Indians For Guns

Draft Arms and Ammunitions Manufacturing Policy - MHA requests inputs

In September 2009, the government had issued a Request for Information (RFI) for 9mm guns. Due to the strict licensing procedures, it was felt that even though India had the ability to manufacture these and more weapons indigenously, the government would buy from an overseas manufacturer. This new policy has been drafted to help the indigenisation.

The policy states that the arms & ammunition can only be sold to the paramilitary forces, defence forces and the state governments. They cannot be sold to the general public and strict monitoring will be required to ensure that these weapons are not diverted. Only large companies able to invest over 50 crores are eligible to apply for a license from the Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP). FDI of up to 26% would be permitted and exports would be allowed.

Going over the history of arms manufacturing in India the draft policy also mentioned that currently 95 firms are licensed by the Ministry of Home Affairs for the manufacture of guns (single barrel/double barrel) and 25 firms for the manufacture if cartridges (either blank cartridges or live cartridges or both) upto the quota permitted in their licences.

The draft document is here >>>

From http://www.8ak.in



Interesting points to be noted from the draft policy:

8.
a) Manufacture of arms in the private sector may be allowed on limited basis subject to Industrial license to be issued by DIPP.

b) Applications from units in the large scale sector which are capable of producing advanced weapons and investing more than Rs. 50 crore may, with or without FDI upto 26% be considered by DIPP, as the item, ‘arms and ammunition’ is under compulsory licensing. In no case will any fresh licence be issued to any cottage or small scale sector units.

c) Arms and ammunition may be primarily supplied to Central Para Military Forces, Defence and State Governments on tendering basis or exported. Automatic and semi-automatic weapons and all other prohibited Bore weapons will not be allowed to be sold in local market through arms dealers and the same will necessarily have to be supplied to Defence, Central Para Military forces and State Governments on tendering basis or exported.

d) Sports weapons and NPB weapons may be supplied to registered arms dealers for sale to licence holders only.

e) No enhancement in manufacturing quota of existing firms may be allowed.

f) Applications for manufacture of arms and ammunition may be considered by DIPP as per procedure in consultation with MHA. Applications for manufacture of sports weapons may be considered in consultation with Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports, who may like to consult Sports Authority of India, National Rifle Association of India etc., as deemed fit.

g) DIPP may impose such other conditions as may be deemed fit by them.

h) In cases in which Industrial licences have already been issued by DIPP without concurrence of MHA, MHA may agree to renewal of the industrial licences by DIPP subject to strict conditions that will be imposed at the time of renewal to enable the three firms to take effective steps in accordance with the new policy.

i) The Arms Rules, 1962 empowers every Magistrate and police officer not below the rank of an Inspector to enter and inspect the premises of an arms and ammunition manufacturer to examine the stock and accounts of receipt and disposal of arms and ammunitions. It is proposed to prescribe annual inspection by the DM concerned of all the manufacturing units falling in his jurisdiction and to send a report to Secretary (Home) of the State Government concerned under intimation to MHA.

It would seem, that unlike the last time around, this time there seems to be a proviso for the private players to be allowed to manufacture & retail "sports weapons" and "NPB weapons" for supply to the civilian market. We may just see the quality of local stuff improving... or is that hoping for too much?

Appears to be just 1 step in the positive direction, but much more is required considering the present scenario. As per the notification cottage and small scale industry will not be allowed, is a negative step.(Already there is lot of cottage industry illegally manufacturing firearms all over the country, and I do not know why the government does not want to legitimize it and bring it overground from being an underground industry.)

hope against all hope

but then again there could be one or two players in the field who may change things, and give IOF run for their money.

thanks for posting that, any idea what is the out come of the arms bill?

Just to clarify, this is NOT a notification, merely a draft policy seeking further comments/ feedback from various stakeholders/ the public at large. They will then probably amend/ keep as is and then decide whether to finalise it and to notify the same or to simply trash it completely. So while this is indeed a small step in the right direction, there's many a slip 'twixt the cup and the lip... so please try and find out how we can give our individual feedback to the concerned policy makers, so as to ensure that our voice is also heard while finalising this into a final policy that is notified and of course keep your fingers crossed....

