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No Sacred Cow: Guns Fun in India

by Robert W. Hunnicutt • February 21, 2012 • 3 comments

A great number of the fancy British shotguns and double rifles now on the market came out of India in the early 1970s when the late Prime Minister Indira Gandhi outlawed hunting and imposed strict gun controls. Gun control, of course, didn’t prevent Gandhi from being shot to death by her own bodyguards in 1984.

As has been abundantly demonstrated in nations like Jamaica and Mexico, gun control works in inverse proportion to how badly people want them, and in India, people want them quite a bit.

I had always thought guns were almost impossible to have in India until an old acquaintance, 1976 Olympic gold medalist Lanny Bassham, started coaching an Indian brother and sister in smallbore rifle. “You can have a gun in India?” I asked. “You can if you have money,” was Bassham’s answer.

And now that there’s more money in India, there are more guns, according to a report in the Los Angeles Times. http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-india-guns-20120221,0,2480184,full.story

All that Marharishi peace and love stuff seems to be wearing off, thanks to the rarity of police officers and high-profile attacks like the one in Mumbai carried out by the terrorist group Lashkar-e-Taiba in 2008.

“All that Gandhi stuff is for tourists,” said one man quoted by the Times. “They should go off to Varanasi, see the holy cows.”

In Culture & Politics, Shotguns, Uncategorized • Tagged , , ,
  • Heretic

    Sacred cows make the best hamburger.

    • markinalpine

      Yes, Heretic. They're Heavenly!

  • Mehul Kamdar

    Gun ownership in India was restricted to 3 firearms per person in 1984. That same year, the import of guns was banned except for target shooting. Hunting had been banned in 1976, though some game like boars and Nilgai can be hunted in some states on a "crop protection permit." Like US states, some Indian states are more gun owner friendly than others are, but, on the whole, national laws make it one of the most anti gun regimes in the world. Doesn't prevent hordes of terrorists from finding guns with which to intimidate and kill law abiding Indians – the government is smug in keeping decent people disarmed. It is a ridiculous state of affairs in a ccountry that has a long history of hunting and conservation. I'd like to point out that India's forest cover declined from 34% to just over 3% under the socialists who took over after the British left in 1947. It is these same people who banned guns as well. That's the reason why many of Indian descent – myself included – choose to live in this great country and breathe the air of freedom. Yes, we're proud Americans first and foremost.