New groups mobilize as Indians embrace the right to bear arms

[X_Digger]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/01/31/AR2010013102079.html?hpid=topnews

In the land of Mahatma Gandhi, Indian gun owners are coming out of the shadows for the first time to mobilize, U.S.-style, against proposed new curbs on bearing arms.

When gunmen attacked 10 sites in Mumbai in November 2008, including two five-star hotels and a train station, Mumbai resident Kumar Verma sat at home glued to the television, feeling outraged and unsafe.

Before the end of December, Verma and his friends had applied for gun licenses. He read up on India's gun laws and joined the Web forum Indians for Guns. When he got his license seven months later, he bought a black, secondhand, snub-nose Smith & Wesson revolver with a walnut grip.

"I feel safe wearing it in my ankle holster every day," said Verma, 27, who runs a family business selling fire-protection systems. "I have a right to self-protection, because random street crime and terrorism have increased. The police cannot be there for everybody all the time. Now I am a believer in the right to keep and bear arms."

Having been to India, I can understand the guy's attitude. Lots of folks carry small knives or lethi (kind of a club / baton) and in certain areas, you just don't go out without being armed or having an armed escort. The company driver I used was always armed, as was the majordomo (for lack of a better term) of the residence I stayed at.

[GreenStormCloud]

1. Self-defense is the first basic natural human right.

From that flows the right to the tools of effective self-defense.

[rfranklin]

2. He'll do really well when they spray him with an AK47...

Once again, magical thinking in the gun forum.

[Democrat_in_Houston]

3. Freedom comes at a price.

[HeresyLives]

4. So does stupidity.

[Democrat_in_Houston]

5. And some people are stupid and still not free.

[Democrat_in_Houston]

6. I support the entire constitution

[Fire_Medic_Dave]

13. RFranklin isn't stupid just misguided.

[GreenStormCloud]

7. You make a couple of assumptions.

You assume that all the common criminals have AK-47s. If you will read the article, he is mainly wanting protection from common crime.

You second assumption is that not having a gun will somehow protect him from AK-47 fire. If someone has an AK, then a pistol give a better chance than no pistol, although the odds are likely to be with the terrorists. However, if the terrorist is busy shooting someone else, the pistol give you a chance to take him out.

It appears that you think he should choose to be a helpless victim. Is that the same choice that you have made with regard to violent crime? Are you angry that others reject the cherished-by-some status of victim?

[Katya Mullethov]

9. With any luck at all , he WILL attempt to " spray from the hip"

He will get a lot less hits before he has to change magazines .

[ManiacJoe]

15. Are you suggesting this is a good thing?

[PavePusher]

16. In terms of potential damage...

It would most likely be less harmful than aimed shots.

Think about it.

[Katya Mullethov]

17. Absolutely

Certainly sounds devastating though , doesnt it ? It's just as dramatic and equaling convincing as " I had to lay it down" . lol

[GreenStormCloud]

20. Hosing out a magazine on full-auto is a great way to turn ammo into noise...

with no guarantee of hitting anything.

[rd_kent]

The only magical thinking is YOUR asinine, ignorant, unfounded post.

[Fire_Medic_Dave]

12. He'll be so much more dead because he was armed. Magical thinking is right.

[gorfle]

18. It's good enough for police officers.

If pistols are good enough for the standard carry weapon for police officers, I think it's good enough for civilians, don't you?

[SteveM]

19. So, what would constitute a "spray," since you brought up the term?...

It would appear that "your" notion of a terrorist is someone who would quickly empty his full-auto weapon, then have to re-load. How many people would he have killed during your Edward G. Robinson tactic? From what I understand, "spraying" a full-auto weapon is only desirable when a few targets are close by; otherwise, it is a waste of ammunition. If there is indeed a large crowd (a couple of hundred) and, say 3% had CCWs, then six people could quite conceivably close-in and shoot your terrorist as he auditions for a gangster flick, thus saving many lives.

Of course, those six would have to be armed, or they had better know some of "your" magic.

[spin]

8. K&R (n/t)

[proteus_lives]

10. Good for them!

Self-defense and the right to bear arms should exist in every country!

[rd_kent]

11. Good for them. Self protection is a natural right.

[Glassunion]

14. I'm am going to have to go with Gandhi on this one. He was a local...

From Mohandas Gandhi, the leader of nonviolent resistance to British rule in India. His objective of Independence was achieved in 1947. Gandhi wrote in Chapter XXVII, "The Recruiting Campaign," in his autobiography, "My Experiments with Truth"

Here is but a piece, but I recommend that everyone read it in its entirety. But here were "his" feelings on the British disarmament of the Indian people in order to force their rule.

I used to issue leaflets asking people to enlist as recruits. One of the arguments I had used was distasteful to the Commissioner:

Among the many misdeeds of the British rule in India, history will look upon the Act depriving a whole nation of arms as the blackest.

If we want the Arms Act to be repealed, if we want to learn the use of arms, here is a golden opportunity. If the middle classes render voluntary help to Government in the hour of its trial, distrust will disappear, and the ban on possessing arms will be withdrawn.

How is it that a pacifist could honestly disagree with the disarmament of free people? How is it that one of the most famous pacifists in the world looked at the disarming of a nation of people as one of the blackest misdeeds of an entire nation? Is it not ironic that the British have all but disarmed their own people? I wonder what the British ruling class has in mind for their people? Hmmm...