South Sudan: Buy back guns from armed and dangerous civilians

By Sultan Chuot Makur, Juba, South Sudan
February 28, 2018 (SSB) — The government should initiate a project of buying guns back from the civilians across South Sudan and come up with strict measures on its army should any soldier be found selling a gun to a civilian be penalize and punished.
This idea will mitigate the loses on the side of the civilians since they sell their cows and other important resources to buy these guns from soldiers. It will be good the government share the loses with our civilians by purchasing this ammunitions back to its coffers. Also it will persuade citizens across to give up their arms Instead of collecting fire arms freely without a guarantee that such guns will not be smuggled back in few months by their own troops.
I am not supporting civilians being allowed to carry guns to butcher themselves, but rather saying that there should be a proper regulation in place that will bared the civilians from accessing arms and law that will punish soldiers. The other simple logic is that our civilians do not posses license to purchase guns outside South Sudan which means the guns they used to killed themselves emanated from government troops.
The government should not just collect thousands of guns and leave the economic burden to the civilians. I have no doubt in my mind that the civilians after being disarmed shall find themselves carrying the very same guns in few months. Then the question begs, where does this guns come from? I leave it to you to reason.
In the event that our government employ its shenanigan that they do not have money, the argument can be that this project be achieved through using the local pounds and through donations from other willing donors to buy this arms back from the populace.
So in a nutshell, the government should prepare a budget to purchase ammunitions back from the civilians, put in place robust laws that will punish its soldiers found in contempt of reselling guns back to the civilians. This to my opinion shall curve the rampage flow of arms to civil population.
The author of this opinion is an LLB holder and can reached at chuotmakur@gmail.com

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PaanLuel Wël

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PaanLuel Wël is the founder and editor-in-chief of PaanLuel Wël Media Ltd, a news website that covers news, opinions, analysis, history, culture and literature of South Sudan and the world. Founded in July 2011 by PaanLuel Wël to create a platform for free expression and constructive dialogue, the website features articles from various contributors, including columnists, commentators, poets, authors, activists and academics. PaanLuel Wël believes that media can play a vital role in informing, educating and empowering the people to participate in nation-building and social transformation. He also believes that media can foster a culture of dialogue, tolerance and diversity among different communities and groups, and hopes to inspire and mentor the next generation of South Sudanese writers and journalists.

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