Some callers of Radio Emmanuel ‘called for disarmament of guns and refresher training for organized forces during the Sawa le Salam South Sudan program discussion topic on ‘gun safe keeping.
The call came after a seven-year-old boy accidently shot himself in the stomach using his father’s gun which was lifted in the house.
A caller who identified himself as James Challing from Hai Matara says some soldiers are untrained and that there is need for refresher training to equip them with knowledge on how to manage their weapons and ammunitions.
“Currently, our organized forces most of them are not trained, they don’t know how to manage the ammunitions, so my advice goes to the organized forces, those offices of the army, of the police, all the organized forces need to be re-train on how to manage their ammunitions, because these are some of the weaknesses by the organized forces, they know the importance of guns and they know how they were trained. As a trained soldier you are supposed to keep your gun out of house”, he urges.
Mama Grace of Hai Mission says soldiers and civilians with guns should keep their weapons hidden where no children or adults can get for the safety of their family.
“The way I see the safety of guns, soldiers or even civilians or even anybody who has a gun in his home should keep it far away, where nobody can reach, not even a child, because now we heard a child shot himself. You should keep it safe because not all people know how to use guns at home and also those ones using pangas, those are also weapons, keep them far where children will not get access to harm themselves with”, Mama Grace advises.
Meanwhile John K says there should be disarmament of civilians and soldiers should always keep their guns in the store after their duties.
“If we want to have a peaceful society in South Sudan, the first priority is disarmament, if there is no disarmament, there will be no peace for our people, guns must be in the store, if you are on duty, you cannot leave your gun five metres from you so that someone get it, that is wrong, all the guns should be kept in the store, you will only carry a gun when on duty, you will come from the duty without a gun, every soldier must have a number even their guns number”, the caller notes.
Last week in Nimule a seven-year-old boy survived dead after shooting himself with his father’s gun and a man shot himself to death using a gun.