Re: Gujarat tragedy - Solution - Legal Ownership of Weapons

[Npsingh123@aol.com]

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IPI_Marker

I support that idea. Your analysis of the pros and cons is excellent indeed.
I do not condone violence or violent solution to problems, but there can be
no justification for not letting people be prepared to defend their and
their
families' lives and property when one is surrounded by mobs bent on setting
you on fire and the like, in a country where policing is non-existent.
Owning
firearms by people will have a great deterrent effect on mobs. As the Indian
Arms Act stands today one cannot even own a stick without inviting a penalty
of 7 years in prison. BTW I live in a state that is on the forefront of gun
ownership in the U.S. and I still think it is less likely that I will be
shot
by someone here than the possibility of being killed in a road accident on
my
next visit back home.

The problem with the solution you propose is that you talk too much like a
free person in a country where we have still not cast off the yoke of
antiquated laws made by our colonial masters to keep us oppressed and on the
mercy of the government, notwithstanding the lofty vision of the first page
of our constitution.

Regards

N.P. Singh




In a message dated 3/6/02 2:33:51 AM Central Standard Time,
ashish_hanwadikar@yahoo.com writes:

<< Hi all,

       One serious (but likely to be highly controversial) solution to
 riots and other crimes is to allow legal ownership of firearms and
 other weapons by law abiding citizens. This will make sure that if the
 Govt. fails to do its duty to protect life and liberty of its citizens,
 citizens will be able to do it themselves. I know there will be lots of
 objections to this solution. So I am putting up a kind of FAQ here:

 Q1) Won't legal owners of arms use the firearms to kill and murder
 others?

 Ans) Very less likely. Because the firearms is registered with the
 Govt. with the owners address, the type of the firearm, its serial
 number etc. This is like the registering the CAR. Will somebody
 deliberately cause accident and kill with his registered CAR? Very less
 likely. Because those who want to murder others will not bother to
 purchase firearms legally and register them. They can get it anyhow
 from the black market already. Legal ownership will allow law abiding
 citizens to protect their and others life and property.

 Q2) Won't there be any free for all in case of riots?

 Ans) I think by definition riots are free for all. However, very few
 people will participate in riots knowning that law abiding citizens own
 firearms in the particular area. This will actually prevent free for
 all riots. Here my assumption is that riots are started by miscreants
 who want to benefit from the chaos of riots. However, the risk for the
 miscreant in starting such kind of riots when others own legal arms is
 significant. Therefore, miscreants will not dare to start the riots in
 the first place.

 Q3)What about domestic violence with the firearms?

 Ans) You have to understand that with legal ownership and registration
 it becomes easier to find the murder weapon. So, those who want to
 murder others will not bother to own legal weapons. Also, as part of
 registration of firearms we can also make sure that police have
 signature of the firearms with them. That is, they collect all the
 information about the gun which allows them to trace bullets to the gun
 which fired it. Some guns emit registration and serial numbers along
 with bullets. I don't think there is any harm in allowing this kinds of
 traceable guns.

 Q4) What about accidents?

 Ans) More people in developed countries get killed in automobile
 accidents than firearm accidents. Also, we can have strong liability
 laws and liability insurance to take of that. With the traceable guns
 this should not be a problem. Although, system will take some time to
 become smooth. However, we should allow ownership of firearms to
 increase alongwith the capacity of the system to handle liabilities.
 Thus, there won't be any shocks in the system.

 Q5)  Are there any working systems and what are the results?

 Ans) Yes, in US (Where else?). Here is the list of CATO's article on
 Gun ownership. Since, different states in US have different degrees of
 Gun ownership, those states with more restrictions on Gun ownerships
 have more crime rates than those that don't have any restrictions. In
 UK crime rate is very high because of tight Gun Control.

 Q6) To handle liabilities from Gun related accidental deaths we need
 efficient courts and police. Since, India lacks that won't it create
 problem?

 Ans) Yes. However, lack of efficient courts and police in India is what
 is causing the riots and other crimes. So?



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