Opinion | Surviving in a gun-violent society

Every year on March 21 we remember Sharpeville. On this day in 1960, 69 people were killed and about 180 injured when apartheid police opened fire on peaceful protesters demanding dignity and freedom from pass laws. Many were shot in the back as they tried to run away.

The guns used that day were legal. Sharpeville reminds us that guns have always shaped the story of rights and power in South Africa and that the question of who holds them — and how they are controlled — continues to affect the safety of our communities today. Human Rights Day asks us to remember that history.

But it should also invite us to reflect honestly on the present. Article 3 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights states that everyone has the right to life, liberty and security of person. This principle sits at the heart of democratic societies, including South Africa.

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Yet gun violence continues to take lives across our country. Research drawing on police and public health data suggests that around 30 people are killed with a gun every day in SA. When you spend time in communities affected by shootings, the numbers quickly become real.

In my work with Gun Free South Africa, I hear these stories repeatedly from people trying to rebuild safety in their neighbourhoods. In conversations with community leaders and young people in Atlantis, Alexandra, Hanover Park, Mitchells Plain, Tembisa and Westbury, the message is often the same. People speak about the sound of gunshots at night.

Parents talk about children who are afraid to play outside. One community leader said: “Children here know what gunfire sounds like before they even understand what it means”. That sentence captures something deeply troubling.

Gun violence takes away the ordinary parts of childhood. Children who should be playing football in open spaces instead learn which streets to avoid. They learn when to run indoors.

They grow up hearing adults shout “get down” when shots ring out. Children cannot learn properly when they live with that kind of fear. Research has also shown that children cannot be “gun-proofed”.

Even when parents believe their children will avoid guns, studies show many children who encounter a gun will handle it and some will even pull the trigger out of curiosity. Women face another painful reality.

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