. Katongo

By REBECCA MUSHOTA  –
AS the debate rages on gun violence in Zambia, with a study showing that only 86,000 of the 230,000 guns in private hands are registered, police say the most important question is whether the licensed weapons are being used for the intended purpose.
Rejecting suggestions that the process of owning a gun in Zambia was too easy and a factor in what seems to be a surge in gun-related violence, Police said Zambia had a meticulous procedure for gun licensing.
Police spokesperson Esther Katongo said owning a gun in Zambia was a long process that could take about two years.
She said the issue that needed to be scrutinised was whether the licensed guns were being used for the purposes for which the permits were issued.
The latest debate on gun ownership, much of it being carried on via social media, was triggered by an incident in Lusaka last week in which a 34-year-old man of Lusaka is alleged to have shot and killed his 26-year-old girlfriend and left a bullet in the neck of their two-and-half-year old daughter.
According to a 2016 international report on firearms published by the Small Arms Survey based at the Graduate Institute of International of International and Development Studies in Switzerland, about nine people in every 100 have firearms in Zambia.
That is more guns than are in private hands in neighbouring countries such as Zimbabwe (4.6 guns per 100 people) and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) (1.4 guns per 100 people) which respectively have a history of liberation violence and long-running civil strife which has featured foreign powers.
However, Angola, Namibia and South Africa ranked higher in citizens owning small arms.
The 2016 report does not indicate Zambia’s exact ranking on the global league of gun-ownership, but an earlier survey by the same institute done in 2006 placed the country alongside Russia on 68th out of 178 countries studied for small arms.
Another report published in The Guardian in 2012 found that 8.9
Zambians of every 100 had firearms and 11.7 per cent of all homicide cases were as a result of personal firearms.
This means that 35 people in every one million were killed by privately owned firearms.
The country with the highest number of deaths by firearms was found to be Honduras with 83.4 per cent of homicide cases caused by shooting.
Recently Inspector General of Police Kakoma Kanganja said 4,297 illegally acquired firearms had been surrendered to the Zambia Police Service by the public since 2001 under a firearms amnesty, with Government rewarding individuals with a total of K2 million as a token of appreciation.
Mr Kanganja said the Amnesty token had been increased to K500 from K250 for every firearm surrendered.
Mr Kanganja said of the total 4, 297 surrendered firearms,  North-Western and Western provinces recorded the highest number at 2,725 and 1, 202 while Lusaka and Central provinces recorded 367 and three respectively.