Does it pay to advertise you're a gunowner?

[eljefe]

All,
what's your opinion on above?

Positive-Deterrent, dont mess with me

Negative- M'LAWD, the defendant is a dangerous ARMED criminal, who owns loaded arms and shot down in cold blood, the friendly 6 youths who were only trying to enter his house by force, to have a little fun with the defendants teenage daughters and wife , in the best traditions of love thy neighbour...Best
Axx

[Vikram]

Jefe,

It's a doubleedged sword.Can cut both ways. Criminals like to have the odds in favour of them; so, chances of a gun owner getting robbed or house-broken into are remote.In the unfortunate event of the gun owner shooting an innocent or an unarmed intruder, chances are the gun owner may rapidly become an ex-gun owner and share room with the criminal's friends in jail.

One interesting era was, during the heights of Naxal movement in the Telangana region in AP, the naxalites used to take away the licensed guns from the gun owners.They would simply come knocking your door and ask for the gun and never to be found again. Fighting back was not an option. Still, the police recover many 12 bore guns,.315 rifles,.30carbines from encounters.After sometime, police encouraged the gun owners in the affected areas to deposit their guns.The will to fight back was simply not there.

Best-
Vikram

[jumq]

May work as 2 side of the coin - Firstly the less ' dangerous ' armed criminals, categorising the drugged ones commonly habituated these days for some extra dough - might pull their hands behind on gaining knowledge of gun posession by the ' victim' . Nonetheless , "The Graft" by Martina Cole very well depicted that owing a weapon can also trigger one to react upon when not required ( under cirsumstances when criminal is unadequately armed ), and like Vikram stated, the rightful owner finds himself behind bars with not so enterprising freinds...

[kanwar76]

I don't think your second example is related to advertising your gun or not because in any case if you shot somebody questions will be asked but you can avoid second situation if people know you have a gun. I truly believe that guns are best use as deterrent. I don't think any body will have courage to rob a guy who is packing a revolver on belt holster.

Criminals always choose the week target but on the other side they can come better prepared if they think you are a Moti Party but have a gun

-Inder

[Sakobav]

Vikram has a point, even in Punjab I know of similar situations. There was a retired army JCO near my village who fought back but had to pay a big price.

[mehulkamdar]

Friends,

Though there is no need to advertise that one has a gun, often the knowledge that someone has one is a major deterrent to criminals. I am one of those who was threatened once on the phone by a no name who said he would kill me and I replied calmly that the person could not kill me on the phone and that if he were to come, I would be waiting with a gun. The threats ended that very day.

A very good friend of mine has his mother living on a huge farm on the Chennai outskirts all by herself and the only reason her bungalow has not been attacked is that everyone knows that she has guns. Almost every other bungalow in that village has been attacked and robbed by dacoits at some time or the other. And this is in a particularly volatile part of TN.

Some people may choose to give a gun up at some time or the other to Naxals etc but those who decide not to are seldom bothered. It takes some guts but if you don't stand up for your guns and your rights then you will be b@gg#$%d anyway.

[Vikram]

Mehul,

What you say is very true about ordinary criminals. In the case of naxalites, they are not nameless faceless ragged bands of dacoits.Also, the socio-economic issues involved.Most of these gun owners in those days belonged to the so called village biggies communities and they had a lot of reasons to fear the naxals.No, I don't support naxals,but there was little one could do to fight them.

Best-
Vikram

[mehulkamdar]

Vikram,

I used to travel every year to Anantapur to lecture at the SK University College one week and the subsequent week at the Press Club in Hyderabad. I do know of some people at Anantapur who actually stood up to the Naxalites and took care of them, if you know what I mean. I don't think everyone in AP bowed down to them and gave in meekly.

BTW Killicherry and Pannur where my friend's mother lives are predominaltly Telugu parts of northern TN which are heavily Naxalised. That this doughty lady carries on there is a testament to the fact that this does work if someone ahs a will to fight. Of they lose this will, then of course there is nothing that anyone could do.

These days, though, the Naxalites do seem to have been able to have sophisticated rocket launchers etc built by automobile ancillary units in TN, so they should be concentrating on them and not on the odd shotgun or IOF rifle, I guess.

[Vikram]

Mehul,

Speak of coincidences. My dad is from Anantapur district,he served there for quite sometime, and my graduation was done in Anantapur. I am morethan familiar with Anantapur. My mom is from Cuddapah.

The era I am speaking of is the periods like the '70s and the '80s. I don't know about the '6os. Probably, there is an occassional instance where they fought them back once.But, by and large, there wasn't any resistance. But, why resist in those days? I am not speaking of individual good people.But, the feudal( a seection to which I also belong by birth) oppression was so high, the social support to the Naxals was in deed very high. Anantapur was little affected by naxalism until the late '80s,that too in the Karnataka border areas.The Rayalaseema is the faction zone,Bihar(no offence meant to Bihar,please ) style. I am going way OT here. To comeback,yes, the will to fight is very important and no denying about that. But, in the context of naxalism of that era, probably I wouldn't like the gun in the hands of the feudal lords. Sorry once again,I am digressing way too much here.We shall have a discussion when we meet.Au revoir.

Best-
Vikram

[mehulkamdar]

Vikram,

I have some fantastic memories of your hometown then. When Prof Venugopal Reddy was principal at the SK University College he invited me every year to talk about rationalism to his students. He was passionate about the subject and the Sai Baba morons tried getting him moved out of the college. He eventually became a VC at some university though I had lost touch with him because I had moved to the US by then. If you know him or could help me trace him, please do the needful. I shall be very grateful for this assistance.

Now before I get lambasted for this completely OT discussion,

Cheers!

[TC]

Mehul I completely agree with you on this :

"Some people may choose to give a gun up at some time or the other to Naxals etc but those who decide not to are seldom bothered. It takes some guts but if you don't stand up for your guns and your rights then you will be b@gg#$%d anyway."

Personally all my friends, colleagues, relatives always knew that I have guns. This never had any influence on their attitude towards me or our relationships.

As a journalist I can say the problem of gun grabbing by Naxalites or criminals was always there. It was a huge problem in Bengal during the post Independence riots and in the 70s. We have Naxalites surfacing again. Then we have the Kamtapuris in North Bengal.
Bengal, purely because of its location, always has trouble spots. But in the villages and small district towns I have seen few people giving up their weapons out of fear of losing them.
Interestingly, police personnel have been robbed of their weapons by Naxalites in most of the recent and past cases....the last one being as recent as three days old. The insurgents are not happy with 12 bore DBBLs or hunting rifles. They realise the value of firepower and the convenience of robbing service weapons. The ammo is available in the black market in plenty.

Cheers

TC