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Oddly Enough - Reuter s By Peter Apps JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - Tighter gun ownership laws are pushing South Afr icans to buy crossbows, spears, swords, knives and pepper sprays to prot ect themselves from violent crime. "We've had to build an entirely new shop because the demand from people i s so great," Justin Willmers, owner of Durban Guns and Ammo, told Reuter s "It can be anything from a Zulu fighting spear, battle axes, swords, crossbows." New gun controls came into force last year under South Africa's Firearms Control Act, but some weapons shop owners say high crime rates are pushi ng law abiding citizens to look for alternative means of defending thems elves. Despite official figures showing the murder rate falling 10 percent in th e year to March 2004, South Africa's Arms and Ammunition Dealers Associa tion says individuals face a one in 60 chance of being the victim of a v iolent crime in any given year. Many houses are surrounded by razor wire and electric fences, but with po lice turning down 80 percent of firearms license requests after an 18-mo nth application process, Association spokesman Alex Holmes said people w ere forced to look at other options. "Licensed firearms are not used in crime at any great rate." Estimates of the number of illegal firearms in South Africa vary between 1 and 4 million, he said, but the real problem is from some 30-40,000 ha rdcore criminals using a small number of illegal guns. SILENT CROSSBOW South Africa began a firearms amnesty on Jan. "It's mostly been grannies and grandpas that are handing in weapons that are probably unusable anyhow," Willmers said. In the meantime, people fr om all walks of life are acquiring weapons not restricted by law. Men are buying machetes to fight off hijackers or crossbows to shoot peop le breaking into their property, while women are more likely to buy a pe pper spray, he said. One customer successfully fought off three hijackers with a machete, slas hing one, he said. A beggar had bought a pepper spray so he could fight off those who tried to steal his shoes as he slept on the street. With some homeowners worried about prosecution if they kill intruders, th e crossbow is particularly popular because of its silence and the diffic ulty of tracing the firer from forensic evidence, he said. With no legal restrictions on sales, weapons shop staff had to exercise j udgment in who they sold to, Willmers said.
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