South African police destroy thousands of illegal firearms

[SecularMotion]

Source: Independent Record

VEREENIGING, South Africa (AP) — In a spray of burning embers, South African police destroyed more than 14,000 firearms in the furnace of a steel manufacturing plant outside Johannesburg on Tuesday to mark International Gun Destruction Day.

More than 11,500 of the firearms melted down were illegal, most of them handguns, South Africa's National Police Commissioner Riah Phiyega said.

"Anecdotal evidence suggests that there are way, way too many illegal firearms out there," she said. "There isn't a day that goes by without an illegal firearm being used to commit a crime."

An average of 18 people is killed by a firearm each day, according to the lobby group Gun Free South Africa.

Read more: http://helenair.com/news/world/africa/south-african-police-destroy-thousands-of-illegal-firearms/article_876b13dc-1564-5693-8281-3866f687a338.html

[valerief]

1. All U.S. cops destroy are unarmed adults and children. nt

[madokie]

3. And mostly black ones at that

We do need to have a serious discussion about guns in this country.

[valerief]

5. Definitely. Too bad Americans don't like to think. nt

[madville]

6. Police kill twice as many white people every year

Police kill white people at a rate about 2-1 compared to black people. Of course there are 5x as many white people in the U.S. so per capita a black person is more likely to be shot by police but police "mostly" shoot white people by the numbers.

[47of74]

2. I bet the NRA is in mourning over this...

All these perfectly good firearms being belted down.

[winstars]

4. Haven't some sick state legislatures made this illegal for police to do???