Missionary makes Passionate Argument for Right to Bear Firearms - PART 5 of 5 | Voice of America - English
    /*-->*/  /*-->*/  /*-->*/ South African missionary and author Charl Van Wyk says law-abiding citizens have the "right and duty" to bear firearms to protect themselves and their loved ones. In his book, Shooting Back, hemakes the argument based on his unique experience:First, he's been working for almost two decades in some of the most dangerous places on earth. And second, Van Wyk is a survivor of one of South Africa's most notorious criminal attacks. At the time, police credited him with saving many lives when he opened fire on the assailants with his personal revolver.
"Grenades were exploding in flashes of light. Pewsshattered under the blasts, sending splinters flying through the air. Anautomatic assault rifle was being fired and was fast ripping the pews ? andwhoever, whatever was in its trajectory ? to pieces. We were being attacked!" This is just one of many dramatic extracts from , a publication that seeks to make a convincing argument in favor ofpeople's right to own guns. Charl Van Wyk's book revolves around an incident that'sknown in South Africa as the St. James Church Massacre. On a winter's eveningin 1993, four men burst into the church in a Cape Town suburb while the1,500-member congregation was listening to a choir. "They had hand grenades with them; they'd attached nails(to the grenades) to (allow the devices to distribute) more shrapnel. They hadautomatic assault rifles with them. They threw the hand grenades into thecongregation, and they started shooting indiscriminately in amongst the peoplesitting in the church," Van Wyk, a devoted Christian and passionate pro-gunlobbyist, recalls. He remembers watching as a young man fell on top of agrenade, "taking a full body blow to himself to protect the people around him.And a 17 year old had two girls next to him; he pulled them onto the ground,and he fell on top of them and took a bullet straight to the head to protectthese young little girls." At the time of the attack, South African political partiessuch as the African National Congress (ANC) and the National Party (NP) wereinvolved in negotiations that would ultimately lead to the country's firstdemocratic elections in 1994 and the ascension of the ANC's Nelson Mandela tothe presidency. But some groups in South Africa who had been fightingagainst the NP's apartheid system felt marginalized by the process, andcontinued what they considered to be a legitimate armed struggle against theforces of racial discrimination in the country. One of these groups was theAzanian People's Liberation Army, or APLA. "It was APLA members that attacked our Church," says VanWyk. "They killed 11 people and wounded and maimed about 60 others. Most of thepeople in the church were white, but there were also black members in ourcongregation." He says his book uses this incident as a "backdrop" to hisbelief that law-abiding citizens have "rights and duties" to self-defense. "That specific evening, I responded to the attackers witha little 38 Special revolver that I was carrying. I returned fire at them. Andthe book looks at the whole issue of should we as civilians in society beallowed to carry firearms to protect our families," Van Wyk tells VOA. He shot one of the attackers, forcing them to flee. At thetime, witnesses told the police that the attack ended when he returned fire,and that many more people would likely have been killed if it weren't for VanWyk's actions. Van Wyk says he's sure the "anti-gun lobby" will "comedown hard" on him for his views and will argue that firearms only breed moreviolence. But he responds that he is ? quite literally ? willing to stick tohis guns to defend his strong beliefs. "Guns make it easier to harm people, but they also make iteasier to protect yourself and to prevent criminal acts from taking place," VanWyk asserts. He says his faith is also a "major part" of hisconvictions. "We as Christians believe that God has given us his Word;that he's spoken to us through the Bible. And if we look at the scripturesconcerning this issue there's a very clear duty upon Christian people to beable to protect those whom God has entrusted to them ? their families ? and theinnocent people around them." Christian who believe they're justified inprotecting themselves and others from harm through force point to such Biblepassages as 1 Timothy 5:8, which reads, "But if anyone does not provide for hisown, and especially for those of his household, he has denied the Faith and isworse than an unbeliever." Van Wyk explains that further