Man held for importing ‘lookalike’ weapons

[estousandy]

http://indianexpress.com/article/cities ... pe-police/

New Delhi | August 25, 2014 1:48 am:

The Special Cell of the Delhi Police on Friday arrested one person for his involvement in import of lookalikes of regular weapons from European countries.
Police said the ‘business’ had come to their notice after a Tata Nano carrying 146 pistols, 40 revolvers, 8,700 cartridges, one 12- bore gun and nine daggers was impounded and two persons, Vijay Kumar and Ranjan Paswan, were apprehended during preparations for the Independence Day celebrations on August 12.

“The incident had shocked everyone because such a huge cache was recovered just ahead of Independence Day. Questioning of Kumar and Paswan revealed that the recovered arms belonged to one Manjeet Singh Mahal, a builder who is also involved in the illegal import of arms from European countries. Special teams were formed to nab Manjeet Singh,” DCP, Special Cell, Sanjeev Yadav said.

“Several informers were deployed to provide clues about Singh’s whereabouts. On Friday, we received a tip-off that Singh would be in Paschim Vihar, West Delhi, to meet a contacts. A trap was laid and Singh was arrested from the service road, near Paschim Vihar,” Yadav said.

During questioning, Mahal told police that for the last six years, he had been importing sophisticated weapons from Germany, France, Austria and other European nations to sell in India.

According to police, these weapons, which are exact lookalikes of regular weapons, are legal in Europe and can be purchased there with proper identification and billing.
“Since these weapons come with ‘muzzle constrictors’, they can be used to fire ‘blank cartridges’ only. Their demand among ‘wannabe’ criminals and others whose intent is primarily to spread terror is high,” Yadav said.

“They can be called ‘impact weapons’. In the absence of proper regulations governing their import, sale and licencing, they are becoming the weapons of choice for many, who just use them to show off,” Yadav said.

Police said the weapons were imported for nearly Rs 12,000 a piece abroad and passed off in the local grey market for prices ranging between Rs 40,000 and Rs 70,000.
“The cartridges that were sold along with the weapons were purchased for Rs 15-Rs 25 a piece and fetched around Rs 80 a piece in the local market. To sustain the growing demand of his clientele, spread over various states, Singh used to travel abroad twice every month.

Over the years, it is estimated that he sold over 700 such weapons in Delhi and adjoining states,” a police officer said.
Police are now making efforts to identify other members of his syndicate.
Investigation in the matter is on, police said.

[xl_target]

Since we can't find real illegal weapons, we are going after toys now?

[essdee1972]

"Sophisticated weapons" and "lookalikes" in the same sentence!!!

Since we can't find real illegal weapons, we are going after toys now?

I am awaiting the raid on my home to confiscate my son's Monopoly money as counterfeit cash!

[brihacharan]

"Sophisticated weapons" and "lookalikes" in the same sentence!!!

Since we can't find real illegal weapons, we are going after toys now?

I am awaiting the raid on my home to confiscate my son's Monopoly money as counterfeit cash!

Briha

[ckkalyan]

Police said the ‘business’ had come to their notice after a Tata Nano carrying 146 pistols, 40 revolvers, 8,700 cartridges, one 12- bore gun and nine daggers was impounded and two persons, Vijay Kumar and Ranjan Paswan, were apprehended during preparations for the Independence Day celebrations on August 12.

“The incident had shocked everyone because such a huge cache was recovered just ahead of Independence Day. Questioning of Kumar and Paswan revealed that the recovered arms belonged to one Manjeet Singh Mahal, a builder who is also involved in the illegal import of arms from European countries. Special teams were formed to nab Manjeet Singh,” DCP, Special Cell, Sanjeev Yadav said.

No wonder India has, purportedly 40 Million Firearms! Now it can be confidently claimed that India has 40 Million + 187 Firearms!

[mundaire]

They can't charge him under the Arms Act as these are not Arms! Be interesting to see what IPC Section(s) they eventually slap on him... Going by the above report it would seem that airgun owners need to start worrying for their civil liberties too...



Cheers!
Abhijeet

[shooter]

What the govt. is worried about is that they are missing a piece of pie of this 300-500% profit business.

Hats off to the entrepreneur for his business acumen.

Hats again to the govt. for their stupidity and greed.

