Team-BHP - Gun Ownership

I lived in Coorg between 1979-82, and have witnessed the gun phenomena to some extent. Most home owners have them, and practically everyone knows how to use them. Nobody really carries them around, unless they are going for a hunt, so one doesn't have to worry about road-rage.

However, I was aware of many incidences of gun related domestic accidents. Almost none got reported to cops as murder, they were always accidents. I doubt these deaths would have occurred if they didn't have access to guns. I still remember one case where a woman shot her brother-in-law when she saw him getting a gun to threaten her husband. Easy to loose the nerve in presence of a gun.

Now in India too Student killed in school shootout near Delhi

Quote:

A class eight student was killed in a shootout in a private school in Haryana's Gurgaon district on Tuesday.

"Abhishek Tyagi, a class 8 student of Euro International School had picked up a fight with two fellow students a couple of days ago on the school bus. They made up two days ago. But suddenly the two boys in a fit of anger killed Abhishek as he was about to board the bus back home," a senior police official told rediff.com.

Police said two students, sons of property dealers, are believed to have fired five bullets from a licensed pistol at Abhishek.

The 14-year-old, who received four shots in all, including one in the temple and two on his chest from a close range, died on the way to hospital. No one else was injured in the shooting in the school in this prosperous satellite town outside Delhi.

The two boys have been detained by police.

Police said they would investigate how the pistol was brought to school and also question the parent who owns the license.

The school management is maintaining its silence on the issue.

Imagine with such tight gun laws in India we see this occurring. Nothing against Delhi, but there definitely seems to be a gun culture there. Is it the failure of security and so people feel a need to have guns or is it because people want to show off?

No wonder in the US you have shootouts so regularly. Kid shot 8 guys in a mall. Two days back a guy who was prevented from entering a Mission church shot one person down there, then 12 hours later he went to another church and just when everyone was leaving, shot down 2 more. He was gunned down by a security guard.

400 are shot dead in NYC a year, in Delhi just 35

Quote:

New York is more violent a city than New Delhi, observes a noted criminologist.

Presenting a comparative picture of gun murders in the two cities before senior officials of the Central Bureau of Investigation in New Delhi on Tuesday, Lawrence Sherman, criminology professor at the University of Pennsylvania, said while there were 400 gun murders in New York in a year, the number was just nearly 35 in New Delhi.

Sherman observed that reducing the gun density in hot spots, particularly in violence-prone areas, will help reduce the crime graph. He also suggested that uniformed patrols be sent to the hot spots for brief visits rather than for longer patrols.

Elaborating on the comparative ratio, he said gun murders in Delhi were just three per million.

The criminology professor put the global trend of crime in three categories -- gun, cyber and domestic violence.

"Sting operations have proved to be successful in curbing cyber crimes and in cases of domestic violence, while arrests helped only in cases of employed people," he said.

Replying to a query, Sherman said that more research and experiments need to be done to bring crime rate down.

Dispelling doubts about the safety of Indian students studying in United States, the professor stated that freak incidents of violence should not cause anxiety amongst Indian students and their parents.

Professor Sherman has conducted field experiments to find effective ways to reduce homicide, domestic violence, gun violence, robbery, burglary and other crimes in collaboration with different police and prison agencies.

Many of you would recall the restrictive days of the license permit raj - motoring enthusiasts in those days were mostly condemned to make do with dated designs manufactured by companies who had a complete disregard for any quality standards. Things are thankfully different now, car enthusiasts can now walk into a showroom and buy the latest Honda or Mercedes - then why the heck are gun enthusiasts not similarly blessed?

I would like to point out that the UN with it's anti-gun agenda and the local IANSA funded anti-gun outfits have been claiming that India has more than 40 million firearms. Well, the year that the total no. of motor vehicles in India crossed that number was in 1998, when the total no. of vehicles on Indian roads was 41 million. While I have not been able to dig out stats on the total no. of road deaths that year ( a little bit of "gooling" should get you the figures), the total no. of reported road deaths in the year 2000 was 78,911 and this figure keeps climbing each year... Contrast that with the total no. of reported homicides in India that same year, which was 37,170. While I have not been able find data on how many of those homicides were committed using a gun, even if we were to assume that it was around the 30% mark (which I very much doubt) - the figures for firearms related deaths in India would be a small fraction of road deaths. So without a shred of doubt motor vehicles are more dangerous to the lives of our citizens... why isn't anyone howling for a total ban on motorised transport?

The United States with much freer gun laws (in most states) and many times more guns in civilian hands than in India had 12,658 reported homicides that same year. When we contrast those numbers with the total number of murders in India that year it is quite obvious that gun control does not work - so why continue to curtail the freedoms of our citizens by clinging on to an ideology that clearly is not delivering on it's promise?

Cheers!
Abhijeet

Quote:

Originally Posted by supremeBaleno (Post 878686)

I remember seeing some firearm shops at the junction of Mount Road and Wallajah road. They must be having them.

BTW these air-guns are a big draw back home in Kerala, where many young guys use it to shoot birds (mainly kokku - is the English for that crane?). The guns are bought at Cochin, while the pellets are available even in small towns and come pretty cheap at 100 pellets for less than Rs20. Dont remember the cost of the gun though.

Thanks SB, how recently did you see those shops? I heard that there are some shops in Periamet.
Gun Street of Chennai - www.chennaibest.com

I certainly don't intend to shoot birds.:)
Just a little bit of practice on my terrace, imagining the target is my boss's head.:D

Quote:

Originally Posted by abhijeet (Post 744015)

Many of you would recall the restrictive days of the license permit raj - motoring enthusiasts in those days were mostly condemned to make do with dated designs manufactured by companies who had a complete disregard for any quality standards. Things are thankfully different now, car enthusiasts can now walk into a showroom and buy the latest Honda or Mercedes - then why the heck are gun enthusiasts not similarly blessed?

I would like to point out that the UN with it's anti-gun agenda and the local IANSA funded anti-gun outfits have been claiming that India has more than 40 million firearms. Well, the year that the total no. of motor vehicles in India crossed that number was in 1998, when the total no. of vehicles on Indian roads was 41 million. While I have not been able to dig out stats on the total no. of road deaths that year ( a little bit of "gooling" should get you the figures), the total no. of reported road deaths in the year 2000 was 78,911 and this figure keeps climbing each year... Contrast that with the total no. of reported homicides in India that same year, which was 37,170. While I have not been able find data on how many of those homicides were committed using a gun, even if we were to assume that it was around the 30% mark (which I very much doubt) - the figures for firearms related deaths in India would be a small fraction of road deaths. So without a shred of doubt motor vehicles are more dangerous to the lives of our citizens... why isn't anyone howling for a total ban on motorised transport?

The United States with much freer gun laws (in most states) and many times more guns in civilian hands than in India had 12,658 reported homicides that same year. When we contrast those numbers with the total number of murders in India that year it is quite obvious that gun control does not work - so why continue to curtail the freedoms of our citizens by clinging on to an ideology that clearly is not delivering on it's promise?

Cheers!
Abhijeet

Abhijeet, it is the duty of strong and powerful to keep voiceless and defenseless people weak.

Similarly it is the duty of the weak to protect themselves with whatever weapons and methods they find it feasible.

When sufficient number of weak will bear weapons and arms then laws will change by itself to suit the new reality. The weak will never get power just by asking .. it has to be obtained by force.

this has always been the unwritten law of nature.