Denver Isaacs
16 June 2008
Windhoek — Civil society's aim to get guns out of public places gained another ally on Friday when the Katutura-based Namibia Primary School declared itself a gun-free zone.
The school joined a number of other educational institutions, clinics, businesses and shebeens who, since September last year, have become part of the Namibia NGO Forum (Nangof)'s initiative 'Towards a Gun-Free Namibia'.
While the presentation of the message preached at the event may have appeared to go slightly over the heads of the third and fourth grade pupils in attendence, the statistics provided as evidence for the need of a gun-free society spoke volumes.
Reading from statistics obtained from the Orthopedic Department of the Windhoek Central Hospital, Nangof spokesperson Pauline Dempers noted that in the six months since the start of the year 2008, 160 cases of armed robbery, 20 murders involving the use of firearms, 89 cases of attempted murder, and 144 cases of people having firearms pointed at them, have been reported.
She also noted that gunshot victims generally make up about 16 per cent of all people with disabilities treated at this hospital, compared to 43 per cent whose disabilities stem from ordinary illnesses.
The damaging effect of guns in an open society was stressed by 23-year old Lluweln Klaaste, who delivered his testimony of having been shot in the back during a trivial argument in 2004.
The wheelchair-bound Klaaste recalled how he ended up being hospitalised after accidentally reversing a car he was driving into another.
The ordeal left him without the use of his legs, while his shooter was sentenced to three years imprisonment and a N$6 000 fine in September last year.
"We've since cleared up our differences, we talk", he told The Namibian later of the relationship between him and the shooter.
Dempers said that the campaign's main aim currently is to get national leaders and politicians to declare a moratorium on arms being sent to Zimbabwe, "in addition to warning them to guard against the transfer of guns to volatile countries in the region, or where tension is being experienced.
This may just fuel tension in that country," she said.
Other Windhoek schools who are set to declare themselves gun-free within the next few weeks include the Michelle McLean and Martti Ahtisaari Primary Schools.
As part of the campaign, the organisations participating erect signboards at their entrances displaying the message "This is a gun-free zone", while anybody carrying a firearm would be required to declare it at the entrance, where it is stored in a safe until the owner leaves the premise.
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