inspiration for  was provided by the "crime wave" that's swept South Africa in recentyears, giving the country some of the highest murder, robbery and rape rates inthe world. "South Africa's in absolute chaos at the moment. We'veseen terrible things happening in our country," he laments. "Things are totallyout of control. And what's happening is that people are being encouraged tohand in their weapons to the government. We have the ministry of safety andsecurity overseeing the disarmament of law-abiding citizens." The South African authorities say they're trying to reducegun crime by reducing the number of firearms in the country. But Van Wyk arguesthat disarming law-abiding citizens only allows criminals to have "free reign"in South Africa. "Criminals aren't handing in their weapons, why shouldlaw-abiding citizens do this? How will they be able to defend themselves fromthe criminals?" he asks. The South African government insists it's doing all it canto decrease crime and that critics such as Van Wyk are exaggerating theseverity of the situation ? a charge the author, pastor and pro-gun activistdenies. He does, however, declare himself in favor of "sensible"regulations that control weapon ownership and says when someone acts"irresponsibly" with a firearm, the justice system should "punish them so badlythat everyone will see and hear this and then be deterred from committing gun crimes." But Van Wyk maintains that laws mustn't be so strict as to"make it almost impossible" for responsible citizens to own firearms. He argues that the bureaucracy involved in privatecitizens' acquiring a gun has made criminals more brazen because they realizethat decreasing numbers of their victims have weapons with which to defendthemselves. Van Wyk comments, "In South Africa, only a small fractionof people with licensed weapons commit crimes. So we've put millions andmillions of rands in resources into having a licensing system that isrestricting law-abiding citizens. And at the same time our police force is soinadequately resourced that some haven't even got vehicles with which to pursuecriminals. Something is seriously wrong here." Van Wyk acknowledges the danger that, in his vociferoussupport of citizens' rights to "fight back" against criminals in South Africa ?the majority of whom are black ? he'll be labeled a "disaffected, racist andright-wing" white South African. But he's convinced that his "track record" dispels theseclaims against him. "I've actually met the men who attacked our church. I'mfriends with them. I meet (regularly) with them for breakfast," Van Wyk states. About 10 yearsago, South Africa's Truth and Reconciliation Commission granted amnesty toGcinikhaya Makoma, Thobela Mlambisa and Basie Mkhumbuzi for their roles in theSt. James Church Massacre. Their crimes were found to have beenpolitically motivated, and as such a legitimate response to the apartheidsystem. The amnesty saved Makoma, Mlambisa and Mkhumbuzi from lengthy prisonterms?. But Van Wyk says it also condemned them to the poverty of a Cape Towntownship. "I run a beekeeping course for them, because they don't havework; they're unemployed," he says. "I've taken the Gospel of Jesus Christ tothem. They've invited me to speak at their meetings in the black townships inSouth Africa." He adds, "I fly into war zones like the Congo. And so it'spretty difficult for somebody to throw that idea that I'm a racist, because Ireally get on well with (black) people." Van Wyk works as a missionary with a Christian group,Frontline Fellowship, with its objective being to "serve the persecutedchurches of Africa." The organization's missionaries travel to areas ofconflict, delivering sermons and bibles to refugees and other vulnerablegroups. "We work all over Africa and especially in the war zones,where a conventional missionary can't live with his family," Van Wyk explains. Government forces and rebel militias have detained him onseveral occasions in various countries, but Van Wyk says he remains dedicatedto his missionary work - and to speaking to all who will listen about the"positive aspects" of legitimate gun ownership. In his book, the missionary makes the controversial pointthat had the Tutsis been armed, and thus able to protect themselves from theHutu militias that killed 800,000 people in Rwanda, the genocide there wouldnever have happened. "There are two reasons why we need firearms in a society,"Van Wyk emphasizes. "One is to protect ourselves from criminals, and two is toprotect ourselves from wicked governments, or rebel groups, or murderous sectslike in northern Uganda or Rwanda. You d