Gun Owners South Africa (abbreviated to GOSA) is a firearms rights and advocacy group in the Republic of South Africa. It was founded on 26 January 2004 by Thomas Eastes and nine associates invited by him, Abios Khoele, Charl van Wyk, Pieter van Wyk, Juan de Greeff, Martin Hedington, Dr. Richard Wesson, Peter Moss, Brett Nortje and Dick Boothroyd. Because resources were limited to the voluntary efforts of its ten founders, it functioned as an advocacy group and no attempt was made to make it a membership based organisation. That became possible only when the founders handed control to Paul Oxley in 2014. Membership has since grown rapidly and GOSA is now the biggest organisation of its kind and thus able to defend firearm ownership rights more effectively.
GOSA is the most diverse firearms group in South Africa, on levels ranging from race, gender, and religion, to political affiliation and income levels. GOSA’s membership is on public display on its Facebook page.
One of the founding members of GOSA, Charl van Wyk, was a congregant at the St. James Church in Cape Town when the St. James Church Massacre happened. Azanian People’s Liberation Army (APLA) militants attacked the church with automatic rifles and a grenade. Van Wyk was armed with a five-shot snub nosed revolver at the time, and returned fire, prompting the attackers to flee. The death toll stood at eleven, and an injured count of fifty-eight when the chaos ended.
Larry Pratt, head of Gun Owners of America, spoke at a GOSA conference at the time of GOSA's founding, and publicly criticised the South African police chief who opposed the group.