In mid January, at the inaugural meeting of the National Association for Gun Rights India (NAGRI), we took the first steps towards building a nationwide organisation to represent the concerns & fight for the rights of not just arms licensees & arms license aspirants but in fact all freedom loving citizens of India. In the intervening period there has been much work done by several dedicated individuals and NAGRI is now ready to initiate Public Interest Litigation, as our first big step towards realising the goals we have set for ourselves.
Category Archives: default
SUMMARY OF WHAT THE HOME MINISTRY SEEKS TO DO
SUMMARY OF WHAT THE HOME MINISTRY SEEKS TO DO THROUGH THE PROPOSED AMENDMENTS TO THE ARMS ACT
1. Negating the constitutional right of every citizen to protect his/ her life and property by denying them the tools to do so
2. Glossing over & trying to divert attention from the ineptitude of the State in combating lawlessness by targeting law abiding citizens who are Arms License Holders/ License Seekers by equating them with common criminals and anti-national elements, in spite of the fact that the statistics published Home Ministry prove that an insignificant number of crimes are committed by Arms License Holders. Overwhelming majority of crime committed using other arms or illegal arms – as criminals & anti-national elements DO NOT bother to apply for Arms Licenses
Continue reading SUMMARY OF WHAT THE HOME MINISTRY SEEKS TO DO
Draconian new amendments – request for action
As some of you are aware the Ministry of Home Affairs is planning on amending the existing Arms policy and this will make things worse than they already are for all of us who love guns & shooting and who wish to live in a truly free country! In case you are unaware of the proposed changes, kindly take a look at the document titled “Proposed Arms and Ammo Policy” which is available at http://www.mha.nic.in/pdfs/DAAM-PolicyIndividuals-211209.pdf
There is a prepared text below addressed to Shri S.K Malhotra. The same text is also available as downloadable files in various formats (to suit everyone’s tastes and to make it easier to print/ copy/ paste/ edit etc.), which can be downloaded from:
Continue reading Draconian new amendments – request for action
Right to Protection
A close friend and moderator at www.indiansforguns.com , Vikram Kona, has written an excellent essay titled:
Right to Protection – A Fundamental Responsibility & Failure of the Indian State.
Vikram takes Indian crime statistics over the past several decades and other government government published data, to completely expose the failure of the Indian state in it’s duty to protect citizens. To add insult to injury, neither will the state allow citizens the means to protect themselves! A must read, you can either download the article in PDF format from here >>> OR see the complete discussion on www.indiansforguns.com.
Asif and Abhijeet on CNN-IBN
Asif (a fellow member at indiansforguns.com) and I, were interviewed by CNN-IBN on the 16th of this month. The topic was gun control and why Indian citizens need to have a right to keep and bear arms (RKBA)!
The interview was aired the same evening, you can read a short text transcript on below:
Trigger happy: 40 mn guns in India
Shailesh Rai
CNN-IBN
Posted Friday , September 15, 2006 at 20:44
Updated Friday , September 15, 2006 at 21:06New Delhi: Abhijeet Singh is a software professional who works with Open Source Programs – a software that’s open to everyone to use without restrictions.
He’s also part of a growing group which wants the same freedom to extend to something totally different – guns.
“If you’re mugged on a street, will you tell the muggers – ‘Wait, let me just call the police’ – and then go to them and continue getting mugged?” Singh asks.
“Criminals are already armed. Why should someone who wants to protect his family be denied that choice?” he adds.
But it isn’t that easy to lock and load in India. To own a gun, you first have to apply for a firearm license.
You then have to go for an interview with the local Deputy Commissioner of Police of licensing, where you’ll have to prove a tangible threat.
Gun use in India is regulated by the Arms Act of 1959, which ensures that a person can own a gun only after a very stringent process.
Yet, the United Nations puts the total number of guns in the country at around 40 million.
