With high levels of crime and violence in South Africa it is difficult to separate people from the guns they believe will protect them. We cannot allow the huge number of guns, in excess of four million licensed weapons, plus others, to continue in our society. We're very serious and we will take action. At one of Johannesburg's regular gun shows, an astonishing array of weapons is up for demonstration - parents nonchantlantly wheel their children's pushchairs between the stalls. Legal guns are easy to obtain from here - and from dealers and shops.
Illegal ones are even easier.
On one side you have got the attitiude of a frontiersman - going out there and taming a wild environment. And on the other side you've got a worried mentality - wanting to protect yourself. South Africa's sociologists have other explanations - a refusal to accept authority, a lack of belief in the state, the traumatic legacy of apartheid. The latest research shows you are four times more likley to be hurt if you use a gun to try to defend yourself against crime. The truth seems to be that the legacy of a violent past is proving hard to overcome.