Gun Owners of South Africa


Gun Owners South Africa is a firearms rights and advocacy group in the Republic of South Africa. It was founded on 26 January 2004 by Thomas Eastes and nine associates invited by him, Abios Khoele, Charl van Wyk, Pieter van Wyk, Juan de greeff, Martin Hedington, Dr. Richard Wesson, Peter Moss, Brett Nortje and Dick Boothroyd. Because resources were limited to the voluntary efforts of its ten founders, it functioned as an advocacy group and no attempt was made to make it a membership based organisation. That became possible only when the founders handed control to the present executive in 2015. Membership has since grown rapidly and GOSA is now the biggest organisation of its kind and thus able to defend firearm ownership rights more effectively.
GOSA is the most diverse firearms group in South Africa, on levels ranging from race, gender, and religion, to political affiliation and income levels. GOSA’s membership is on public display on its Facebook page.
One of the founding members of GOSA, Charl van Wyk, was a congregant at the St. James Church in Cape Town when the St. James Church Massacre happened. Azanian People’s Liberation Army militants attacked the church with automatic rifles and a grenade. Van Wyk was armed with a five-shot snub nosed revolver at the time, and returned fire, prompting the attackers to flee. The death toll stood at eleven, and an injured count of fifty-eight when the chaos ended.
Larry Pratt, head of Gun Owners of America, spoke at a GOSA conference at the time of GOSA's founding, and publicly criticized the South African police chief who opposed the group.

History

Gun Owners South Africa was founded in 2004 in response to disillusionment with the other established firearm rights group, the South African Gun Owners Association. SAGA has been in existence since 1985, and is still active to present day. In the years 2004 until 2015, because GOSA was a very small organisation it was not well known to the general public. But it used its limited resources to best effect via the media which was, and still is, the best way to reach the public.
In 2011, the South African homicide rate started a gradual climbing trend, and in 2013, revelations of the bad state of affairs and corruption at the Central Firearms Registry had emerged.
By 2015, the GOSA leadership had realised that disillusionment with SAGA was not going to change any time soon, and started to slowly put in place the necessary mechanisms of moving towards a professionally organised organisation, including a paid membership structure and benefits such as legal financial insurance against firearm discharge under legal circumstances. Other changes included a more inclusive and simplified brand name, to just the English abbreviation, and a logo update. Additionally, GOSA also contributed a significant amount of funding to Dr. David Klatzow's work on the validity of ballistic fingerprinting, which delivered a scathing rebuke of the 'science' in his article "Defective Science: An Inquiry into the Valaidity of Ballistic Fingerprinting as a Reliable Tool and into the Feasibility of Establishing an Effective national Ballistic Imaging Database". Towards the end of 2015 and start of 2016, it became clear that paid membership structures in their current form were inefficient and putting the finances at a deficit. They were unbundled and simplified, with the insurance offering being moved to Gunsure, and the membership offerings instead reflecting discount legal services for firearm administrative matters pertaining to firearm licensing. With the collapse of Gunsure, GOSA started to look back at bundling a reformed insurance membership option for firearm owners in January 2018.
With the start to 2017, the reformed membership structures had started turning significant profits for the organisation, and this afforded the ability to hire a small complement of full time staff, allow the funding of more travelling expenses for official business, a new website, and put a presence with a permanent stand at the Huntex firearms and hunting expo in Gauteng and the Eastern Cape. The investment in a Huntex presence dealt a negative drag to GOSA, and the leadership quickly culled the initiative before the 2018 Huntex expos went ahead. By November 2017, GOSA had stabilized the financial flows again.
In the year from January 2016 until December 2017, Facebook membership had grown from just shy of 21 000 members, to 35 000. Paid membership growth was slower, rising from zero in late 2015, to over three thousand at the end of 2017. In a country of between 2.5 million to 3.0 million firearm owners, these numbers are very low, and GOSA faces an uphill battle in mobilising as many as possible.
In February 2018, Jonathan Wright lodged a complaint on behalf of GOSA with the Press Council of South Africa against Jacaranda 94.2 FM after an article on the latter's website claimed that research shows people are four times more likely to have their own firearms used against them; and that having a firearm in one's home "has been proven to increase the risk of a firearm homicide or firearm suicide in the home" unless it is kept in a safe. GOSA argued that the first claim was unsubstantiated and the second was biased, and asked for Jacaranda FM to publicly retract the statements. The article was pulled once controversy surrounding the claims came about, but no reason for taking the piece down was given. The Press Ombud, Johan Retief, ruled that Jacaranda had "to publish a retraction, correction or explanation as to why the story was pulled", which is required by section 1.10 of the Press Code.

Political activity

GOSA is not associated with any political parties or candidates, and opts instead to engage and lobby directly with political entities willing to engage.
On the other hand, within this Sphere GOSA is diametrically opposed to the disarmament of law abiding citizens and organizations, such as Gun Free South Africa, which promote that agenda.

Programs

GOSA currently runs the GOSA Girls on Fire campaign, which was started in 2015 to coincide with the 16 Days of Activism, which is aimed at teaching and increasing female participation in firearm related activities. The campaign is run by female organisers, and regularly helps new female firearm owners with carry techniques, training, and promoting firearm safety and etiquette.
Plans are in the formation to start hosting official GOSA events, such as the touted first time ever Gauteng Firearms Festival, focusing on showcasing firearm and self-defence exhibits and hosting shooting competitions and activities, at the Johannesburg Metropolitan Police Department shooting range.

Organisational structure

GOSA is a registered Non Profit Company in South Africa and is applying for Public Benefit Organisation status, it is headed by a chairperson, who chairs an Executive Committee, which was created in 2015.
The Executive Committee is currently composed of:
GOSA's organisational structure also includes numerous volunteers who operate and advocate for GOSA with no remuneration.