Cheers!
Abhijeet



Naga, not heard anything further on the arms bill, everyone I've asked is equally clueless. So either it's currently off the cards, or the MHA is playing it's cards very close to it's chest.

I hope that this gets notified.

http://tinyurl.com/ybzozmc

Conversely,Hindustantimes had a front page news about the MHA taking steps to have an annual audit of seized arms,a move that it says is part of "the home ministry's overhaul of India's policy on firearms that aims at tightening the law to prevent misuse of licensed firearm and create a national database of all arms licenses"

winnie_the_pooh wrote:I hope that this gets notified.

http://tinyurl.com/ybzozmc

Conversely,Hindustantimes had a front page news about the MHA taking steps to have an annual audit of seized arms,a move that it says is part of "the home ministry's overhaul of India's policy on firearms that aims at tightening the law to prevent misuse of licensed firearm and create a national database of all arms licenses"

moved my post to http://www.indiansforguns.com/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=8314

As regards "Draft Arms and Ammunitions Manufacturing Policy", I am giving the following feedback(any suggestion modifications welcome before I send email across) and request we all should give our feedback at sudhir.malhotra(at)nic.in by 6th Jan. 2010 stating:

1)IOF firearms for civilian sector are unrealistically priced making it out of reach for law abiding citizens to afford a firearm for self defense from criminals armed with illegal firearms. Moreover the they are of variable quality and waiting period e.g .32 Ashani is more than 1 year. Opening this sector to competition will bring prices down, bring them to international quality and variety of weapons available to law abiding citizens.

2)Also allow cottage/small scale industry to participate, as it is already participating in this sector in an underground form. Legalizing it will make it come overground and allow the participants to join the mainstream society.

3)Government should give up the policy of trying to "control" this sector as it has literally failed and has been counter productive. Law abiding citizens have been deprived of affordable self-defense and criminals/terrorists anyways having no respect for Arms Act or any law, have unlimited access to illegal firearms as they are not dependent on legal firearms for their crime.

why not what to loose, i am in,

Excellent post.However tiny, a right step in the right direction.

Re Cottage industries, One needs to look at the Co-operative manufacturers of Eibar in Spain,Huglu and Hatsan in Turkey, Suhl in Germany, and assorted gun makers of Gardone in Italy.Leaving the very high-quality custom firearms, these makers produce durable,reliable and decent quality firearms that can be owned by people with not very high incomes.It's like any other trade.In some cases, one unit is making lockworks and another making stocks etc.

Now, they just not sell their wares in their respective countries but all over the world especially USA and Europe.

Let us all write to concerned officials and let them know.

Re legalising underground cottage industries,while theoretically I agree with the idea, I think that it may not work out in the ultimate scheme of things.Reluctance of governments and police,legal hurdles etc. But, what's there to lose to let them know?

Thank you for this post.

Best-
Vikram

I have emailed the following message to sudhir.malhotra(at)nic.in. Would request the Administrators to send a email with a reference to a draft to all members of IFG so that they can also easily and quickly(copy/paste) give their feedback to Ministry of Home Affairs by 6.1.2010.

Subject: Ref: No 11026/16/2009 Draft Arms and Ammunitions Manufacturing Policy-Comments of general public reg.(dated 21.12.2009 by GOI, MHA, Internal Security 2 Division Arms Section)

Hi,

It is needless to repeat that Arms and Ammunitions Manufacturing Policy needs to be opened up like any other industry. Even smaller, neighboring countries are producing world class firearms and India lags decades behind. Following are the compelling reasons, I feel due to which this sector needs to be fully opened up for full competition:

1)IOF firearms for civilian sector are unrealistically high priced, making it out of reach for law abiding citizens to afford a firearm for self defense from criminals armed with cheaply available illegal firearms. Moreover IOF firearms are of variable quality and waiting period e.g. .32 Ashani is more than 1 year. Opening this sector to competition will bring prices down, bring them to international quality and offer greater choice of weapons available to law abiding citizens.

