Indians For Guns

SHOULD AN APPLICATION FOR A LICENCE ACCOMPANY A FIRE ARMS TRAINING CERTIFICATE?

Please review and comment on the below before it is presented to the DM, State Police Chief, District Police Chief etc.

The District Police Chief
District:

Respected Sir,

This refers to the notification issued by your office pursuant to the proceedings of the State Police Chief initiated on 23rd March 2022 in relation to the Rule-10 of the Arms Act 2016.

The notification makes an ARMS & AMMUNITION SAFETY TRAINING CERTIFICATE mandatory to accompany every APPLICATION for a fire arms licence. It has created a lot of confusion because the said initiative appears to have inadvertently misconstrued the intent and purpose of the Rule-10 of the Arms Rules 2016, which reads as under:

10. Safe use and storage of firearms.-(1) Every applicant applying for a licence in Form II &c… shall be required to complete arms and ammunition safety training course, which shall include: (a)…, (b)…, (c)…, (d)…, (e)… and (f)….” (abbreviated).

Sir, with every respect to the dignity of your prestigious office, permit me to submit for your kind review that the said Rule-10 does not imply that:

“Every applicant applying for a licence in Form II &c… shall be required to furnish or provide or enclose or attach or (the application) be accompanied by an Arms and Ammunition Safety Training certificate”.

The two statements below have two different meanings:

• …shall be required to complete a Fire Arms Safety Training COURSE….and
• …shall be required to furnish | submit | provide | or (the application) shall be accompanied by a Fire Arms Safety Training CERTIFICATE.

The Rule –10 of the Arms Rules 2016 serves a specific purpose which is to get the “arms holder” educated about the relevant aspects and responsibilities of owning a firearm and becomes relevant only when, and to those whom, a licence is granted.

This misconstruction has opened up a Pandora box of troubles for fresh applicants while it is established that every applicant (being granted an arms licence) shall be required to complete the said training.

The legal eye:

If a fire-arms training certificate were “conditioned as mandatory” for an application for a licence, the precondition to have undergone the fire-arms training (and all aspects related thereto) can be legally construed to profess that the licence would be granted (as if the training were a precondition for qualifying oneself for the licence) which can be disastrous for the fact that even criminals, underworld gangs, anti-social elements would have gained access to licensed weapons!

If an applicant, who has undergone the said training, were to approach a Court of Law upon rejection of an application, given the fact that various courts have pronounced the owning of fire-arms as a Fundamental Right of every law-abiding citizen in preserving life as guaranteed under Article 21 of the Constitution, the ‘pre-condition of fire arms training” would lend strong credence to such cases!

The said notification could instead suggest that no fire-arm would be endorsed in the Fire Arms Licence Book unless the licence-holder produces a Fire Arms Training Certificate as per Rule-10 of the Arms Rules 2016 or that no Fire-Arms Licence shall be endorsed in the Fire Arms Licence Book unless the applicant to whom a Fire Arms Licence has been issued produces a Fire Arms Safety Training Certificate as mandated by the Rule-10 which will also eliminate having to repeat all those steps enumerated under “Documents to produce for the apply of arms & ammunition safety training” of the said notification.

I draw your kind attention also to the notification issued by the Ministry of Home Affairs vide Ref: V-11019/34/2017 stating that, apart from those specified in the Arms Rules 2016, no additional conditions or norms be specified for the purpose.

Submitted for your kind review and consideration,

please see this :

Sir I have recently applied for an Arms licence without FIRE ARMS TRAINING CERTIFICATE(S1) Arms Rules 2016. Rule provides “10. (3) The effective date and duration of the safety training course as laid down in sub-rule (1) shall be notified by the Central Government by issuing a general or special order in this regard.” The Central Government is yet to issue any general or special order in respect of rule 10(1) and 2. As such their compliance is not required.
With Regards

Hope this helps . Thanks

As such the Arms Rules 2016 and its later ammendments, mandate a S1 certificate for application for a firearm licence . But the modalities of getting one have never been laid out . It is a total fiasco. Some firearm clubs demand any arms licence applicant to enroll as their members first to impart training . The funny thing is that all shooting clubs have only '' Match "" weapons which are no where simmilar to the self defence firearms for which most people apply for. Moreover there is no '' CIVILIAN MARKS MAN SHIP " program. No district authority has taken any initiative to train applicants. The funny thing with the police is that they are not familiar with civilian firearms ,as they possses only '' SERVICE PATTERN "" firearms. Moreover police / military firearms instructrutors do not have an iota of the PB or NPB / Premissible / Restricted arms , ammo bores ann the like. Till date no practicial modalities have been brought to practice. It is only licence for Money, Money, Money. THENRAI wich is said to be the only authority for civilian arms sports does not have any say in the policy making of the govt. in this matters . Instead it wants to keep its head safe.

sid9887 is correct. At least in Delhi you need not be trained in weapons handling if you are seeking license under Inheritance, Legal Heir or Self-Protection category.
They will simply make you undergo an orientation/basic training at the time of handing you the license. I attended one and it was medieval.