Indians For Guns

The cover story of Economic Times today supporting RKBA arms in India. It speaks about how the amendments are elitist and don't benefit the 'average joe'. T

This is the online version.By Rajiv Singh :

http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/new ... 398815.cms

Will new norms liberalise access of guns to those in power, but ignore security of the common man?


Western UP

A devout Hindu, Rampal Lodhi follows every ritual. He shuns non-vegetarian food on Tuesdays, fasts on full-moon days and even encourages his family to take part in religious ceremonies in his village of Gadhiya in Etah district, roughly 207 km from Delhi. But, unlike most other Hindus, he neither goes to any temple nor believes in idol worship.

"Bandook mera bhagwaan hai. Isne mujhe aur mere parivaar ko bachaya hai [The gun is my God. It has saved me ..

The Article has quotes from Capt. Rakshit Sharma, General Secretary NAGRI and ends with a great conclusion! I found it a very balanced view on the Arms Act and the situation in India.

Cheers,
AgentDoubleS

I request all our members to read it and share. I would say that this is easily the best article in the print media on this subject.

Full text of the article:

Will new norms liberalise access of guns to those in power, but ignore security of the common man?

A devout Hindu, Rampal Lodhi follows every ritual. He shuns non-vegetarian food on Tuesdays, fasts on full-moon days and even encourages his family to take part in religious ceremonies in his village of Gadhiya in Etah district, roughly 207 km from Delhi. But, unlike most other Hindus, he neither goes to any temple nor believes in idol worship.

"Bandook mera bhagwaan hai. Isne mujhe aur mere parivaar ko bachaya hai [The gun is my God. It has saved me and my family]," declares Lodhi. For over three decades, the 55-year-old farmer says he has borne the brunt of exploitation by the landed class in his village. That he has managed to protect himself and his family, he claims, is largely thanks to a gun he got in 2005 after 20 years of trying.

"Sahab, ek OBC ko aasani se bandook kahan se milega. Ye to zamindaron ka khilona hai (How can an OBC get a gun so easily? It's the toy of the landed class)," he says, his hands firmly gripping the long barrel of his licensed rifle. Seated on a charpoy on a warm Monday morning, Lodhi gets down to his daily ritual of cleaning the gun. His son, Kishore, is on the other end of the charpoy, preparing for his school examination.

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A gun for Lodhi is a symbol of security, confidence and dignity, and he plans to apply for another for his son when he turns 21 in a couple of years. Kishore, however, may not be keen to wait that long.

"Mujhe bina licence waala bandook aaram se mil jayega. Koi zaroorat nahin hai licence ka [I can easily get an unlicensed gun. I don't need a licence]."
Kishore doesn't have to try too hard or go too far. As this writer spent five days traversing western Uttar Pradesh (UP) — crisscrossing Meerut, Etah, Kanpur, Lucknow and Mohanlalganj — he encountered two realities: a widespread clamour for legal guns; and the rampant presence of illegal arms.

Just a few kilometres from Lodhi's house is an illegal firearm manufacturing unit where one can get a countrymade pistol for as low as Rs 1,500. It's not the only illicit gun shop in Etah. A quick tour of the district reveals how easy it is to get tamanchas (locally made guns) in the badlands of western UP.

Over 25,000 illegal arms have been seized from 12 districts of western Uttar Pradesh during the past five years, according to data from a reply to an RTI query submitted last November. While Ghaziabad, on Delhi's outskirts, topped the charts with 2,716 and the most deaths (581), Meerut came a close second with 2,415. In terms of illegal manufacturing units busted, Etah reported the most with 18, followed by Ghaziabad (17) and Shamli (16).

Cut to Meerut, some 210 km from Etah and a little over 70 km from the Capital. Shehzad Alam, a local illegal arms dealer, takes this writer to a shop in the city's bustling main market, where a bouquet of guns is on offer — from self-loaders costing a few thousands to sophisticated six-shooters that carry a tag of a few lakhs and are imported from Bihar and Madhya Pradesh.

"Licence waale bhi le jaate hain [even those with licensed guns buy the illegal ones]," says Alam, bursting into laughter. Alok Sharma, inspector general of police of Meerut zone, says insecurity is the main reason for the proliferation of illegal arms. "Unless you have good political connections, you don't get a licence. And that's why people go for illegal arms. It's simply a question of demand and supply."

