Towards a Safe and Secure Nation: The First Consultative Conference on Firearm Control, Ownership and Administration in Botswana, 13-15 May, 2003

The status of Firearms Control in Botswana by the Commissioner of Police
Mr ISIS Moleboge

The number of registered firearms and the proliferation thereof is significantly low in Botswana in comparison to other countries in the region. This is attributable to a rather strict legislation regulating their possession and ownership.
Arms, Ammunition and other related matters are controlled under the 'Arms and Ammunition Act' CAP24:01 introduced in 1979 as amended in 1981. The Act regulates the manufacturing, importation and exportation, sale, transfer, records keeping, storage and safe custody of Arms and Ammunition.
The Act further restricts possession of military-type small arms and light weapons to the civilian population. This way the problem of small arms proliferation has been kept to a minimum. In the same vein, no person is allowed to import any arms and/ or ammunition into the country without an 'Import Permit' issued under the authority of the Commissioner of Police.
The acquisition of new 'Firearm Permits' is dealt with through a quota system. The "Arms Quota Board" currently allows for a maximum of 400 new Firearm Permits, that is 200 Rifles and 200 Shotguns to be issued every year through a transparent raffle system. This is intended to control the proliferation of small arms and light weapons in Botswana. However, cumulatively, the issuance of 400 licences annually will eventually increase the firearms holding in Botswana substantially which may be contrary to the control measures intended to be put into place
Once the raffle is drawn, the applicant is then screened to check for any previous criminal convictions relating to violent crimes and/or contraventions of the Arms and Ammunition Act. If any one of the applicants holds such convictions, he or she is automatically disqualified from the raffle.
Botswana, though a landlocked country surrounded by countries more severely affected by the proliferation of small arms, has managed to maintain a high level of control over her domestic small arms situation.
As I have already mentioned earlier, the Act regulating arms and ammunition in Botswana dates back to 1979 and therefore requires some amendments to particularly fulfil the requirements contained in the SADC Protocol and United Nations Programme of Action.
I must mention at this point that the Police, through the National Focal Point, have identified and initiated a process of reviewing the legislation to bring it in line with the SADC Protocol and other International instruments.
All legally owned Firearms are registered at a Central Arms Registry, which is under my control. This is where all information relating to Firearms and Ammunition is recorded. Everything is still manually controlled. I must hasten to add that the records in this Registry are accurate and up to date. However, I must say that it is now time that we develop an electronic database in uniformity with the rest of the SADC region.
Before I conclude, allow me to give you some useful statistics explaining the current status of firearms in Botswana excluding those held by the Botswana Police Service and the Botswana Defence Force.
- As at 31 December 2002, we had registered 31454 Shotguns and Rifles, 411 Handguns and 36 Stunner Pistols and this makes a total of 32,901 registered firearms in Botswana. The statistics date back to the early sixties.
- During the same period, we confiscated 110 Shotguns, 150 Rifles, 7 Pellet guns and 1 1 others. This brings the total number of confiscated firearms to 424 throughout the country. The guns were used on illegal activities especially poaching.
- We also received a total of 1304 firearms surrendered to the Police, because they were either old or unserviceable or because owners wanted new firearms of different calibres. The statistics broken down represents, 754 Shotguns, 546 Rifles, 2 Handguns and 2 Stunner pistols. However, the number of confiscated and surrendered firearms will not tally with the total number destroyed due to different sources which these firearms came from, such as Government departments and individuals in our society.
- We have destroyed 1,937 Shotguns, 1,248 Rifles, 17 Handguns and 1 1 Pellet guns, a total of 3,213 firearms. These firearms were destroyed to prevent them from finding their illicit way back into the market. As some of you may be aware, Article 10 of the SADC Protocol on Firearms, Ammunition and other Related Materials advocates for the construction of Firearms Destruction Facilities.
- In compliance with this Protocol, we have such a facility donated by the British Government in October last year. The machine, a McIntyre - 4000 is already in use and has so far destroyed 77 of the 3 213 destroyed firearms. Prior to the acquisition of this machine, we used a private facility, a metalwork company, to crush and melt the discarded firearms and ammunition.
- During the last three years, a total of 82 registered firearms were used in criminal cases, which resulted in loss of life. Of this number, 27 were used by individuals to commit suicide between 2000 and 2002. In the same period 36 firearms were used to commit murder, while 19 were used for attempted murder. Again in the same period, 24 firearms were brought into Botswana illegally and 15 were used in murder cases, two in suicide cases and seven in attempted murder cases. These figures relative to Botswana's population are shocking and therefore we need to reduce the incidents as well as the prevalence of illegal use of firearms, whether legally obtained or otherwise.
- The Botswana Police Service between 1990 and 2002 recorded a substantial number of stolen firearms. A total of 187 firearms of these categories were reported stolen to the Police. Of these figures 82 shotguns, 98 rifles and seven pistols were stolen including five Air guns. These figures show that most of our firearms are not secured. We need to strongly regulate on the need to have safety standards.
In conclusion, we can confidently say the arms situation, particularly the handling of firearms by the civilian population, is relatively under control. If one looks at the confiscated number of firearms figure (424) which dates back to the early sixties, this number is relatively small compared to 1 742 firearms recorded in Tanzania in 2001 alone.

to top