Losing Liberty and Life: The Impact of Firearms on Domestic Violence in South Africa

Firearms are now the leading cause of women’s homicides in South Africa, erasing nearly two decades of progress in reducing gun-related intimate partner killings. But guns do more than kill - they threaten, injure, and control - and their role in non-fatal domestic violence remains largely overlooked.

This report is part of Removing the Trigger: Strengthening the Rights and Safety of Victims from Gun-related Domestic Violence, a collaborative initiative by Gun Free South Africa (GFSA), MOSAIC, the National Shelter Movement of South Africa (NSMSA), and the Cape Town office of the Heinrich Böll Foundation (HBF). The campaign aims to generate evidence on the use of guns in domestic violence, inform stronger policy and practice - particularly around removing firearms from abusive situations - and raise public awareness to prevent harm.

Drawing on two decades of research on homicide, gun control, and intimate femicide, and new evidence on how firearms are used in everyday patterns of coercion and control, the report explores both fatal and non-fatal domestic violence.

Through analysis of protection order data and detailed case studies, it underscores the urgent need to integrate firearm control into South Africa’s response to gender-based violence. Its recommendations seek to protect lives, uphold dignity, and reclaim the everyday freedoms that violence so often denies.