The number of applications for new firearm licences made to the SA Police Service (SAPS) quadrupled over the past decade as citizens increasingly took personal protection into their own hands.
News24 compiled firearm application data from a decade's worth of SAPS annual reports, which revealed a surge in the number of recorded new firearm licence applications, competency assessments and firearm licence renewal applications.
This trend emerged over the same period as there was a 77% increase in the number of murders in South Africa. There were 27 494 murders recorded in the last year, compared with 15 554 murders recorded in 2011/12.