Even as the government tries to cut down on the paperwork, fix a timeframe for issuing gun licences and insert clauses that will make it almost impossible for ordinary citizens to get a licence, the latest draft rules to amend the Arms Act of 1959 are missing the wood for the trees, feel legal experts.

The proposed amendments have introduced new categories of 'restricted' and 'permissible' firearms, and have inserted sections that tilt the scales heavily in favour of babus, netas and their families.

A Long-drawn Process

The process for obtaining a gun licence in India is anyway tedious, long drawn and totally non-transparent, says Sunieta Ojha, a Supreme Court lawyer. "The proposed rules will make it further opaque and beyond the reach of an ordinary citizen to get an arms licence." For instance, for getting a licence, the new draft rules says the licensing authority may consider applications of those 'who face grave and imminent threat to their lives and/or property'.

"How will one prove grave and imminent threat? File FIRs? Get attacked? It is all too subjective and discretionary," says Ojha, a managing partner at law firm TRS Law Offices in Delhi.

Another provision says that the applicants have to submit a certificate of 'safe use and storage of firearms' but doesn't mention from where and whom; furnish self-attested copies of certificates of educational and professional qualification, if applicable; provide references in writing of two persons of good social standing recommending the applicant for grant of a licence; a medical certificate about mental health and physical fitness (including blood pressure and deformity, if any, in upper limbs). The applicant also has to complete an arms and ammunition safety training course from an accredited trainer or shooting club.

The training, too, needs to be comprehensive, including basic arms and ammunition safety practices like safe handling and carry procedures; firing techniques and procedures; care of arms and ammunition; safe storage and transportation of arms and ammunition; reasonable working knowledge of important provisions of the Arms Act, 1959 and Arms Rules, 2015; and responsibilities of the arms owner or user, particularly in relation to children.

The applicants will also have to provide evidence that they have the capacity to store the weapon safely and securely and to educate the children about the dangers of arms and ammunition. They will also have to mention whether family members are aware of their application for an arms licence and have expressed their consent for the same.
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At the same time, the proposed rules make it easier for some sections of society to procure a gun more easily. For instance, section 12 (3d) of the new draft says that "the licensing authority may consider the applications of those persons who hold position of eminence in the fields of art, sport, medical, legal, accounting or other technical professions and are exposed to high risk".
It gets even easier for the political class. Section 12 (3d) reads: "...MPs, MLAs and municipal corporates or members including non-officials or private persons, who by virtue of having been closely or actively associated with programmes and policies of the government or by mere reason of their holding views, political or otherwise, have rendered themselves exposed to high risk."

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The provisions, feel analysts, will liberalise the access of guns to the ones who are already in power, ignoring the security of the common man. "Just like everything else, we have created a dual system in the licensing system too," says Ranjana Kumari, director of Centre for Social Research.

Ojha argues that government officials, MPs, MLAs and municipal corporates anyway have the entire state machinery for their security. So why should they be treated as a special class for granting of licence for guns? "Why not make it easier for ordinary citizens who neither have the state security nor the political clout to feel that sense of security?"
The Case against Guns

There is an answer to that question, and it's not a very pretty one. In 2013, 720 people, including 125 women, died due to celebratory firing in Uttar Pradesh. The same year, the Allahabad High Court set up a committee headed by professor Himanshu Rai of Indian Institute of Management, Lucknow, to suggest ways to regulate licensed weapons and curb incidents of celebratory firing.

"I would want getting gun licences to be made as difficult as possible, a complete ban on issuing licences for assault weapons like rifles, and regular monitoring of those who have been granted licences," says Rai, who is now dean at MISB Bocconi, a Mumbai-based B-school.

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To be sure, the new draft rules take note of the abuse of licensed guns and have accordingly made provisions to control it. It not only bans brandishing of firearms in public place, it also prohibits use of arms in any public place on the occasion of marriage, public assembly, fair or procession or any public event.

Rai, who is aware of the safety provisions in the new draft rules such as concealing arms in a holster, is doubtful about their execution.
"I am sceptical about their actual implementation," says Rai. He gives the example of a driving licence, which ought to be given only to those who have learned to drive. "But we know of people getting those licences without stepping outside of their homes, let alone stepping inside a car," he says.

