The Signal - Guns and the men
In a sprawling Chhatarpur farmhouse in south Delhi, where househelps bow in deference and four chained dogs keep watchmen company, Rahoul Rai waxes eloquent about equality and liberty. He’s a jolly man in a white safari suit, an entrepreneur who was once a national-level skeet shooter. He’s also president of the National Association for Gun Rights India (NAGRI). For Rai, social order is incomplete without a civilian’s right to bear arms. “There’s a saying that God made man, but Samuel Colt made them equal,” he declares. A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed. This non-restrictive guarantee is why the US has the highest number of guns per capita, and why American courts can’t agree over what exactly the amendment protects. In Rahoul Rai’s and Abhijeet Singh’s ideal scenarios, India too would have something akin to a Second Amendment. Instead, theirs is a country with restrictive gun laws. That’s something they want to change. PatronageGun owners balked. And NAGRI was born. Among the January 2010 attendees were pro shooters, armed forces veterans, doctors, engineers, businesspeople, and two politicians: Congress leader-slash-tycoon Naveen Jindal, and Congress Rajya Sabha MP Digvijaya Singh. Whatever was in their memorandum worked to some extent, because the home ministry backed off on the “grave threat” clause. But police verifications became mandatory. NAGRI wasn’t pleased. Section 14 of The Arms Act, 1959, still stated that authorities could deny licences if they believed an applicant was “of unsound mind”, or for any other reason. This meant the powers that be used discretion to adjudge applicants. Gun aficionados went back to the drawing board… with a little help from Naveen Jindal. Since Naveen Jindal and Digvijaya Singh did not respond to requests for comment, this reporter contacted Prabhakar Soma, who once headed the now-defunct agency. “I don’t have much to say. My servicing team worked on this, and the person in charge passed away due to Covid,” Soma says. The lobbying didn’t end with the UPA. When the BJP-led NDA alliance came to power in 2014, NAGRI members continued meeting bureaucrats and parliamentarians to pitch for changes in the Arms Act. “We drafted a new policy. As many 250 MPs backed us; of those, 101 gave their signed support,” Rahoul Rai shares. “But despite rationalisations, this iron grid called the Indian Administrative Services negated our efforts. The secretary who supported us was transferred, and junior bureaucrats changed the entire thing.” The result: even stricter laws. The Arms Rules, 2016—passed under then-home minister Rajnath Singh—not only mandated firearm licences for paintball guns, air rifles, and blank-firing guns, but also increased renewal fees, recommended gun-free zones, and prohibited arms in public places. Last but not least, it introduced the clause of “grave and anticipated threat to life”. ClaimsWhy should Indians own guns? Because it’s in their blood. NAGRI’s other views are: - Restrictive gun laws lead to the proliferation of illegal guns and therefore, more crime. - There’s no link between firearm ownership and higher risk of suicide. - Women would be safer if they were armed. - The law cannot, and does not, always come to your rescue. Therefore, good people with guns are the only reliable counter against bad people with guns. No. “Easing gun ownership sets a dangerous trend of normalising the possession of tools of murder in the hands of both responsible and irresponsible people,” says Bibhu Prasad Routray. Routray is former deputy director of the National Security Council Secretariat, Government of India, and currently heads Goa-based research forum Mantraya. “A large number of crimes in India, both in conflict theatres as well as in societies where guns are a symbol of machismo, are committed using illegal weapons. That trend will not change by legalising ownership. In view of the chronic absence of state enforcement, legalising possession can also be a nightmarish situation for law and order and crime control,” he adds. “Nirbheek exploited the state of fear Indian women constant live in,” says Binalakshmi Nepram, secretary general of the Control Arms Foundation of India. “Data also shows that more men own guns, and that guns have been used to commit domestic and sexual violence against women in the country.” One asks Abhijeet Singh what he makes of the research that refutes most pro-gun claims. “Every divisive issue has statistics on both sides, so you’ll mine it in a way to suit your pre-set conclusions. My focus is on liberty and the fair opportunity to defend yourself.” EpilogueAt one point in the two-hour conversation, Rahoul Rai talks about how Sports Authority of India complexes don’t give shooters a level playing field vis-à-vis other athletes. “If I’m a football player who wants to play football, they’ll give me a football. But if I’m a shooter who wants to shoot, they won’t give me a gun. There’s a big difference,” he says. “…maybe because guns are lethal, and footballs are not?” “Why would a gun be lethal? You’re not going to shoot people with it.” Waxing eloquent about poor farmers without guns is easy when Jaguars and BMWs whiz past your bungalow. So is convincing lawmakers that good people with guns are the answer to society’s ills. ICYMITwo-wheel Wonder: Ice-cream Cone Monopoly: RIP Trends: Everyone Needs An Upgrade: Into The Wild: End Of An Era: If you liked this post from The Signal, why not share it? |
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