THE NEW GUN CULTURE

Trigger-happy, that’s what Delhi is becoming. With rising number of cases involving firearms, the city appears to have become a hub of illegal weapons. Ujwal Jalali & Shekhar Singh look at factors driving the gun violence in the capital

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BE it the recent shootout in Shahdara where a man and his nephew were gunned down, the killing of a gym owner in the Greater Kailash area of South Delhi, firing at a car showroom in Naraina any other incident of killing or even threatening a person in the national capital – do you know what common thread joins all these crimes? It is the usage of a weapon or a firearm.

Knives, machetes or any pointed object — they are mostly used in a fit of rage. But when there is a proper plan to either eliminate, extort or threaten someone — it is always a gun, the most vital aspect of a criminal’s prowess.

The crucial thing to understand is that a firearm is not a toy that is easily available in India. The Arms Act states that no person can carry a firearm or ammunition “without a license” unless they are carrying it in the presence of the license holder or with their written permission.

The firearms which the criminals use do not have a license but are always “illegally procured”.

Think of any incident that has happened in the capital in the past five years where a firearm was used. Two incidents would immediately come to your mind — Shahrukh Pathan, who aimed a pistol at a policeman during the 2020 North-East Delhi riots, and another one was Ram Bhakt Gopal, who opened fire at the group of anti-CAA protesters that was marching towards Rajghat. Both of them had illegally procured the firearm.

There are about 3.22 deaths due to gun-related injuries per 1 lakh people in India every year. Around 90% of them are committed to using an “illegal firearm”. A couple of years back the country recorded 9,706 deaths that were committed using a firearm. Among this 1,117 were women.

Acquiring sophisticated guns isn’t an easy task for any petty criminal or even a local gangster. They fulfill their requirement with country-made pistols whose cost is almost 10 times less than any imported pistol.