What's Normal
Many people love using this word to describe various situations they face during their lives and, for the most part, most of these situations are quite normal, at least from an outside perspective. But, what’s generally accepted as normal today, certainly wasn’t 30 years ago. South Africa, back then, was certainly a different type of country geopolitically, where the rights of indigenous South African men and women were habitually denied because of their race.
Fortunately, we don’t live in that country anymore and, although we certainly have our share of problems, social norms has changed significantly. For instance, 30 years ago, the only place you would have seen a woman with a holstered firearm on her side was either the ladies working the main counter at the police station or marching in formation at an AWB rally.
Today, owning a gun in a country with one of the highest violent crime rates per capita in the world is not racist, it’s not sexist, its simply common sense. Of course, as a responsible gun owner, you have to recognise that there is a pervasive stigma attached to firearms in general. The word ‘gun’ is often instinctively associated with the word ‘crime’ but, as a responsible gun owner, it is your duty to dispel this stigma. Criminals use guns too.
The only difference between you and them in regards to firepower is that you’ve obtained yours legally and most likely know a lot more about guns that he does. That, and you’re not killing people to satisfy your greed. That makes all the difference. Also, unlike 30 years ago, today’s gun owners are of different sizes, different colours and different genders and, personally, it’s beautiful to see.
If you look at the larger scheme of things, I suppose, as a young democracy, we have a long way to go. There is still abject poverty, rampant corruption and most of our citizens don’t even own the land they live on. Compared to most western countries, our poverty and crime must seem somewhat extreme. Still, many South Africans, black and white, male and female, have high hopes in our young democracy and aren’t planning on leaving anytime soon.
With governmental corruption inevitably comes an inefficient police force and, although South Africa has gun control laws, namely the Firearm Control Act of 2000, it’s still legal to purchase a gun granted that you meet the government’s stipulations, oh, and pay the license fee, of course. After completing for your license and purchasing your firearm, you would be completely gun-competent. If criminals don’t steal their guns from somewhere, they simply buy one from the hundreds smuggled in every day that closely resembles the gun used by whatever hip-hop artist or Hollywood star their immature minds are emulating at that moment.