Rai says that in spite of the fact that licensed weapons are ostensibly taken for self-protection, the fundamental reasons for using them are flawed. "People simply feel excited to hold a gun in hand, find it cool to walk down the street with the gun in their pockets; it enhances their self-esteem."

India is among the top three countries in terms of privately owned firearms, he points out. As many as 19.8 lakh private gun licences across 324 districts of the country have been issued, says Rai. "There is no correlation between the number of licensed firearms and lowering of crime rates. So why we aspire for more arms is incomprehensible."

Some 500-odd kilometres from Meerut in Kanpur, Raghvendra Narayan Shukla may have an answer. It's not unusual for the 48-year-old advocate to forget his lunch box at home or even his law dictionary in the dashboard of his car. But not his gun. His .32 bore licensed revolver hangs neatly from his hips, even when he is inside the Kanpur civil court.

"Nobody is safe, not even lawyers," shrugs Shukla. A few years back, in 2011, he was attacked by a couple of goons on his way to court. Since then Shukla has been carrying a gun.

"A few months back, a police constable shot an advocate inside a court in Allahabad," he continues, adding that at least 20 lawyers carry licensed firearms with them every day. For lawyers like Shukla, the new draft rules to amend Arms Act of 1959 hold promise. But Shukla doesn't find them comforting.

"You need to have the right kind of political connections to get a licence. It might look so easy on paper, but it's a mirage. Ask my colleagues who have been trying to get a licence but with little success."

The hindrance to their efforts was a court judgement two years back. In 2013, the Lucknow bench of the Allahabad High Court asked the UP government to ban issue of fresh arms licences. It, however, said licences could be issued in exceptional cases.

In an affidavit filed by the principal secretary, the court was informed that licences issued to private persons in the state were five than the arms possessed by the state police force. While the 2.13 lakh strong police force had 2.25 lakh weapons with them, the state government had issued 11.23 lakh arms licences.

The affidavit revealed that more than 40,000 applicants have been issued more than one arms licence, and in Lucknow, over 50,000 applications were pending. "Arming society to such an extent rings a danger bell. In fact, the state is sitting on a volcano," the court observed.
Survival in the Jungle Raj
For many families in Kanpur's FM Colony, a few kilometre from the civil court, living with arms is a way of life. And not just for the men. Fifty-eight-year-old Pramela Pandey, affectionately known as 'chachi', bought a licenced revolver in 1995 and since then has been religiously wearing it on her waist whenever she steps out of her house.

"There is utter lawlessness in Uttar Pradesh. You need a gun to survive in the jungle raj," she says. Pandey stays in a joint family of 35 members, five of whom have licenced firearms. The latest and the youngest one to get a gun is her youngest son Anurag, 26, who had applied for a licence a couple of years back and got it last year. "How will you protect yourself from criminals who have police and political patronage? You have to take care of yourself and only guns can help you do that," she says.

Just a stone throw's away from Pandey's residence lives Deepa Yadav. A homemaker, Yadav, 38, stays with her husband and 18-year-old son. Though she has never been attacked, Yadav keeps a revolver for the safety of her family.

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"How do you protect yourself from criminals who have easy access to illegal guns," she asks. Yadav's husband, a dairy farm owner, has been the target of criminals and a few years back they tried to abduct him. "A gun for our family is not to kill anybody but to protect ourselves from criminals," she says.

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Arms for self-defence is one thing, but then guns can also have disastrous consequences, as numerous shootouts in the US have shown. "We should understand that arms are not only there to protect, but they kill too," agrees Kumari of Centre for Social Research.
In the US, parts of which have liberal gun laws, movements like Mom Demands Action for Gun Sense in America have women protesting against children using guns. This has led to indiscriminate killings of colleagues, friends, teachers and classmates.

Kumari points to the infamous Northern Illinois University shootout in 2008 when a 27-year-old opened fire, killed five and injured 21 on campus, before shooting himself. "The more arms we have in the society, the more is the risk of violence," she agrees.

The flip side, though, points out Kumari is that the draft rules are elitist in nature, making it difficult for the ordinary person to lay their hands on a licensed gun. This in turn will only offer a fillip to the illegal gun trade.

A Matter of Personal Choice

"After looking at the provisions of the Act, I feel that it is structured in a manner where we are trying to arm the elite and disarm the poor," says Kumari, a sociologist and women's rights activist. She adds that when the ratio of legal to illegal arms is 1:10, tightening the licensing norms will only help the trade in local and illegal revolvers, kattas and rifles.