2)Government, instead of needlessly denying the reality, should accept the reality and allow cottage/small scale industry to participate, as it is already in this sector in an underground form. Legalizing it will make the talent already creating world-class illegal firearms, come overground and allow the participants to join the mainstream society. Regarding cottage industries, one needs to look at the Co-operative manufacturers of Eibar in Spain, Huglu and Hatsan in Turkey, Suhl in Germany, and assorted gun makers of Gardone in Italy. Leaving the very high-quality custom firearms, these makers produce durable, reliable and decent quality firearms that can be owned by people with not very high incomes. It's like any other trade. In some cases, one unit is making lock-works and another making stocks etc. Now, they just not sell their wares in their respective countries but all over the world especially USA and Europe.

3)Government should give up the policy of needlessly trying to "control" this sector as it has practically failed and has been counter productive. Law abiding citizens have been deprived of affordable/reliable self-defense and criminals/terrorists anyways having no respect for Arms Act etc., have unlimited access to illegal, cheap/high quality military style firearms like AK-47/hand grenades/RPGs/explosives etc. as they are in no way or form dependent on legal firearms for their crimes.

Regards
***********

New Delhi: Big Indian private companies may soon be allowed to manufacture automatic and semi-automatic weapons for defence, central paramilitary and state police forces. The home ministry recently proposed that companies,with FDI upto 26% or without it,be allowed to manufacture arms on a limited scale.
Such private companies will, however, not be allowed to sell the weapons in the local market through arms dealers. They will supply them to state agencies on tendering basis or may export them.
At present, such weapons are only produced by public sector ordnance factories. Besides, the requirement of the forces are met through imports from various countries. Though a number of private units in the cottage and small-scale sectors have licences to produce arms, they are not allowed to manufacture advanced — automatic and semi-automatic — weapons. Currently, there are 95 firms licensed by the home ministry for the manufacture of single barrel or double barrel guns and 25 firms manufacturing cartridges (either blank cartridges or live cartridges or both) upto the quota permitted in their licences.
The proposal, allowing private companies to produce advanced weapons, is part of the draft arms and ammunition manufacturing policy of the ministry.Making the draft policy public this week,the ministry pointed out that the decision has been taken “considering the requirement for advanced weapons by the defence sector, central paramilitary forces, technological upgradation of the ammunition industry”. TNN

http://epaper.timesofindia.com/Default/ ... =HTML&GZ=T

what say guys...finaly the Government is upto something ?
every Indian citizen is free to comment to TOI via mail <[email protected]>,

regards
guru

Hello Guys....

I am sorta new to IFG, so tolerate if i am wrong. This new law by the indian govt seems to be the first step for more tolerance towards weapons.Hopefully they will change our draconian Civilian gunownership law in the near future.

lionheartguru wrote: Such private companies will, however, not be allowed to sell the weapons in the local market through arms dealers. They will supply them to state agencies on tendering basis or may export them.

If this report is true, then we have not gained anything.

Regards

Yes, totally embarrassed now.

I didn't go through Abhijeet's post fully and missed the part where there is recommendation for the sale of Sports Weapons and NPB weapons through dealers to license holders. The only ray of hope amongst all the descending darkness.

Now a question, should we appreciate this portion and send our positive thoughts on the same topic to [email protected] ?? Responses are requested for this draft also by MHA.

Regards

The rest is OK but point 8 (b), which limits who can participate and permanently excludes small scale/ cottage industry is a major negative which will limit innovation and local competition. Let's not forget almost all firearms innovation has come from unheard of "new" small scale makers who wanted to break into the market/ make a name for themselves. If they are not consign the industry forever into making licensed copies, this clause should be done away with.