Guns and poses

Such things would never happen in India, or that at least was the general view when news of the Columbine High School massacre broke out in the third week of April. It8217;s all the fault of those lax gun laws, weird cults and poor parenting out there, such problems just don8217;t exist here. Complacency is a comfortable state of being until, that is, a single bullet from a .22 bore revolver shatters it rudely. The shooting down of Jessica Lal in a Delhi restaurant last Friday at pointblank range must prompt some serious rethinking about the quality of parenting in this country and, yes, about its gun laws. If the two deviants who murdered 17 schoolchildren in Denver mirror the aberrations of American society, a Manu Sharma, the man who allegedly murdered Lal and is currently a fugitive from justice, reflects just as clearly a society in which it is wealth and power that sets the rules.

There are several laws and regulations governing the sale and use of guns and ammunition in India, make no mistake about that. Inprinciple, gun licences are handed over only to those who have a genuine requirement 8212; to people who feel that their security is threatened or who handle large sums of cash and need the protection that a firearm can provide. In practice, this means that anybody who has the money can get a licensed gun. In principle, the police grant licences only for guns with restricted calibres. In practice, if these weapons are used at close range they can be as deadly as an AK-47. There8217;s more to this story. Most guns in circulation are unlicensed. In a city like Delhi, according to police estimates, there are about 52,000 licensed guns, but the number of unlicensed arms could be four or five times this figure. Of course, this doesn8217;t come anywhere near the scenario in the US where a recent survey revealed that 43 percent of homes with children have a gun, but given the near absence of a proper monitoring and regulatory system in India, the danger of the few lethal weapons around being misused is very real. What8217;s more,a nifty Webley Scott or a Colts has today become a fashion statement among today8217;s arrivistes, the ultimate expression of power and machismo. But it can be whipped up in an instant to settle a dispute or make a statement and that8217;s what makes the situation so dangerous and volatile.

It8217;s time then to clean up this act. The police have always been fazed by the powerful and the wealthy. Unfortunately, it is the power vendors and the influence peddlers 8212; and their progeny 8212; who have the guns. The time has come to disarm all those who possess licensed firearms but don8217;t really require their protection. So far the authorities have thrown up their hands before the unlicensed gun. This attitude of surrender too must change. There have to be concerted attempts to unearth and confiscate unlicensed guns. Finally, there must be a loud and unequivocal public rejection of this culture of gun-slinging. Guns are bad news, there can be no two views on that.