I respect the govt. in that they are at least consistent in their approach of greed, taking away peoples' rights and liberties away (if these things even exist in a socialist country)

[goodboy_mentor]

I respect the govt. in that they are at least consistent in their approach of greed, taking away peoples' rights and liberties away (if these things even exist in a socialist country)

Freedom, rights, liberties and justice do not exist in India except on papers.

[Armed Defence]

Interesting information. I didn't know these imitation firearms were readily available for sale in the foreign market. Instead, I thought they were made to order only for use in movies etc after obtaining a permit. Though I am myself in favour of liberal gun laws but I think these imitation guns should not be sold unregulated because they can be easily used to commit heinous crimes. Their use should be reserved for special purposes for which they are manufactured. The public should have easy access to real arms for protection.

[mundaire]

Interesting information. I didn't know these imitation firearms were readily available for sale in the foreign market. Instead, I thought they were made to order only for use in movies etc after obtaining a permit. Though I am myself in favour of liberal gun laws but I think these imitation guns should not be sold unregulated because they can be easily used to commit heinous crimes. Their use should be reserved for special purposes for which they are manufactured. The public should have easy access to real arms for protection.

I beg to disagree! Banning, regulating things simply based on "looks" or that "some people" may misuse them is a very slippery downhill slope. These are NOT firearms and CANNOT be converted in to firearms... so they are for all practical purposes novelty items and should be treated as such.

Cheers!
Abhijeet

[estousandy]

http://money.cnn.com/2014/12/18/news/ne ... s0740story

Toy guns look too real, NY AG says

NEW YORK (CNNMoney)

The difference between a toy gun and a real one is very blurry sometimes and that has led to unintended deaths.
New York State has witnessed four of those instances since 1997 and it's now trying to curb illegal toy gun sales at major retailers, such as Amazon, Wal-Mart and Sears.

New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman's office sent cease-and-desist letters Thursday to retailers telling them to stop selling illegal toy guns in stores and online in the state. Under state law, toy guns must have an orange stripe on the barrel of the gun. State law prohibits toy guns colored in black, silver or aluminum unless they have the stripe.

"When toy guns are mistaken for real guns, there can be tragic consequences," said Schneiderman. "New York State law is clear: retailers cannot put children and law enforcement at risk by selling toy guns that are virtually indistinguishable from the real thing."
State investigators ordered illegal toy guns online and bought one at a K-Mart store near Rochester, N.Y. Some toy guns were even advertised as "realistic looking," according to the attorney general's office.

Wal-Mart and Sears said they are working to prevent illegal toy gun sales in New York online and in its stores.
"Once this matter was brought to our attention we placed a shipping block on our website to prevent the mentioned items from being sent to the state of New York," Wal-Mart said in a statement.

Amazon and ToyArsenal.com did not return a request for comment.
Toy guns have come under heated, national scrutiny recently for the Nov. 22 death of 12-year-old Tamir Rice in Cleveland, Ohio. Rice was allegedly holding a toy gun when a police officer shot him.

First Published: December 18, 2014: 1:16 PM ET

[xl_target]

The difference between a toy gun and a real one is very blurry sometimes and that has led to unintended deaths.
New York State has witnessed four of those instances since 1997 and it's now trying to curb illegal toy gun sales at major retailers,

This is so much BS but of course, it is New York where the government is quite well known for not being the sharpest knife in the drawer.
Blame the inanimate object and not the behavior.

Teach your kids common sense. You point a gun (fake or otherwise) at a cop, you might get shot.
I had toy guns as a kid. We played with them outside, in public.
No one ever shot me because I behaved myself in public and was taught very early on not to point a gun at anyone, even if it was a toy.

There are many items out there which, if improperly used, will result in your getting hurt or killed.
It is up to us as parents to teach our kids not to "play stupid games and win stupid prizes".

Despite what the article imputes, toy guns are not illegal.

[essdee1972]

So the honorable gov't of New York is OK with trigger happy cops shooting up kids with toys, friendly dogs, etc?

Wasn't there a rule sometime for LEOs to use firearms as the last alternative? It seems going bang-bang has become the first action for coppers in the US!!

One Ferguson not enough, is it?

Better to teach the cops some Gandhism rather than invest in wearable cameras!

[nagarifle]

what if it looks real? what matters is does it or can it made to fire ammo? if not then its all BS

[xl_target]

what if it looks real? what matters is does it or can it made to fire ammo? if not then its all BS

Precisely.