Indians For Guns

friends,
Somewhere i read on this forum that guns permitted for use by civilians are Shotguns, Handguns and sporting rifles. Civilians can hold a maximum of THREE arms licenses. can anyone give the link of valid gazette notification? Kindly help.

The maximum is three, please read Section 3(2) of Arms Act 1959 - viewtopic.php?f=4&t=1474 This limit was introduced via an amendment in 1983, prior to that there was no fixed limit on the maximum number of firearms that a citizen could legally hold (against valid license).

There is NO REQUIREMENT for the three to be divided as one handgun, one shotgun and one rifle, even though many people OPT FOR that combination. You can legally have all 3 handguns or all 3 shotguns or all three rifles or any combination which suits you.

Since this limit is contained in the Arms Act itself, there is no need for any separate gazette notification for the same.

However, do note that there are exceptions to the above Section. For e.g. ethnic Kodavas are completely exempt from Section 3 of the Arms Act, so against an "exemption certificate" (issued by the Distt. Magistrate) they can hold as many firearms as they wish, so long as they remain within Coorg District (Karnataka). Also, there exist exemptions granted to sports shooters, namely renowned shooters and Arjuna Awardees (award must be for shooting sports).

Cheers!
Abhijeet

Thank Abhijeet.. you did graet help to many of us..