NHSA Newsletter
VOL. 12 (15) - 10-03-2016
MORE THAN 200 ROUNDS OF AMMO ?
Dear Member,
We have been interpreting Section 91 of the FCA as meaning that a dedicated hunter and/or sport-person may hold more than 200 rounds of ammo per licence issued under Chapter 6 of the FCA. Thus meaning that because a person has dedicated status s/he may hold more than 200 rounds of ammo for all his firearms, irrespective of the Section of Chapter 6 of the FCA it was issued under (either Section 13 – self defence, or Section 15 – occasional hunting and/or sport shooting, or Section 16 – dedicated hunting and/or sport shooting).
It now seems our interpretation was to narrow and too Section 91 specific, and did not take the wider meaning of the law maker into consideration when he introduced the limitation of 200 rounds of ammo per licenced firearm as stated in other Sections of Chapter 6 of the FCA (as a general rule with the exceptions made to dedicated hunters and/or sport-persons).
We have asked our legal advisor, Mr Juan Kotzé, for a legal opinion on our understanding of the meaning of Section 91, as we have experienced some DFOs and some dealers to have interpreted the content of that Section to mean that one may only hold more than 200 rounds of ammo for a firearm licenced under Section 16 (dealers thus refuse to sell a person more than 200 rounds of ammo per occasion for any firearm not licenced under Section 16)
The complete legal opinion and explanation of Mr Kotzé on this issue, can be read under Newsletter Vol. 12(16) on the Newsletters Page of the Natshoot website.
In short his opinion is that one may only hold more than 200 rounds of ammo for firearms licenced under Section 16.
Note that this interpretation also has bearing on the number of primers that one may hold - thus one may also only hold more than 2,400 primers for a firearm licensed under Section 16 (see Section 93 of FCA). One may, however, only hold 2,400 primers per licenced firearm one holds under Section 13 and/or Section 15.
Our previous interpretation of the meaning of Section 91 was thus clearly not legally correct in the wider context of the FCA, and we urge our members to stay within the confines of the prescripts of Section 91 as interpreted by our legal advisor.
Remember one can apply to hold more than 200 rounds of ammo for firearms licensed under Section 13 or 15 by completing this SAPS Application form. You will see there is no period attached to the authorization. So if one can motivate, one can hold more than 200 rounds of ammo for your firearms licenced under Section 13 or Section 15.
Kind Regards
Herman Els