What’s a gun-hating government to do if they pretty much ban guns but violent criminals continue plying their trade of robbery, rape and assault? In South Africa, banning replica guns—many of them nothing more than kids’ toys—just might be the next move.

According to a report at iol.co.za, that’s what Cape Town Provincial Thembisile Patekile wants to see the legislature do after a spate of thugs using fake guns to commit real crimes has made his job harder.

“Replica guns are a problem because house robberies, hijacking and even rape incidents, and other heinous crimes, criminals are using fake guns that people think are real guns,” Patekile told the news outlet. “We call them blank guns, they are used in the film industry and elsewhere. They look like real guns and they sound the same, when a person fires you would think it is a real gun.”

Patekile said that the fact that such guns are for sale to anyone is the problem. Never mind those who have legitimate reasons for using such devices, which are used as starter pistols, for dog training and a number of other purposes.

“This is problematic for us, but remember you don’t need a license to own that gun, you can buy it over the counter,” he said. “What we would like to see now is legislation that talks to banning these guns, because lives are at stake. These guns are used for many criminal activities and we are confiscating a number of them. If we arrest someone with them, we take the guns to our forensic lab and test if it is a real gun or not.”

First, any law enforcement officer anywhere should be able to look at a gun’s action and other features and tell if it is real or a replica. If it holds live rounds, has a firing pin and a barrel for the bullet to travel down, it’s a pretty sure bet it’s a real gun. If the barrel is plugged and it doesn’t hold real cartridges, it’s probably not a real gun.

Note that just like real guns, replica guns don’t shoot, rob or rape anyone without the help of a violent criminal on the other end. Still, Patekile hopes the government will regulate them under the country’s Firearms Control Act.

“We could even look into the Firearms Control Act to ban these things,” he said. “In the Western Cape they are prevalent, when we do a stop and search in hotspot areas, you will find a lot of these guns but sometimes it is difficult to prosecute anyone for possessing a replica unless a crime has been committed.”

In the end, violent criminals will be violent criminals—in South Africa or anywhere else—and they’re going to find a way to rape, rob, assault and murder innocent citizens until they are caught and jailed, no matter what kind of guns are banned. It seems that some South African officials have as hard of a time understanding that as Democrats in the United States do.  

30 COMMENTS

    • Yeah those Afrikaners & English white folks needed to leave years ago. I see one on Youtube hunting so they ain’t disarmed. Yet!

      • Look up YouTube channel “serpentza”. Although most of of videos are about China when he mentions South Africa he describes it as a failed state that keeps failing more every year.

        What was the powerhouse economy of the continent has been ruined by the incompetence, corruption, and kleptocracy of the ANC.

  1. Because criminals have never crimed while unarmed, armed with something other than a gun or simply made the claim “I have a gun.”

    Africa has plenty of problems continent wide. Fake guns doesn’t even crack the top 1,000.

  2. After Nov. 5 I’ll have time say…In the meantime it’s VOTE TRUMP/VANCE 2024.🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸

  3. I had a friend, now deceased, that had a contract in S.A. training some of their security forces. He said you’ve never seen such violent place. He married a girl over there and lived there for six months out of the year. He said the neighborhood was walled. The HOA included armed paramilitary security. Houses had hand grenade proof window screens. Take over bank robberies and running gunfights in the streets were common. What do they think banning a cap pistol is going to do?

    • … lower the “feelz” quotient – very important in progressive civilizations. It’s much easier than actually doing something about rampant crime, just like here

    • I imagine they are running into the same issues as Rhodesia/Zimbabwe where they are not allowed to immigrate elsewhere.

      • Yeah, they’re getting murdered and dispossessed because of their skin color. Judging by the rhetoric coming from Democrat politicians, the left wants the same thing to happen here.

    • 100% Obiden admin wouldn’t allow whites from SA to “immigrant”/”refugee” into the US. NOT thevoting demographic the demtards desire (as Musk a REAL AfricanAmerican).

      • A lot went to UK, Australia, and New Zealand. Some suburbs are effectively South African enclaves.

