Proposed amendment to Dangerous Weapons Act email

Proposed amendments to dangerous weapons act

 

Herewith an e-mail received 21 February 2008 which content and attached proposed amendment we urgently encourage you to carefully read, note and submit comment to the relevant SAPS legal officer.

 

Hi All

 

Herewith attached proposed amendments to the dangerous weapons act, basically proposing to make knives, airguns, bb guns, batons, and anything else which may function as a weapon subject to some form of licensing.

 

If you are involved in a business that sells or manufacturers any of the following:

 

ANY type of knife

Air rifles

Paintball guns

Batons

Swords

to name a few...

 

Or are concerned about our civil liberties, please read the attached document. 

 

If you are interested in contributing in any way, please contact myself or Marc Ager, the author of the e-mail below.

 

Remember the fire-arms act? Remember how of the 700+ gun shops there are now less than 80 active. Remember how hard it became to own a fire-arm for self defence? Now imagine not being able to own or sell something as basic as a pocket knife. Think I'm kidding? Read the attached and shudder in your shoes.

 

Gideon Du Toit

(W) +27 (0)11-679-4894
(F) +27 (0)88-011-679-4894
(C) +27 (0)82-450-3222


Dear Stanley, Bruce, Gideon,

Herewith attached proposed amendments to dangerous weapons act, basically proposing to make knives airguns, bb guns, batons, and anything else which may function as a weapon subject to some form of licensing.

 

I have talked with Stan Gordon and Martin Hood. Martin's opinion is that this being done subject to very old law prior to the new constitution and that it will not stand a legal challenge in a court of law as it is unconstitutional. However some body will need to mount a legal challenge otherwise it will go through in approx 3 weeks. We suggest we contact all importers immediately and propose setting up a fund to do just this. Martin will please need to let us all know the likely cost and we will need to gather the contact details of any affected parties.

 

So far we are opening a discussion with CDG, Ramrod, Awesome Tools and Kreature but there are many other parties likely to be affected, such as African Hunting Supplies. Rosenthals, Nicholas Yale, Formalito, Guns and Bows, Suburban Guns, Brentoni and other importers/wholesalers. Manufacturers, such as Lasher and Okapi and many other tool wholesalers are likely to be affected, and then the many hundreds of retailers. Essentially under this proposed act you could not transport a kitchen knife from the retailer to home without breaking the law, so we see it as another complete interference by Government in our constitutional freedom to operate a business and possess tools. It does need to be well challenged and Martin Hood has learned all these lessons already with the absurd firearms legislation, so in our opinion is the best legal option to do this.

 

I will cc a copy of this to any of the above parties I have email contact details of. but please also pass it on to any you have details for and any other businesses you know may be affected. Hopefully, if we all contribute the costs will not be massive. I also suggest and ask comment from Martin and you all about any benefit of forming an importers/ distributors (dealers?) association so we may present a unified front.

 

With best regards,

 

Marc Ager

 

Managing Director

Ramrod (Pty) Ltd

www.ramrod.co.za

(011) 462-6986 (office); (011) 462-6989 (fax)

47 Staal Street, Kya Sand, Randburg, South Africa