How to get a weapon ?

Source: India Today

• The applicant has to approach a police commissioner’s office or the district magistrate, fill a standard form stating he/she needs a weapon for self-protection or sport. He has to prove the need for self-protection by producing a written police complaint or prove a history of threats.
• However, the unwritten rule is that only those with the right connections can actually get a licence—a Member of Parliament, for instance, can recommend a gun licence.
• The police, however, must be convinced that the applicant has a genuine need for the weapon and that he/she has no criminal record.
• Once the licence is issued, the applicant can buy the weapon directly from ordnance factories, another licence holder, authorised gun dealers or import the weapon.

Delhi alone has 40,000 licenced weapons. According to reports, 8,801 cases relating to the Arms Act were registered in Delhi in last two years. Little wonder then that in 2007 alone, 35 people were shot dead by firearms in the Capital. Says a senior Delhi police officer, “In Delhi, the number of licenced weapons is 40,000 but the number of illegal firearms is double.
Licenced weapons are mostly used in cases of suicide or domestic violence.” The situation in Mumbai is no different. While records show that only 71 licences were issued in 2006 and only 90 have been handed out till now this year, the ground reality is quite different. people have easy access to country-made revolvers that enter the state from Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and other northern states. Country-made guns have almost become a cottage industry in several parts of Uttar Pradesh and Bihar

Cities like Hyderabad and Chennai have not remained untouched by this culture of violence. Gunshots rang through the campus of Deccan College of Engineering and Technology, Hyderabad, in April this year when Umedullah Khan, a second-year engineering student opened fire on Mukarram Ali Siddiqui, a rival student leader.
In October last year, Chennai was shaken by the murder of a Marwari businessman Menak Chand, who was allegedly shot dead with a 9mm Chinese pistol by his wife Pramila Devi.

Shoot out

• November 27, 2007
  City: Mumbai
  Crime:The jilted lover of a 23-year-old model Moushami Das arrived at her apartment and shot dead her mother and uncle and then ended his own life.
• October 29, 2007
  City: Mumbai
  Crime: Sibling rivalry ended in bloodshed when hotelier Lalit D’Souza shot and wounded his sister Lorna over a parking spot dispute.
• October 29, 2007
  City: Delhi
  Crime: Delhi-based builder Sulekh Malik’s son Varun was allegedly shot dead in the posh Vasant Kunj market area by his friend Moti, who later surrendered in the city court.
• September 2007
  City: Mumbai
  Crime: Hotel owner Mohan Shetty reportedly shot at his younger brother Manohar at their advocate’s office over a long festering property dispute.
• April 2007
  City: Hyderabad
  Crime: In a shootout on the campus of Deccan College of Engineering and Technology, Umedullah Khan opened fire on fellow student Mukarram Ali Siddiqui.
• October 23, 2006
  City: Chennai
  Crime: Marwari businessman Menak Chand was allegedly shot dead with a 9mm Chinese pistol by his wife Pramila Devi.

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