New Arms Rules 2016 notified by Government of India!

[SMJ]

Are you dreaming SMJ ?
Indian Govt compensating.

[emoji38] doesn't hurt to be optimistic, anyway jokes aside it's what they should do.

MODS apologies my bad for wrong info reg the UK hand guns and thanks for the edit

BTW Precihole has delisted Orion and Scorpius from their website now

[nitroex700]

I tried surfing through the various rules but I could only find the rules making licensing mandatory for manufacturers instead of end users. Also, retrospective implementation of the law may or may not be valid as we have seen in several cases in India. Request people associated with legal field shed some light on this too.

[mundaire]

Nitroex700,

See Schedule I which classifies various arms and Schedule II which details the competent Licensing Authority for each category of Arms.

[nitroex700]

Nitroex700,

See Schedule I which classifies various arms and Schedule II which details the competent Licensing Authority for each category of Arms.

Read it. This is UGLY indeed. Is it going to be retrospective too?

[mundaire]

By retrospective, you mean, what happens to those who currently own .22 airguns and/ or .177 airguns which are over the new 15 ft/lbs limit?

Their possession would now be illegal, unless the owner has a proper license with said airgun(s) endorsed on it.

Penalties would be to the tune of 7 years in jail and a hefty fine, the same as for possessing any other illegal firearm.

[nitroex700]

By retrospective, you mean, what happens to those who currently own .22 airguns and/ or .177 airguns which are over the new 15 ft/lbs limit?

Their possession would now be illegal, unless the owner has a proper license with said airgun(s) endorsed on it.

Penalties would be to the tune of 7 years in jail and a hefty fine, the same as for possessing any other illegal firearm.

So they're going to arrest 10-yr old kids for shooting airguns now.. Just because (Manka)"Aunty Police Bula Legi"..?

Am still not sure where it says the law would be retrospective.. As per Indian Constitution, Fundamental Rights' Article 20(1), ex-post-facto legislation is illegal. That much I know.. That's how that chap Afroz escaped with mere 3 year sentence in Nirbhaya Rape case. Vodafone also managed to wiggle out of Finance ministry's clutches on the same grounds. What makes this different?

[dinar]

very disappointing. I am shocked to hear this news. .22 is banned. in politicians ke pass yahi ek kaam bacha tha.

[mundaire]

You are getting a little confused here. There is no "crime" in the Arms Act (or any other firearm law anywhere in the world) which is Malum in se (i.e. wrong or evil in itself). These crimes are in fact Malum prohibitum i.e. unlawful act only by virtue of statute/ legislation.

As such, any object can be prohibited by legislation and once that is done, even mere possession of said object can be made a crime, inviting prosecution. There is no crime being committed against anybody, you just happen to be on the wrong side of the law - also commonly called victimless crime, which isn't actually accurate, as the one being prosecuted can be rightly called a victim in many such cases.

[SMJ]

By retrospective, you mean, what happens to those who currently own .22 airguns and/ or .177 airguns which are over the new 15 ft/lbs limit?

Their possession would now be illegal, unless the owner has a proper license with said airgun(s) endorsed on it.

Penalties would be to the tune of 7 years in jail and a hefty fine, the same as for possessing any other illegal firearm.

Hi Abhijeet, if the law is still to be approved by both houses of parliament then effectively its still not applicable, correct? I suppose as you said it may be just a mere formality but even so until the formality is complete can it still be termed as unlawful possession? Am I right in my understanding or now that its notified in the gazette it has actually become the law?

[mundaire]

These are Rules under the Arms Act and not a modification of the Act itself. The government has power to make rules and their notification in gazette means it is the law, unless it is amended/ not approved by parliament, in which case it will be applied in the amended form/ cease to apply (as the case may be).

However, the Arms Rules cannot override any provisions/ definitions contained within the Arms Act itself. In all such cases of conflict between the two, the provisions of the Arms Act will take precedence, though this may require seeking clarification from the courts.

[SMJ]

blimey! That's crystal clear, thanks for clarifying!

[andy_65_in]

This law is yet to be ratified,then why fear.Lets see what happens.Shouldnt a requirement of a licence for airguns arise with effect from the date of aproval of this law and NOT before

[vrohan59]

One thing is clear, these new rules are more restrictive.The cost of application and renewal has sky rocketed.But, what about place of renewal? My dad's licences are from all over the North East, previously you could renew them in our place of permanent residence(we have the authenticity and NOC issued by the various licencing authorities) ,now we have to go every year to the place of issue to get them renewed.please enlighten.Thank you.

[andy_65_in]

One thing is clear, these new rules are more restrictive.The cost of application and renewal has sky rocketed.But, what about place of renewal? My dad's licences are from all over the North East, previously you could renew them in our place of permanent residence(we have the authenticity and NOC issued by the various licencing authorities) ,now we have to go every year to the place of issue to get them renewed.please enlighten.Thank you.

I hope your Dad got his 18 digit UID numbers for his arms licences.If so,renewal shouldnt be an issue irrespective of the new law?

[ParekSachin91]

Is there an english version of this?