        • Are they still taking them? Last I spoke with anyone from that region their options of permanent residency dwindled considerably after the 90’s

  4. Had an obvious junkie try to rob me with a starter pistol once – the parking was lit well, and once I was sure what he had, I just walked away.

    The dissertation on critical race theory in the meantime was interesting, tho. I am not sure that term had been invented yet, but he had the “I’m black, you owe me” part down pat. Holding the moral high ground, he was…

  5. The State That May Let You Buy It Legally, But Not Own It Legally?

    “Oh yes Illinois, it may happen again, but are you ready this time? Washington Gun Law President, William Kirk, discusses the strange phenomenon that may occur in Illinois where your FFLs could legally offer for sale a prohibited item, you could legally purchase it, with the right timing, but at some point, in the very near future, could not own it. Don’t believe us? Well check out the Protect Illinois Communities Act and learn what kinds of ridiculous things are truly possible in Illinois.”

    h ttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xro42ODRYKs

  6. Ever since the majority took power in that country thirty years ago, it has steadily degraded until they are just a hairsbreadth from the Stone Age.

    South Africa is a look into the future of the West if we don’t do anything.

  7. I had someone try to rob us with a replica once. Almost shot him. He saw me drawing and coming up with the gun and he dropped his replica, got on his knees and peed his pants then jumped up and ran. Police found him down the road next to a business using a hose they had out trying to wash his pants out. He had robbed a few others earlier that day using that replica, one victim he pistol whipped a bit.

  8. When I was living in the District of Columbia in the early 90’s there were some gang bangers robbing people with fake guns until one night they tried to rob an off duty cop who had a real gun. I think one lived but the other was never going to repeat his crime spree.

  9. speaking of fake…

    “Harris accused of plagiarism for second time.

    … Harris lifted much of her 2007 testimony before Congress from a Republican district attorney in Illinois named Paul Logli. She also allegedly copied a paragraph from Wikipedia in a 2012 report on human trafficking.

    In a third instance, the outlet reported that Harris passed off a fictionalized story about a sex trafficking victim as fact, only changing the location to San Francisco, where Harris was the district attorney at the time, effectively giving her office credit for helping the pretend person.

    Last week, Harris was accused of plagiarizing her 2009 book, Smart on Crime, including portions that also resembled Wikipedia entries.

    The first round of accusations was unearthed by Christopher F. Rufo, who is well-known for a plagiarism investigation into former Harvard President Claudine Gay that eventually led to her resignation.

    ‘Kamala Harris has been plagiarizing her entire career, Rufo said in response to the latest findings.”

    h ttps://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/harris-accused-of-plagiarism-for-second-time/ar-AA1sIZJa

    “Kamala Harris plagiarism allegations ‘more serious’ than I thought, admits New York Times expert > h ttps://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/kamala-harris-plagiarism-allegations-more-serious-than-i-thought-admits-new-york-times-expert/ar-AA1ss8xu

    • Oh no, “She also allegedly copied a paragraph from Wikipedia“!

      “No one to be fired after Melania Trump speech plagiarism episode
      By Gregory Krieg, Eric Bradner and Eugene Scott, CNN
      Updated 4:50 PM EDT, Tue July 19, 2016

      Melania Trump was the main speaker at the Republican National Convention Monday
      Parts of Melania Trump’s speech bear similarities to a similar speech given by Michelle Obama in 2008“

      Meanwhile, Donald Trump talks about the size of Arnold Palmer’s package for 12 minutes, with a gleam in his eye as he licks his lips…

      “We transcribed all 12 minutes of Trump’s rambling about Arnold Palmer and his genitalia
      By Keya Vakil
      October 21, 2024

      During a weekend appearance in Pennsylvania, the 78-year-old Republican presidential nominee spent 12 minutes rambling about golfer Arnold Palmer — including a bizarre aside about the size of Palmer’s genitalia.”

      You MAGA Republicans are just weird.

  10. Why not. Kids in this country that wear a t-shirt to school with a picture of a firearm on it are routinely expelled even if the pictured firearm is an obsolete antique.

  11. FakeGuns are used to train dogs.
    Like, training your dog to play dead when the BATFE show up.
    KH/TW 2024
    They both own guns so America’s second amendment is safe, YAY.

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