India Awash In Guns:Even Politicians Facing Criminal Charges

[snIPer]

http://www.ibtimes.com/articles/370105/ ... harges.htm

...... However, interestingly, as gun ownership has risen in India, the number of homicides has actually declined. Indeed, the number of deaths caused by firearms (as well as the rate of all gun-related deaths) was in cut in half between 1999 and 2008.

India has gun control laws that seeks to regulate the private ownership of weapons; however, given India's vast size and the chaotic nature of its society, such regulations mean very little.

Abhijeet Singh, chief operating officer of Greatech Software Solutions Inc. in New Delhi, is a firm believer in the right to possess guns. He explained why citizens needs to be armed.

“Curtailing gun ownership, to curb violent crime, through denying licenses or making legal arms and ammunition ridiculously expensive is based on flawed reasoning,” he wrote.

“The fact is that licensed firearms are found to be used in a statistically insignificant number of violent crimes; motorcycles and cars are far more dangerous. The certainty that a potential victim is unarmed is an encouragement to armed criminals. Less guns, more crime. Most violent crimes involving firearms are committed using untraceable illegal guns. Terrorists or the mafia are not going to be deterred by gun-control laws; they will be willing and able to procure arms of their choice and use them to commit crimes irrespective of any laws. Ironically in India, it is cheaper … to buy the same gun in the black market than it is to buy it legally!”

[Vikram]

Thank you for posting this article ,Sniper.


While I appreciate the effort made by the journalist to stay objective and present views from both sides of the coin, I do think that it could have been a bit more well researched and put together.

For eg:

In many cases, MPs have acquired automatic and semi-automatic weapons, which are usually the provenance of the military or terrorist and extremist organizations and prohibited for ordinary citizens.

But, hey, I am not complaining. Every little helps.

Best-
Vikram

[Skyman]

The number of guns held by Indian civilians far surpasses the amount of weapons held by the military (5.7 million) and the police (3 million).

Is it true the military has only that much? I wonder what percentage actually work? There was a report a while back that said more than half the army ammo were duds, especially artillery.

[xl_target]

The number of guns held by Indian civilians far surpasses the amount of weapons held by the military (5.7 million) and the police (3 million).

Is it true the military has only that much? I wonder what percentage actually work? There was a report a while back that said more than half the army ammo were duds, especially artillery.

This is typical journalistic BS. It combines a desire to sensationalize, a desire to promote an agenda and a (deliberate?)failure to investigate the facts being quoted.

According to GunPolicy.org, an international firearm prevention campaigner, India has about 40 million guns held by civilians, giving it the second-highest number of privately held guns in the world. Only about 6.3 million of those weapons are registered, which means that almost 34 million illegal weapons are floating around the country.

The moment a reporter starts quoting those figures, I lose all respect for them. Given that no one has been able to produce any statistical data leading to this conclusion, the only reason they choose to perpetuate this myth is because they have a vested interest in gun control or they are lazy and can't be bothered to verify the facts that they are quoting. Any attempt at objectivity that the journalist is trying to portray is instantly lost.
I am an engineer by training. If I produce such shoddy work, using such unverifiable "facts", I would lose my job. It is the same in most professions. So how come journalists get a pass? This willingness to play with the truth is one of the reasons for the decline of the traditional newspaper in much of the rest of the world. Most people don't believe what the mainstream media has to say anymore because it is up to the reader to glean the truth from between the pseudo-facts, opinion and just plain fantasy that passes for journalism today. While this may sound excessively cynical, after watching every newspaper do the same thing at one time or another, one does tend to get annoyed.

See these posts:
http://indiansforguns.com/viewtopic.php ... ns#p159025
http://indiansforguns.com/viewtopic.php ... ns#p129503

[Vineet]

However, interestingly, as gun ownership has risen in India, the number of homicides has actually declined.

Well, I couldn't get this. How have gun ownership risen in India ? Everyone here knows that now a days it is very difficult to get a gun license. Most of the time applications are rejected by the police.