Indians For Guns

Need arms license? Go to Nagaland

Parul Malik / CNN-IBN
Friday , June 08, 2007


New Delhi: Tiny north-eastern state Nagaland has emerged as a hub for issuing small arms licenses at a time when the use of small arms for private protection and as a status symbol has become a fashion in almost every part of the country.

The state issued 15,550 arms licenses between 1990 and 2005, out of which as many as 5,200 were meant for residents of other states. These bogus gun licenses, easily available in Nagaland, are now becoming a major concern for internal security.

The Nagaland Government has now recalled hundreds of these fake gun licenses issued from the Deputy Commissioner's office in Kohima. "On verification, it was found that many of these licenses were not issued from any DC offices in Nagaland," CP Giri, former Special Secretary (Home) of Nagaland, reveals.

Investigations have revealed that the staff of the District Commissioner's office in Dimapur maintained two separate registers: One for issuing gun licenses through the regular channel and the other to issue fake licenses!

Security experts say the finding in Nagaland is only the tip of an iceberg as the number of small arms currently in circulation in the country has gone up manifold over the years. Strangely, the Union Home Ministry is not asking why so many people need gun licenses.

"You only have to look at the applications for gun licenses in Lucknow today. I think the last figures that I knew six years ago was 50,000 applications pending! This is supposed to have gone up to 5,00,000 pending applications today," Air Commodore (Retd) Jasjit Singh , a security expert, points out.

With so many illicit and sophisticated small arms in circulation across the country, it's no surprise that India is ranked sixth with 6.3 small arms arsenal, according to an UN estimate. Clearly, it's time for the government to wake up.

Experts on the illegal small arms trade say that three out of four guns currently in use in India are unlicensed. "At a very conservative estimate, the illicit arms industry would be generating an annual turnover of approximately Rs 90 crore a year," Air Commodore (Retd) Prashant Dikshit says.

India's inability to curb small-arms smuggling has strengthened the Maoists, who are today active in 8,700 police station areas across the country. Smuggling of small arms has also kept insurgency alive in the Northeast and fuels terrorism in J&K and other parts of the country.

"The Naxalites now have high-quality arms and have got their own production units. They can manufacture a sten-gun and have even developed a home-made variant of the shoulder-fired weapon," Dixit reveals.

(With Vibou Ganguly in Kohima)

Funnily even in Mizoram Defence personnell can easily get their licences whereas local citizens have to wait for weeks if not months. I discovered this during a cursory inspection of the arms register while renewing my licence. A large percentage of the arms licence issued were to defence and other allied security personnell. As there practically no arms dealers stocking handguns in Aizawl, I wonder where they purchase their guns from.

Jonah

What is especially galling is that they are mentioning the sanctioning of licenses and illegal arms in the same breath! Either a firearm is unlicensed and therefore illegal OR it is licensed and therefore legal... by what convoluted logic are both being equated in this article? If a jurisdiction is issuing more licenses, isn't that good? If a jurisdiction has a huge no. of pending applications is that not a sign of mismanagement and/ or denial of rights through delay tactics?

can someone tell me why does an army personnel need a personal weapon more than the others?
esp when they already have issued arms and other means of proctecting themselves. (read infrastructure.)

shooter";p="22547 wrote: can someone tell me why does an army personnel need a personal weapon more than the others?
esp when they already have issued arms and other means of proctecting themselves. (read infrastructure.)

It's a throwback to the British days... Keep in mind the original colonial Arms Act covered only the natives and completely exempted Europeans...

Small arms nomencalture itself needs revision- civilian use arms need to be JUST THAT, whereas, they are included in Defense nomenclature of small arms , which is anything but small-SLR's, carbines etc are not to be included in the civilian use nomenclature!!
Secondly, 'small arms' and 'illegal arms' are used interchangeably by a vast majority of lay persons, including our friends who want to ban arms-read illegal; arms -and scare the living daylights out of us legal gun lovers/ owners!
The fight must go on -OUTSIDE of the forums and cyberspace...
Best
Axx

mundaire";p="22546 wrote:What is especially galling is that they are mentioning the sanctioning of licenses and illegal arms in the same breath! Either a firearm is unlicensed and therefore illegal OR it is licensed and therefore legal... by what convoluted logic are both being equated in this article? If a jurisdiction is issuing more licenses, isn't that good? If a jurisdiction has a huge no. of pending applications is that not a sign of mismanagement and/ or denial of rights through delay tactics?

Exactly my thoughts.. Somebody need to tell these reporters the difference between licensed arms and illegal ones..

Fake licenses from nagaland.. I think this is a very old news.. One dealer in Karnal told me that they are not selling guns to license holders from Nagaland.. don't know how serious was he.. and this was not restiricted to Arms Licenses even Hevay duty driving licenses from Nagaland were also in circulation.

-Inder

Well guys sorry for my long absence.... my net connection went down and it took the BSNL more than two weeks to sort out the problem... A lot has happened in IFG since eh?

Well, I'm from Nagaland so I can comment on this... while the article is the usual disjointed journalistic tale of illegal arms and licensing issues... the problem of bogus licenses is pretty acute.

The system and social interaction concerning any kind of paper work or government work is pretty corrupt and monetary incentives work to the petitioners advantage. Top that with boorish half-educated ignorant babus you'll get an idea of the depth of the problem.

