Gunreference1
08-19-2010, 04:33 AM
19 Aug, 2010, 03.53AM IST,ET Bureau
Digvijay meets PM, opposes Chidambaram’s plan to change gun laws
NEW DELHI: The Obama administration’s assault on the Second Amendment rights in the US — the amendment that protects citizens’ personal rights to keep and bear firearms, albeit for lawful purposes and primarily for self-defence in their homes — and the public anger against it has a desi version. A group of influential politicians led by Congress general secretary Digvijay Singh on Wednesday unleashed an offensive against home minister P Chidambaram for seeking changes in the country’s gun laws.
Mr Singh, who is the patron-in-chief of the National Association for Gun Rights India, led a delegation of MPs belonging to Congress, BJP and SP, to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to oppose changes in the gun laws. In a memorandum to the prime minister, the group alleged that in the guise of moving a minor amendment to the Arms Act, ostensibly to make police verification mandatory and creating a database, the home ministry was planning changes on other important aspects of the law with the “goal of undermining every citizen’s legal right to keep and bear arms”.
The group said the very basis of the new arms policy is the flawed assumption that “the proliferation of arms, whether licensed or illegal, vitiates the law and order situation”. Ridiculing this claim of the home ministry a member of the delegation said that it was naive to believe that problems would end with gun control.
“The home ministry cannot understand that criminals don’t really care about laws and if they don’t care about such laws as murder, robbery, assault, and others, what makes the gun control crowd in the North Block think the criminals care about gun control laws,” asked a member of the delegation that met the prime minister.
“In fact, the ministry has admitted in Parliament that it has conducted no study/assessment linking firearms to rise in crime rate. Such statements are also a direct insult to lakhs of honest law-abiding citizens who keep and bear arms responsibly, by equating them to common criminals,” the memorandum submitted to the prime minister said.
Criticising other changes brought in the law, the delegation said the new arms policy requires a citizen to prove grave and imminent threat to life prior to the grant of an arms license. “It is an attempt to illegally amend the relevant sections of the Arms Act which clearly outline conditions under which arms license applications are to be approved or denied,” the delegation said.
“Proving grave and imminent threat will make it impossible for an ordinary citizen and will lead to large-scale corruption and deny honest middle class citizens the only means with which to protect themselves,” it said.
The memorandum was also critical of the changes for issuing all-India validity arms license. Earlier, it was the respective state government who was the licence issuing authority and now the MHA will issue licenses in all (non-VIP) cases.
The delegation led by Mr Singh included Mr Jaswant Singh and S S Ahluwalia (BJP), Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh (SP), Naveen Jindal, Anil Lad, Sanjay Singh, Fransisco Sardinhia, Manish Tewari and Rakesh Singh (Congress). “The proposed changes are too far-reaching and repressive to become law. The rights of gun owners should not be denigrated and destroyed,” said a member after the meeting with the PM.
http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/politics/nation/Digvijay-meets-PM-opposes-Chidambarams-plan-to-change-gun-laws/articleshow/6334006.cms
Steve
Digvijay meets PM, opposes Chidambaram’s plan to change gun laws
NEW DELHI: The Obama administration’s assault on the Second Amendment rights in the US — the amendment that protects citizens’ personal rights to keep and bear firearms, albeit for lawful purposes and primarily for self-defence in their homes — and the public anger against it has a desi version. A group of influential politicians led by Congress general secretary Digvijay Singh on Wednesday unleashed an offensive against home minister P Chidambaram for seeking changes in the country’s gun laws.
Mr Singh, who is the patron-in-chief of the National Association for Gun Rights India, led a delegation of MPs belonging to Congress, BJP and SP, to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to oppose changes in the gun laws. In a memorandum to the prime minister, the group alleged that in the guise of moving a minor amendment to the Arms Act, ostensibly to make police verification mandatory and creating a database, the home ministry was planning changes on other important aspects of the law with the “goal of undermining every citizen’s legal right to keep and bear arms”.
The group said the very basis of the new arms policy is the flawed assumption that “the proliferation of arms, whether licensed or illegal, vitiates the law and order situation”. Ridiculing this claim of the home ministry a member of the delegation said that it was naive to believe that problems would end with gun control.
“The home ministry cannot understand that criminals don’t really care about laws and if they don’t care about such laws as murder, robbery, assault, and others, what makes the gun control crowd in the North Block think the criminals care about gun control laws,” asked a member of the delegation that met the prime minister.
“In fact, the ministry has admitted in Parliament that it has conducted no study/assessment linking firearms to rise in crime rate. Such statements are also a direct insult to lakhs of honest law-abiding citizens who keep and bear arms responsibly, by equating them to common criminals,” the memorandum submitted to the prime minister said.
Criticising other changes brought in the law, the delegation said the new arms policy requires a citizen to prove grave and imminent threat to life prior to the grant of an arms license. “It is an attempt to illegally amend the relevant sections of the Arms Act which clearly outline conditions under which arms license applications are to be approved or denied,” the delegation said.
“Proving grave and imminent threat will make it impossible for an ordinary citizen and will lead to large-scale corruption and deny honest middle class citizens the only means with which to protect themselves,” it said.
The memorandum was also critical of the changes for issuing all-India validity arms license. Earlier, it was the respective state government who was the licence issuing authority and now the MHA will issue licenses in all (non-VIP) cases.
The delegation led by Mr Singh included Mr Jaswant Singh and S S Ahluwalia (BJP), Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh (SP), Naveen Jindal, Anil Lad, Sanjay Singh, Fransisco Sardinhia, Manish Tewari and Rakesh Singh (Congress). “The proposed changes are too far-reaching and repressive to become law. The rights of gun owners should not be denigrated and destroyed,” said a member after the meeting with the PM.
http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/politics/nation/Digvijay-meets-PM-opposes-Chidambarams-plan-to-change-gun-laws/articleshow/6334006.cms
Steve