KEEP YOUR DEDICATED STATUS LEGAL
(Responsibility of dedicated members to ascertain legal ownership of section 16 licensed firearms)
1. Dedicated
status can legally only be awarded by accredited associations. Accredited associations (like NHSA) are thus legally responsible towards
the CFR to administer the continued legal retention of the dedicated
status of their dedicated members (in effect that means to ascertain dedicated members can legally possess all their section 16 licenced firearms)
2. The Firearms Control Act (2000) requires dedicated members to be in good standing (be paid-up) with the accredited association they have dedicated status with, and to annually report their hunting and/or sport shooting activities to their accredited association in order to retain (maintain - keep) their dedicated status legal till the following year {see Section 16(2) of the FCA, 2000 (Act 60 of 2000) and Regulation 4(1)(d) & 4(1)(e)(i)) of the FCA Regulations, 2004].
3. If the holder of a section 16 licence(s) does not annually keep his/her dedicated status legal (retain / maintain the status), that person effectively loses the right to legally own the firearm(s) s/he has licensed under section 16 and can thus be held legally accountable by SAPS.
4. It
is a criminal offence to hold a firearm licensed under Section 16 if that person does not annually comply with the legal requirements to continue to legally hold dedicated status.
5. If the accredited association would allow some of their dedicated members to hold such status without conforming with the legal requirements as stipulated in the FCA and Regulations; namely to annually by 31 December report to CFR their dedicated members who had lost their status for whatever reason, that association can lose its SAPS accreditation(s) and its management can be criminally held responsible for not adhering to prescribed legal procedures (because management condones the illegal possession of section 16 firearms by non-compliant dedicated members). Effectively such a situation would mean that all of that association's dedicated members will lose their dedicated status (effectively thus the legal right to own section 16 licensed firearms).
6. In light of the above, dedicated members will understand why Natshoot has put procedures in place to ascertain that we continuously comply with the legal requirements to award dedicated status (see the Natshoot procedures here). Dedicated members will also understand that we cannot jeopardise the legal firearm ownership of more than 37,000 dedicated Natshoot members by protecting a few dedicated members who do not annually comply with the legal requirements to keep their dedicated status legal causing Natshoot to lose its SAPS accreditations.