Have we noticed who is being punished for the whole episode? For illegal practices of the governmental functionaries and departments, the punishment is meted out to the common gun enthusiast/owner by way of more restrictions or plain simple ban. Why don't they punish the department and functionaries instead?

Strangely, the Union Home Ministry is not asking why so many people need gun licenses.

- This is a question that can't get dumber. Why does someone need an arms license?(remember hes applying for a license and not going illegal) Hmmm....any suggestions? The article jumps from Nagaland to Lucknow like they are two districts in the same state. Look how the topic again jumps to a totally unrelated issue of Maoists...naxalites and their 'sophisticated' arms production units....What does that have to do bogus licensing in Nagaland?

Many desperate and un-moneyed people are simply driven to unlicensed arms because they have the need to be secure- a commodity that law enforcement in the country just can't provide effectively.

TC if you're still around...do something!!

Surely, its not impossible to get a shotgun or single barrel license? Or am I speaking from an ivory tower?

I agree that the article is reasonably flawed and as usual paints the north east negatively. Read the interesting times of India article about 9mms available just outside Delhi?

Regards,

Dev

Protection is a personal concern , you can not count on somebody else when you are in danger , I strongly disagree on the caste system on Firearms : NPB and PB : The rules are made in such a way that the criminals can have arms : but the general civilians can not have any and have to live in the mercy of petty criminals.

madmaximus wrote:Protection is a personal concern , you can not count on somebody else when you are in danger

Very true, self defense is a basic human right for self preservation

madmaximus wrote:I strongly disagree on the caste system on Firearms : NPB and PB

PB and NPB has absolutely nothing to do with ballistic qualities of the firearm or cartridge. It's only purpose is that the firearms owned by citizens, in event of mutiny should not be able to fire the cartridges owned by Central government forces. This was started around the time of Lord Curzon, in order to ensure that in case of mutiny similar to 1857 mutiny happening again, the ammunition looted or pilfered from government armories would not fire in civilian held firearms. In other words cartridge case dimensions should be different. For example 9mm Luger(9x19) is a PB but 9x17, 9x18, 9x21, 9x23, 9x25 etc. are all NPB. Similarly 7.62x51 is PB, 7.62x63(.30-06) and all other case lengths other than 51 mm are NPB

Unfortunately the Governments after 15 August 1947 have also been thinking on lines of colonial mentality, of getting spooked by fears of armed rebellion and collaboration of armed forces with the citizens!

madmaximus wrote:The rules are made in such a way that the criminals can have arms : but the general civilians can not have any and have to live in the mercy of petty criminals.

Very true but citizens are also equally to be blamed for the sorry state of affairs. How many have analyzed the Constitution in last 50 years to find that right to keep and bear arms is a fundamental human right guaranteed by the Constitution in Part III? How many in last 50 years have analyzed that Arms Act 1959 has been enacted to give effect to the right to keep and bear arms using Article 35 of the Constitution? How many have raised awareness of this fact to their members of Parliament or taken the matter to Courts? The Arms Act analysis is in another thread here viewtopic.php?f=4&t=25102

It is a ten year old story. In India legal firearms are not causing any major problem. It is the easy availability of the illegal firearm, mostly manufactured in Bihar, UP and MP that is causing problem. Unfortunately, the anti gun lobby has mixed up the issue. The licensed gun is not the major cause of concern as violence committed with such firearms is negligible. The figure of the National Crime Control Bureau speaks for itself. The only disturbing aspect in the NCR region is that some licenses have been issued to property dealers and several cases of misuse of firearms by them have been reported in recent times. If one takes a national view, the use of licensed firearms for any illegal action remains negligible.
I am not advocating total removal of control on firearms but the restriction should be reasonable. Today it is unlikely that a lady IT executive, having a firearm will create public disorder at an election rally, yet she is required to deposit the firearm as soon as election is announced in the area. Such restrictions are uncalled for and let us hope things may improve in the years ahead. I have just cited one example, there are several such irritants today. Unfortunately, the anti gun lobby gets much attention of the media and many distorted articles get publicized.

indiaone wrote:I am not advocating total removal of control on firearms but the restriction should be reasonable.

Reasonable restrictions to the complete satisfaction of the Constitution in the form of Section 7, 8 and 9 of Arms Act 1959 are already there. Nobody is asking for these reasonable restrictions to be removed. The main problem is there is a lot of confusion and lack of clarity about Arms Act 1959. If a citizen is not offending Sections 7, 8 or 9 of Arms Act 1959 then where is the problem? Every citizen has the right to keep and bear arms if Sections 7, 8 and 9 of Arms Act 1959 are not offended because Arms Act 1959 has been enacted by the Parliament, using Article 35 of the Constitution to give effect to the right to keep and bear arms guaranteed as fundamental right under Part III of the Constitution.

indiaone wrote:Today it is unlikely that a lady IT executive, having a firearm will create public disorder at an election rally, yet she is required to deposit the firearm as soon as election is announced in the area. Such restrictions are uncalled for and let us hope things may improve in the years ahead. I have just cited one example, there are several such irritants today. Unfortunately, the anti gun lobby gets much attention of the media and many distorted articles get publicized.

Very true. For this the effected persons should not be shy of knocking the doors of Courts. All the necessary legal masala, including case laws by Supreme Court are given here viewtopic.php?f=4&t=25102