“There’s a very small line between legal and illegal arms. Guns get lost, stolen and end up in the black market,” says Vice-President of Control Arms Foundation of India, Anuradha Chenoy.
But the debate is also a moral one. Abhijeet is the moderator of a web group called indiansforguns.com.
One of it’s members, Asif Ali, says most gun owners are responsible citizens.
“Just because you have a gun doesn’t make you a maniac,” he explains.
But there’s also a different point of view. “The mere possession of a gun can convince a person to use it,” argues Anuradha.
The Government will be under the gun next month, when it has the chance to sign an arms trade treaty in the UN General Assembly. It’s a vote that could be an indicator of things to come.
If bandwidth is not an issue you can see the archived (low res) video on their site here >>
Air Supply – Gasp! I can’t breathe!!
Was at the Air Supply concert last evening,
thankfully had hooked up with some friends for a few beers before the event –
might have been unbearable otherwise! A couple of geriatric has been rockers,
singing mushy songs and trying to get the smallish crowd of less than 2000
people all excited… 😛
Well to be completely honest there were moments which brought back old
memories… especially when they played their old hits like “making love
out of nothing at all”, “all out of love”, “lost in
love” etc. Reminded me of college days when a spare cassette full of their
numbers was always handy in the car, handy to be played when one got hit by the
post-break up blues… Looking back, (nostalgia aside) it seems hard to believe
that I was such a sentimental fool in those days! :O Guess everyone hardens up
as they grow older; slowly discarding their youthful naiveté and sentimentality
along the way… instead picking up a drier attitude and thicker skin… handier
tools to survive the world, maybe a little less fun though…
Some pictures
Here are some pictures of the Jeep I’d built (a few years back) – yep it’s the same one that caught fire! 😉
For those who care to know – It was built on a CJ-3B Jeep (right-hand drive) clone manufactured in India by Mahindra & Mahindra to Indian Army specs. The engine used was a 4 cylinder, 2500cc Isuzu diesel (with matched 4 speed gearbox and 4WD transfer case). Both pictures were taken sometime in 2000.
That’s me at our house in the village, had just gotten back from a shoot…
My cousin (standing) & me (crawling under the beast) – trying to get it moving again! 😉
Birthday
It’s been a long standing Birthday tradition at home that each year Dad and I go out and distribute blankets to the poor. Since this is pretty much the coldest part of the year… it isn’t hard to find people huddled on the pavements that could use an extra blanket (or more). Quite frankly I’ve always been a bit skeptical of the entire practice – most of the guys on the pavement seem like junkies and in all probability will go and sell the damn things for an extra fix or two 😛 But charity of any description seems to please Dad and I learnt long ago that arguing with him is a fruitless exercise… so I just go along with it each year – dutifully going through the motions of helping out the “needy”… Not that I’m some unfeeling cold hearted person, it’s just that giving hand-outs isn’t my first choice of how to practice charity.
I’d much rather contribute to a cause which helps people help themselves… Just giving alms to ease your guilt doesn’t quite cut it for me.
Anyway, spent my Birthday (this past Friday) in Hisar and did not have much time for anything in the way of celebrations, just cut the cake and ordered in Chinese – some very forgettable food indeed! Hisar is a gourmet disaster… but no surprises there!!
Am currently back in Delhi for a couple of meetings and will probably be leaving again (for Hisar) on Friday. So Dad & I picked tonight as the night for the “blanket distribution” event and it was decided that we would not go to the slums this time, we’d hand them out to the poor chowkidars (watchmen) on duty in our own locality instead.
The reactions of the watchmen towards us handing out these (unexpected) “gifts” spanned the entire range from surprise & quiet gratitude all the way to greed (quite a few asked for “more” – Dickens would approve). In the slums usually it’s less surprise and more greed, but then I guess they are used to this sort of thing in those places…
We just got back and I thought I’d blog some of it, especially since I’m not sure when I’ll get time to log in again.