Udit Raj, BJP member of Parliament from North West Delhi, agrees that strict licensing doesn't make sense when illegal weapons are rampant, and points out that an armed society can be a civil society. But with a caveat.

"It depends on education and mindset. Look at Israel which is completely armed yet the crime rate is low. And at the other extreme there are countries where arms are not widespread but violence is rampant."

Those in the legal gun trade naturally clamour for a less restrictive policy. On Meston Road, the hub of legal arm dealers in Kanpur, Chaudhary Ziaul Islam is in a pensive mood. Sitting idle in his shop, Islam fails to comprehend why India can't have liberal licensing norms.

"We need more licensed guns," says Islam, who is secretary of the association of over 80 arms dealers in the area. He blames the norms and faulty ammunition policy for the slowdown in business.

Islam contends that more licensed guns can also help an already overstretched and understaffed police force, which is perennially struggling to control crime. The police for their part point out that the illegal arm trade is thriving.

According to a senior police official in Lucknow, the problem of illegal weapons is not just confined to UP. Bihar and Madhya Pradesh have become the new hubs of illegal arms and are supplying weapons to states across the country, he says, requesting not to be named. "Crimes are almost always committed with illegal arms. So, government must focus on eliminating them."

Rakshit Sharma, secretary general of the National Association for Gun Rights India (NAGRI), reckons that "keeping a gun should be a matter of personal choice and not based on having to prove its need". The proliferation of illegal guns in India is a direct result of the restrictive licensing and pricing policies adopted by successive governments, he says.

Sharma contends that the government has become so paranoid in its zeal to disarm civil society that in the new draft rules even paintball guns, replica arms and blank firing guns have been included in the definition of arms! "They are toys, sporting equipment and collectors' decorative items with no scope of being converted to firearms," he explains.

Nandkishore Vishwakarma, 45, is glad he owns the real thing. Living in Mohanlalganj, around 25 km from Lucknow and a scheduled caste-reserved Parliamentary constituency, Vishwakarma says guns can be an equaliser for dalits who have been exploited for generations. The owner of a few acres of mango farm got a licence in 2004, but points out that there are hundreds from his community who have been applying for licences but with little luck.

Clearly, it's a catch-22 situation for the government. Liberalising gun norms may be necessary to rein in the illicit industry, but then there's also the danger of trigger-happy Indians turning the countryside into the Wild West. The counter to that, though, is that armed with illegal guns, parts of India have already turned into cowboy country.

Clearly, there's no silver bullet to this dilemma but perhaps NAGRI's Sharma is on target when he says: "The only thing that stops a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun."
Crime never takes place with licensed guns: VP Singh Badnore

VP Singh Badnore, BJP member of Parliament from Rajya Sabha, was one of the 108 MPs who wrote a letter to prime minister Manmohan Singh in 2011 supporting the rights of law-abiding citizens to keep licensed arms. The chairman of the House Committee of Rajya Sabha bats for a liberal gunlicensing regime. Excerpts from an interview with Rajiv Singh:

On the new draft rules

They are elitist in nature. Babus and netas don't need guns. The guns are not just for the rich. They should be made accessible to all law-abiding citizens of the country, irrespective of class, caste or religion. If a CA [chartered accountant] or a doctor or a lawyer or people holding positions of eminence are exposed to high risk, then think about the common man.

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On eliminating illegal weapons
Disarming society is a noble thought. But it can only happen when the government has eliminated illegal weapons from the society. In India, where illegals arms have been proliferating at an alarming pace and outnumber the licensed arms by multiple times, the citizens are at a grave risk to life. Instead of making arms available to them for their safety and self-defence, the new rules will make it even more difficult to get a licence.

On the possibility of India becoming America in terms of gun violence

You can't compare America with India. We have had lakhs of licensed guns for so many years. Tell me how many America-like school shootouts or gang wars have you seen in India with these guns? Crime never takes place with licensed guns. It's the illegal, unlicensed guns that's the problem. And stray cases of insanity will always be there.

But can we rob millions of law-abiding citizens of their rights because of such stray cases? The number of people who die due to accidents on road are many times more than those who die due to licensed guns. About 377 people die on Indian roads every day, according to a ministry of road transport and highways report. So do we ban or stop people from plying vehicles on roads? Today, most of the murders in Delhi take place with knives and hammers rather than licensed guns.

