Our money is welcome. Our means of defence is not.
The Issue
In August 2026 I asked the organisers of the South African 4x4 & Outdoor Show one question: "Good day, will I be welcome with my licensed firearm?"
The answer: "It is against the law to carry firearms at events."
There is no such law.
Welcome at the gate. Defenceless on the road.
The Firearms Control Act regulates only how a firearm must be carried in public. It does not bar one from a show.
To their credit, when I wrote and set out the sections, the organisers checked, agreed and corrected themselves within a day. Their rule now reads honestly: "No firearms are permitted at the show." That is their right, and I do not dispute it.
But look at what their rule does.
You drive to these events, often for hours, and often home again after dark. In the most recent quarter for which SAPS has published figures, Gauteng alone recorded 2 062 carjackings in 90 days – 57.1% of every carjacking in the country.
It asks me to drive my family into that and home again in the dark, with no way to defend them if we are the ones it happens to. They want us at their show, and they want the ticket price – they simply do not want us able to protect ourselves getting there and back. The organiser carries none of that risk. The family in the car carries all of it.
There is not even safe-keeping at the gate. So the firearm stays in a parked car all day – which is how a licensed firearm becomes a criminal's firearm, and how a lawful owner ends up behind bars. Losing it that way is an offence under section 120(8) of the Firearms Control Act, carrying up to five years' imprisonment, and a conviction can cost him every licence he holds.
Meanwhile, the same show advertises "our target shooting range", and its official programme lists LASER SHOOTING, ARCHERY and PAINTBALL under "ACTIVITIES FOR THE KIDS".
At this show, shooting is acceptable as a children's attraction, but not in the hands of the licensed adult who drove that child there.
To the South African 4x4 & Outdoor Show and every other event organiser and venue owner in South Africa:
1. Allow lawfully licensed firearms, carried in accordance with section 84 of the Firearms Control Act. This is the ask. Nothing else answers it.
2. If you will not, then at the very least provide properly secured safe-keeping at the gate - operated by a person authorised under the Act to receive them.
For my own safety, and that of my family, I will not attend an event that bars my lawfully licensed firearm. That is my own decision.
If it is yours too, sign and share.
Disarmament does not only arrive by statute. It arrives one condition of entry at a time.
They want us at the show. They do not want us able to get there and home.
- A concerned law-abiding firearm owner, South Africa
91
The Issue
In August 2026 I asked the organisers of the South African 4x4 & Outdoor Show one question: "Good day, will I be welcome with my licensed firearm?"
The answer: "It is against the law to carry firearms at events."
There is no such law.
Welcome at the gate. Defenceless on the road.
The Firearms Control Act regulates only how a firearm must be carried in public. It does not bar one from a show.
To their credit, when I wrote and set out the sections, the organisers checked, agreed and corrected themselves within a day. Their rule now reads honestly: "No firearms are permitted at the show." That is their right, and I do not dispute it.
But look at what their rule does.
You drive to these events, often for hours, and often home again after dark. In the most recent quarter for which SAPS has published figures, Gauteng alone recorded 2 062 carjackings in 90 days – 57.1% of every carjacking in the country.
It asks me to drive my family into that and home again in the dark, with no way to defend them if we are the ones it happens to. They want us at their show, and they want the ticket price – they simply do not want us able to protect ourselves getting there and back. The organiser carries none of that risk. The family in the car carries all of it.
There is not even safe-keeping at the gate. So the firearm stays in a parked car all day – which is how a licensed firearm becomes a criminal's firearm, and how a lawful owner ends up behind bars. Losing it that way is an offence under section 120(8) of the Firearms Control Act, carrying up to five years' imprisonment, and a conviction can cost him every licence he holds.
Meanwhile, the same show advertises "our target shooting range", and its official programme lists LASER SHOOTING, ARCHERY and PAINTBALL under "ACTIVITIES FOR THE KIDS".
At this show, shooting is acceptable as a children's attraction, but not in the hands of the licensed adult who drove that child there.
To the South African 4x4 & Outdoor Show and every other event organiser and venue owner in South Africa:
1. Allow lawfully licensed firearms, carried in accordance with section 84 of the Firearms Control Act. This is the ask. Nothing else answers it.
2. If you will not, then at the very least provide properly secured safe-keeping at the gate - operated by a person authorised under the Act to receive them.
For my own safety, and that of my family, I will not attend an event that bars my lawfully licensed firearm. That is my own decision.
If it is yours too, sign and share.
Disarmament does not only arrive by statute. It arrives one condition of entry at a time.
They want us at the show. They do not want us able to get there and home.
- A concerned law-abiding firearm owner, South Africa
The Decision Makers
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Petition created on August 12, 2026