AMERICANS MORE TRIGGER HAPPY THAN OTHERS?

As India paid homage to the apostle of nonviolence on October 2, bloody violence erupted in the US. A lone gunman shot and killed 58 people and injured 430 others in Las Vegas, the gambling capital of the world. This was the latest in a series of mass shootings in the USA in 2017, in which nearly 200 people have been killed. The incidents were unrelated to terrorism and only a few were highlighted internationally.

Forty-four people were killed in 19 shooting incidents in the month of June, 2017, alone. A sitting member of the US Congress was severely injured in another incident that month. In August, 2017, the death toll was 26 and in September it was 23, with nine people killed in a single shooting in Plano, Texas. The UK-based Guardian estimates that 1,719 people have died and 6,510 have been injured in mass shootings in the US since 2013. Incidentally, three people were killed in a shooting which took place in Kansas, just hours before the Las Vegas massacre.

This raises questions about the 'gun culture' in the USA and whether Americans are more triggerhappy than others because they have easy access to guns. In Las Vegas, anyone over the age of 21 years can purchase and carry a gun openly, without a permit. Most of the killers in the US have been found to be mentally disturbed individuals, angry with the world because they are unhappy with their own lives. Disturbingly, many of the shootings have taken place in schools.

From this point of view, the growing 'gun culture' in India, which has one of the strictest gun laws in the world, is a cause for concern. According to estimates, after the USA, civilians in India own the maximum number of guns. While they are no official figures, the number is estimated at around 40 million, most of which are unregistered. Only around 5.5 million are licensed. According to the National Crime Recrods Bureau, of the 3,722 people killed by guns in 2015, a majority - 90 per cent - were shot with illegal firearms. This has been a consistent trend in India; even in 2010, when 5,575 people were shot, 5,000 were killed with illegal weapons.

Journalist/activist Gauri Lankesh was shot dead on September 5 in Bangalore, apparently with a country-made unlincensed revolver, according to experts. Two years ago, activist MM Kalburgi was also killed with an unlicensed weapon of 7.65 mm bore. Similarly, activists Narendra Dabholkar and Govind Pansare were shot dead with a 'desi katta'.

A rare instance of a high-profile murder with a licensed weapon was that of BJP leader and former Union minister Pramod Mahajan. His brother, Pravin, shot him dead in 2006, with his .32 Browning pistol. Interestingly, sources close to the late BJP leader say that Pravin got the weapon thanks to Pramod! The same gun took his life many years later.

Similarly, liquor baron Ponty Chadha was shot dead at his farmhouse in Delhi in 2012 by his brother, Hardeep, who used his licensed 9 mm pistol. A more recent case is that of Rocky Yadav, son of Bihar politician Manorama Devi, who has been convicted of murder along with two of his friends for shooting down a schoolboy with his Beretta pistol.

Owning a gun is a status symbol in India. Erstwhile royals and martial clans like the Rajputs and Jat Sikhs take pride in their collections of firearms. Guns are traditionally shot during wedding celebrations; last year, a groom was killed at his own wedding by a stray bullet. A few months later, a wedding dancer was accidently killed in celebratory firing.

The illegal arms industry in India is booming, going by NCRB figures on gun seizures in 2014 and 2015. More than 50,000 such weapons were seized and a little less than half of them came from Uttar Pradesh. Together, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and UP accounted for 70 per cent of the illegal arms seized, of which 32,500 of them were country-made revolvers. In UP, a desi katta can be purchased for as little as Rs 2,500, but in Delhi, the price is ten times as much.

Some organizations are now arguing that the common man should have some means of self-defense and hence legal and licensed weapons should be more easily available. Criminals, they point out, will always prefer illegal and therefore untraceable arms when committing violent crimes, whereas people who own legal weapons will use them responsibly.

In these troubled times, when the number of policemen is woefully inadequate, some means of self-defense, especially for women, is desirable. However, many non-lethal methods are available, such as 'stun guns', 'tasers' and 'pepper spray'. Unfortunately, the government has not legalised the use of long range tasers ( as opposed to hand-held stun sticks) and 'pepper spray guns' (as opposed to cannisters) which can disable an adversary at a long distance.

The series of killings in the USA make it clear that allowing more guns is dangerous. It cannot be the answer for self-defense. But restrictions on non-lethal weapons, which temporarily disable but do not kill, should be made easier and training imparted to girls and women for the responsible and effective use of such weapons.

The author is a senior journalist with 35 years of experience in working with major newspapers and magazines. She is now an independent writer and author