On arming villagers to fight naxals

I have always believed that Maoists or criminals or dacoits can be deterred and fought if villagers are trained to handle arms. Guns are never meant to perpetrate violence but are a tool for defence. Go and ask those villagers who have to deal with wild animals and struggle to keep them away from their fields. How will they do it?

Excerpts of the letter handed over to then prime minister Manmohan Singh by 108 MPs in October 2011 in support of the right of lawabiding citizens to keep licensed arms:

We, the members of Parliament, urge you to intervene for upholding the rights of law abiding citizens to keep small arms (for safety, selfprotection, crop protection and other appropriate use)

We live in difficult times ie naxalism, terrorism, lawlessness and so on. Guns give the citizens the confidence and ability to counter such threat. In fact it has been said that a small village with one licensed gun is able to protect the entire village against opportunistic dacoits and subversive elements.

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This letter is being written to you because this Right which is enshrined in our Constitution has been clandestinely negated in the name of maintaining peace and order, completely ignoring the fact that legal and licensed firearms are not used for the commission of a pre-meditated crime
There seems to be some confusion that licensed weapons are being used to commit crimes. The home ministry, unable to stop the influx of illegal arms, is stamping down on legal arms by refusing licenses. This would proliferate illegal There is utter weapons trade...

We entirely support the disarmament of illegal groups... But the difference between legal and illegal arms must be clear in the mind of each law and policy maker. It is a well-known fact that the proliferation of unlicensed weapons occurs when there is difficulty in obtaining licensed weapons.

Wow - very well written, balanced article - a must read!

Great article! Please like and share on social media!
Cheers!
Abhijeet

I shared it on FB and posted my comments on the ET website. We should have more people offering support to RKBA in the comments section of the online article.

It made by day reading this- it was the cover story and given very prominent space in the sunday edition of ET.

Great article! Easily one of the most pro RKBA article I have ever seen! The best part was taking examples of ladies who own guns and speak against the draft rules.

And as an aside, on the only purely "anti" voice in the article, I managed to graduate from an IIM a long time back (not Lucknow, though), and I can vouch that most of the professors who taught us had absolutely no idea on what gun laws are and should be. Plus, Prof. Rai teaches HR and Organisational Behaviour.

Who on earth had this brilliant idea of having an HR and OB professor to decide on gun laws??? And can't the learned gentleman see that as per all research and studies (including the famous Maslow's hierarchy), basic human need is always "survival" and that's where guns and other weapons come in, alongwith food and water? His page is http://www.misbbocconi.com/prof-himanshu-rai/. Note that this "assignment" is not mentioned in the CV on MISB Bocconi's site.

I agree with essdee on the totally flawed choice of appointing an academician to dictate on arms laws. I have looked around on the net and have found absolutely no evidence of credibility of this professor in understanding arms laws and their social impact. Authoring a few papers on societal violence and crime does not make one even close to qualified for single handedly dictating against RKBA .

really very informative reading dear

The article practically screams out the injustice and dire situation of it all. Coupling this with that BBC piece that Naga posted, one has to wonder at the callous attitudes of those in government, given their cavalier attitude about the plight of everyday citizens they are supposed to protect. (Let them eat cake!?)

Timmy, your reference to the late lamented Marie Antoinette is absolutely bang on! The Bourbons and the Romanovs, at least, had the excuse of the "divine right of kings" - they weren't elected!

A brilliant article indeed...

So what is Mr Modi's regime going to do, only time will tell...

Cheers,
Rup

essdee1972 wrote:Who on earth had this brilliant idea of having an HR and OB professor to decide on gun laws???

It seems fairly clear that, according to the guy's CV, that he's a cheerleader for large companies and a coach of buzz phrase management with a distant background in EE. And he's the best "expert" that the Court can find on such a matter?
No sociologist, behavioral psychologist, or criminologist?

I don't mean to prejudge Mr. Rai without knowing him, but these sorts are the kind that will say anything a big company wants. It makes one wonder if that was a qualification...

Balanced article I came here from a NYC site http://newyorkcityguns.com/ titled guns for elite
http://articles.economictimes.indiatime ... l-arms-gun

A superb article...I have a shared it on FB as well