02 January 10 - 13:46Draconian 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:

http://www.indiansforguns.com/draft_objections.pdf (Acrobat PDF document format)
http://www.indiansforguns.com/draft_objections.rtf (Rich Text Format, editable in most office programs)
http://www.indiansforguns.com/draft_objections.txt (plain text format, editable in any text editor)
http://www.indiansforguns.com/draft_objections.odt (Open Office document format, editable)

You can send in the prepared text as it is, or use it as a base to prepare your own individual objections. Irrespective of what you choose to do, PLEASE DO send in your objections without fail. This is not any one individuals battle, but in stead a matter which AFFECTS ALL OF US, do not take this lightly.

Vikram's excellent article (which I would suggest everyone attach as an enclosure), continues to be freely downloadable at:
http://www.indiansforguns.com/right_to_protection.pdf

All of the above can be freely downloaded by members/ non-members.

Please e-mail this along with the attached Right To Protection document to S.K. Malhotra at:

sudhir.malhotra@nic.in

Also, please CC the same e-mail to:

P. Chidamabaram: hm@nic.in
Sonia Gandhi: soniagandhi@sansad.nic.in
Arun Jaitley: ajaitley@sansad.nic.in
Sushma Swaraj: sushmaswaraj@hotmail.com

You should also copy the prepared text to the Prime Minister at manmohan@sansad.nic.in (more)

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02 December 08 - 00:35I wish I'd had a gun, not a camera!

"I wish I'd had a gun, not a camera!" These were the words of the Mumbai based news photographer who clicked the photo of one of the terrorists, while they attacked the CST railway station. You can read more of what he had to say here here >>

Disturbingly he had this to say about the armed railway police charged with guarding the railway station - "There were armed policemen hiding all around the station but none of them did anything..." This simply underlines the need for more private citizens to be armed and prepared to defend themselves, we should not and cannot depend on the police to come save us in such situations.

Image courtesy Oleg Volk - www.olegvolk.net

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02 December 08 - 00:17If only we had guns!

Image courtesy Oleg Volk - www.olegvolk.net

The dastardly terrorist attack on Mumbai last week (once again) exposed how strict gun control laws directly help criminals target law abiding citizens with impunity. The terrorists came to Mumbai armed not only with AK-47's, grenades and bombs, but also with the knowledge that they could safely expect no armed resistance from the citizens of Mumbai! (more)

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13 October 06 - 09:30Pistol found in unclaimed bank locker

A pistol gifted by a Raja to a British officer in 1920s found in an unclaimed locker of State Bank of India.

The Times of India reports that an antique (sic) pistol supposedly gifted to Lt A B Greenwood, sometime in the 1920s by an unknown Raja was found (along with 261 rounds of ammo) in an unclaimed locker of the State Bank of India's head office at Fort, Mumbai.

An interesting aside - as per receipts found with the pistol, the (highly engraved) custom made gun is supposed to have cost Rs. 300 at the time while the ammunition recovered is supposed to have cost Rs. 200. By the same measure, 261 rounds of .32 cal IOF (KF brand) ammo would cost less than Rs. 9,000 today... of course these days, there is little chance of purchasing any kind of pistol for a proportionate amount of around Rs. 13-14,000!!

Read the full article here >>

Cheers!
Abhijeet

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25 September 06 - 16:47Asif 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 either read the text transcript on the CNN-IBN site here>>

OR

If bandwidth is not an issue you can see the archived (low res) video on their site here >>

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25 September 06 - 00:00Over 3 lakh unlicensed guns in Delhi

Dug this out from an old post of mine at Yahoo groups to quote elsewhere, but then decided it should be posted under the RKBA section as well...

Over 3 lakh unlicensed guns in Delhi
Maneesh Pandey
11 May, 2003 TNN

NEW DELHI:Ninety per cent of the crimes in Delhi are committed using unlicensed guns. From the rudimentary desi katta - a rusty pipe attached to a crude wooden grip and a trigger - to the more sophisticated 'Star' guns smuggled in from China and Pakistan, the illegal gun market is thriving like never before.

Officials say legal firearms are used only in stray cases of suicides and domestic violence. Delhi Police estimates that the number of illegal guns is five times higher than the 55,000 licensed guns in the city.

Ooooh!! I love it when the cops say things like that!! But is anyone in parliament listening!!!

Cheers!
Abhijeet

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14 June 06 - 15:09Interesting take on gun rights

Every once in a while one comes across an article that reflects ones own thinking so well that it's almost spooky! This is exactly the feeling I got while reading this article on the "American Handgunner" website. I make no bones about the fact that I am as pro-gun as one can get, BUT and this is a big BUT – I simply DO NOT buy the argument that citizens possessing guns either prevents a tyrannical government from coming to power OR helps replace that government with a better dispensation! History is littered with enough examples to disprove this argument – just look at our own neighbourhood... Afghanistan is chock a block full of weapons in the hands of civilians, but that hasn't helped it move anywhere close to a free and fair democratic society!

The author extensively quotes from Etienne de la Boetie's "The Discourse of Voluntary Servitude" and one cannot help but draw parallels with India's fight for independence. It seems so much like we have exchanged one set of oppressive rulers (the British) for another (the Politician-Bureaucrat combine)! Boetie's essay seems to have an explanation as to why we Indians have so readily accepted this new dispensation without so much as a whimper. Why is it that so few of us are bothered by our governments repeated infringements of civil liberties? Why does the vast majority not protest the rampant corruption that ails our institutions? And why, why is no one even willing to listen (let alone act)? Boetie's essay seems to have some pretty interesting answers... a disturbing analysis of human nature – check it out and draw your own conculsions.

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29 May 06 - 09:20Cornered Cat - Women and Guns

An interesting and entertaining site - corneredcat.com

The site owner describes this site as:

This site is about women and guns, not about cats. But in a way, it's about the cornered cat in all of us. It's about the determination to get away from an attacker if you need to. It's about making the decision to say, "Not me. Not mine. Not today." And it's about the tools to make that decision stick.

Check it out here.

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