Life, Liberty & The Pursuit of Happiness

More on guns...in India

by Reena Kapoor

Another interesting take on gun control in India.  I post it because this debate is relatively new to India and its people and it's interesting to see it being discussed now.  Gun laws for ordinary citizens are not being loosened in India anytime soon and as I pointed out below such a loosening would be fraught with problems; but that is no excuse to not revisit these unduly draconian laws for the cause of improved security through civilian resources e.g., registered security guards for hotels, malls, cinemas, etc.

Guns vs. Terror

by Reena Kapoor

Shikha Dalmia of Reason presents an interesting case in WSJ with her article Arming India against Terrorism where she talks about how and why Mumbai a city of 18 million was held hostage for nearly 60 hours by 10 gunmen in the recent attacks. She says that part of the reason terrorists ran free in Mumbai was that no one else was armed properly - not the police, not the private security of the establishments under attack and certainly not the citizenry - thanks to draconian anti-gun laws.  Putting aside for a moment the libertarian stance for gun ownership by all citizens, even anti-gun ideologues should be able to see that victims in this attack would have fared much better if at least private establishments (in this case hotels) had properly armed security guards.