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In the late 1980s, a middle-aged woman was stalked by an unidentified man in a deserted street in California. The woman had been gang-raped earlier. After recovering from the ordeal, she had taken to keeping a revolver in her purse. So this time, she was prepared.
As the man closed in on her, she reached into her purse and gripped the small-calibre handgun she now carried and turned to face her assailant.
The attacker spotted the weapon in her hand. "He momentarily froze and studied her, noting carefully her look of combined revulsion, hate, fear and rage. He determined in that instant that, if pressed, she might shoot. He spun and exited the scene like a world-class sprinter," says a research paper published by criminologists who studied violence against women in the US.
The incident was recorded as part of a study done by Robert L Barrow and Gary Mauser on the possibility of reducing attacks on women by arming them.
ARMS & THE WOMAN
The gang rape of a student in Delhi has made it clear that the city is unsafe for women. And even as thousands of people took to the streets and many protested outside Rashtrapati Bhavan and Parliament, a group of people who vouch for the utility of guns to ward off attackers has a different perspective on the issue.
They believe that if India has a more liberal system of arms licencing, many women who have to deal with similar situations may have a better chance of saving themselves.
Rahul Roy is an industrialist based out of Gurgaon and his company manufactures writing pads. But like many entrepreneurs, Roy also does what he believes is social service. He wants the government to help people gain access to something he believes they need desperately today: a gun.
Roy, who speaks with passion on the right of an individual to own a gun, heads the National Association for Gun Rights in India (NAGRI), a body that has been campaigning for gun rights.
SAFETY CATCH
In 2010, NAGRI gave a presentation before a Joint Parliamentary Committee on how a lack of access to guns has become a deterrent to self-defence. The association claims that more than a hundred MPs signed a petition drafted by them and addressed to the prime minister. "Everybody is talking about handing out death sentences to rapists. But this happens only after the crime takes place. Only firearms can protect people, especially women and the elderly, today," says Roy.
The businessman, who hails from the martial community of Mohyals in Punjab, is a former national skeet shooting champion. He believes that owning a gun would help an individual face any kind of threat.
He points out that in India every policeman guards about 8,000 people, while in more prosperous countries about hundred-odd people are under the watch of a beat constable.
Roy sticks to his argument even when it is pointed out that the US, which has the maximum number of licensed civilian guns in the world, has had to pay for its liberal licensing policy, with a number of trigger-happy people opening fire at schools and shopping malls. "We are a more mature society than the US. India has a tradition of owning guns and I don't think here we will see a repeat of the kind of incidents that we see in the US," he says.
According to Abhijeet Singh, another member of the organisation, as per the law, any citizen of India who is not otherwise "dis-entitled" is eligible to an arms licence.
"However, in practice, it is next to impossible for an ordinary 'unconnected' person to acquire an arms licence. Licensing authorities routinely demand proof of income, property papers and other such in states such as Uttarakhand and Uttar Pradesh in order to deny applicants a gun," says Singh.
CAN YOU OWN ONE?
According to the Arms Act of 1959, to acquire an arms licence, one should be more than 21 years old, should not have a history of mental disorder and should not have been convicted of a violent crime.
"Usually the licensing authorities do not easily accept applications and even on acceptance of applications, they sit on them indefinitely. In other cases, licences are denied without stating a reason or by simply saying that the applicant has been unable to demonstrate any real need for a firearm," says Singh.
The applicant also has to convince the district magistrate concerned that he faces a threat to his life, which makes the process all the more complicated. Political psychologist Ashis Nandy, however, says that a rampant gun culture could have dangerous consequences for India.
"The argument for arming people is absolutely silly. Why don't we talk of disarming everyone instead of arming everybody? That way we will definitely have a peaceful society," says Nandy.
A society can be made better by improving the judicial system and policing. However, if people were to take to arms to protect themselves, there would be a flourishing gun culture and criminals will also have easy access to guns. "Look at what is happening in the US where they followed a liberal licensing system," says Nandy, referring to the massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School. "This argument for selling weapons to people comes from vested interests."
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By: KP Narayana Kumar
