Gun ownership laws under spotlight
Ellanie SmitWIDHOEK
The recently held Annual General Meeting of the Gun Owners’ Association of Namibia (GOAN) was attended by a mere 24 of its nearly 2 000 previously registered members.Namibia has an estimated 20 000 gunowners, the Namibian Agricultural Union (NAU) said in an update about the meeting in its weekly newsletter.
According to the union, the chairman of the GOAN, Kallie Venzke during the meeting gave an overview of the 2019 problematic amendments to the gun ownership laws that have been signed off by President Hage Geingob.
“Aside from various new regulations, the proposed law calls for ballistic testing of all firearms in the country, as well as mandatory competency tests for all owners, it however does not provide an implementation plan for the newly proposed regulations,” says the NAU.
It said that after lengthy discussions were held with the safety and security ministry and the police regarding the amendments, the Covid-19 pandemic halted further meetings.
“In the meantime, new officials have been appointed and previously involved individuals have retired, meaning the process will have to be revisited, should the currently idle-lying amendments be revisited at any given time.”
According to NAU, to cater for this, GOAN needs to be prepared and is therefore trying to obtain funds to oppose legislation, should the currently proposed legislation be made mandatory.
Venzke furthermore stated that a number of members paid their annual membership fees in 2019,
but never submitted any membership application. The association therefore cannot allocate
payments to specific persons with only an ID number as a reference.
“There unfortunately is no way of contacting these individuals and the association requests anyone who previously paid his/ her membership fees but has not received any communication from GOAN to provide their name, contact details and ID number to the below mentioned email address.
Weapons watchdog the Small Arms Survey latest report in 2018 on gun ownership around the world, indicated that of the close to 400 000 guns owned by civilians in Namibia, 195 990 were illegal and 200 010 legal firearms.
According to GOAN its membership fees remain unchanged at N$150 per member per annum, N$75 per pensioner per annum and N$0.00 per member without voting rights.
The AGM concluded with the election of the new executive committee as Venzke as chairman, Francois Marais as vice-chairman, Antonie Viljoen as treasurer and Kristin Maritz as secretary.
GOAN further appealed to all gun owners to join the Association in securing the right for responsible gun ownership.
The recently held Annual General Meeting of the Gun Owners’ Association of Namibia (GOAN) was attended by a mere 24 of its nearly 2 000 previously registered members.Namibia has an estimated 20 000 gunowners, the Namibian Agricultural Union (NAU) said in an update about the meeting in its weekly newsletter.
According to the union, the chairman of the GOAN, Kallie Venzke during the meeting gave an overview of the 2019 problematic amendments to the gun ownership laws that have been signed off by President Hage Geingob.
“Aside from various new regulations, the proposed law calls for ballistic testing of all firearms in the country, as well as mandatory competency tests for all owners, it however does not provide an implementation plan for the newly proposed regulations,” says the NAU.
It said that after lengthy discussions were held with the safety and security ministry and the police regarding the amendments, the Covid-19 pandemic halted further meetings.
“In the meantime, new officials have been appointed and previously involved individuals have retired, meaning the process will have to be revisited, should the currently idle-lying amendments be revisited at any given time.”
According to NAU, to cater for this, GOAN needs to be prepared and is therefore trying to obtain funds to oppose legislation, should the currently proposed legislation be made mandatory.
Venzke furthermore stated that a number of members paid their annual membership fees in 2019,
but never submitted any membership application. The association therefore cannot allocate
payments to specific persons with only an ID number as a reference.
“There unfortunately is no way of contacting these individuals and the association requests anyone who previously paid his/ her membership fees but has not received any communication from GOAN to provide their name, contact details and ID number to the below mentioned email address.
Weapons watchdog the Small Arms Survey latest report in 2018 on gun ownership around the world, indicated that of the close to 400 000 guns owned by civilians in Namibia, 195 990 were illegal and 200 010 legal firearms.
According to GOAN its membership fees remain unchanged at N$150 per member per annum, N$75 per pensioner per annum and N$0.00 per member without voting rights.
The AGM concluded with the election of the new executive committee as Venzke as chairman, Francois Marais as vice-chairman, Antonie Viljoen as treasurer and Kristin Maritz as secretary.
GOAN further appealed to all gun owners to join the Association in securing the right for responsible gun ownership.
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