South African Gun Owners Association, Martin Hood, said that if the standard was approved in its present form then it would definitely face a court challenge as it was "ultra vires" (beyond the authority) of the law as approved by Parliament. This would put back the process of relicensing indefinitely, said Hood.
In its response to the published unit standard, the association said the law required different levels of training for the renewal of a licence to those required for a new application.
In terms of the act, new applicants must complete a test on the contents of the act and complete the prescribed training and practical tests regarding the safe and efficient handling of a firearm. Renewal applicants need only complete the test on the act.
The draft unit standard applied all sorts of conditions other than those specified in the Firearms Control Act, it said.
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