"Ask the Rabbi" by R. Mermelstein
QUESTION: Dear Rabbi Mermelstein:
My (gun-phobic) sister reported to
me that gun ownership laws in South Africa have recently been
liberalized and, as a result, crime has increased.
This sounds unlikely to me.
Can you shed any light on this issue?
Thank you.
Michael R. Edelstein, Ph.D.
Clinical Psychologist
San Francisco
22 Jul 1999
ANSWER: Dear Dr. Edelstein,
My last two years of rabbinical
college were spent in Johannesburg, S.A. The gun laws at that time were
restrictive, yet not so onerous. For instance, once you decided on your
purchase at your favorite gun shop you were given a form to fill out
and submit to the local police department. This form was sent to a
processing center in Pretoria, which took an average of seven weeks to
approve or disapprove the applicant. And this was for each and every
purchase. The upside was that, once approved, you could carry the
weapon concealed anywhere inside the Republic without restrictions. I
don't advocate such a firearms registration scheme in the US, but that
was the law in South Africa. (No training classes were ever required of
any purchaser; judging from the heavy attendance at the public shooting
ranges, people took care of their own training without government
coercion). A favorite anecdote of mine involves a trip from
Johannesburg to Pretoria to obtain American naturalization papers for
one of our sons born during that period. I entered a South African
federal building, which maintained a heavy uniformed police presence.
On walking through the main entrance, one had to pass a table and an
officer. The wall bore a large sign, in Afrikaans and English,
instructing to check weapons at this table. The officer greeted me in
Afrikaans, "Good morning, Herr Rabbiner (honored Rabbi), would you like
to check your weapon?" "Gladly", replied I, unholstering my Colt Combat
Commander from under my dark suit jacket, unloading it and trading it
for a claim check tag. Could you imagine such an incident in the US? A
SWAT team would have had my entrails scattered all over the floor!
To
answer your question, violent crime was almost nonexistent in the
Republic between 1981 and 1983, those being the years of my study
there. Since then, Jewish South Africans now living in the US inform me
that one cannot safely walk the streets of downtown Johannesburg during
daylight hours. Nelson Mandela had a very Teddy Kennedy-like view of
citizens owning guns. That probably explains the dangers of walking in
what I once thought to be one of the most beautiful and safe big cities
I had ever visited. The California Rifle and Pistol Association has a
great mantra: "Society is safer when criminals don't know who is
armed." This has worked in Florida, Texas, and many other states that
passed Right to Carry statutes. Those that lobbied against passage of
these laws cried, "You will turn our city into a war zone!" Nothing of
the sort happened. The violent crime rates dropped, and the streets are
not rivers of blood. I presume that liberalization of the firearms laws
in South Africa will have the same effect.
Sincerely,
R. Mermelstein
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