Contact your MP's & Urge them to OPPOSE the Amendments

[mundaire]

POSTING HERE ON BEHALF OF NAGRI

Dear friends,

Late last year the MHA began the process of further undermining your right to self-defence by once again whittling away the legal right of every Indian citizen to keep & bear arms. We all realise that the right to self-defence is meaningless, if the tools with which to exercise this right are kept away from citizens! In the Indian scenario, this is done through a system of arms licensing which is implemented with the sole purpose of denying citizens permits through bureaucratic delays, humiliating requirements and in many cases unreasonable demands like enforced purchase of government bonds, enforced donations and in a few extreme cases even enforced vasectomies! This despite the lofty vision of the Arms Act 1959, which stated as one of it's primary objectives to make it easier for law abiding citizens to own arms for self-defence & sport.

Furthermore, through deliberate and often misguided government introduced market imperfections a situation of artificial scarcity has already been created, pushing up the prices of LEGAL arms & ammunition to stratospheric heights THUS PREVENTING the largest percentage of ordinary citizens from acquiring legitimate means of self-defence and also preventing many from being able to more fully enjoy their hobby of shooting.

All this in a democratic nation with a popularly elected government!

As many of you may be aware, the first indication of what was to come became apparent on 21st / 22nd December 2009, when the Ministry of Home Affairs published it's draft Arms Policy for individuals and invited citizen comments within two weeks. The timing chosen for publishing this on the web (when many people are on holiday), the fact that this document was only published in English, that too without any due notice given in any (widely circulated) national daily and finally the short time given to citizens within which to send in their comments/ suggestions/ objections - point towards the Ministry merely "going through the motions", with no real intent to consider the views of ordinary citizens.

This conclusion was further reinforced when the Ministry, through an executive order addressed to the Home Secretaries of all States/ UTs, directed them to begin implementing the new Arms Policy for Individuals. This order dated 31st March 2010, was obtained through an RTI and it is an almost exact repeat of what was published on their website in December 2009, with no real changes made to it as per citizen feedback received. Furthermore, through this order, the Ministry in effect contravened the constitution of India, by changing many of the specific guidelines clearly laid out in the Arms Act 1959 without first having an amendment to said Act passed by parliament - thus ignoring the constitutional authority of the parliament.

This lacunae on their part has not escaped the Ministry and the past few days news brings with it further bad tidings for us. The cabinet has now approved the Arms Act (Amendment) Bill 2010 and the government is preparing to table it in the coming monsoon session of parliament. Needless to say, if this Amendment Bill is passed, it will in effect legitimise the illegal order (dated 31st March 2010) of the Ministry and take away (whatever little) gun freedoms we have today.

DON'T BE FOOLED

Please don't be misled by the rhetoric, the proposed Arms Act (Amendment) Bill 2010 has only one goal - as another step towards the total disarmament of all Indian civilians - so eventually the only ones who will own guns in India will be the government and the criminals! The Anti-gun establishment has historically looked for ways to penalise law-abiding gun owners rather than go after violent criminals. Now, through this latest amendment, they want to punish legal gun owners who wish to stay within the purview of the law without taking any real measures to curb illegal firearms or violent crime. The proposed amendments seek to make it harder (if not impossible) to acquire an arms license, and for those who already have arms licenses, they seek to make owning a gun such a harassment, so as to eventually encourage people to surrender their legally held firearms.

WHAT CAN WE DO?

1) While the Ministry of Home Affairs may have so far chosen to ignore it, INDIA IS A DEMOCRACY and the Arms Act (Amendment) Bill 2010 will be put up before the parliament during this monsoon session. NOW is the time to contact Lok Sabha members and Rajya Sabha members to strongly urge them to OPPOSE this proposed amendment!

To view the complete list of Lok Sabha members and obtain their contact information, please click here ( http://india.gov.in/govt/loksabhastwise.php ).

You can find contact information for your Rajya Sabha members by clicking here. ( http://india.gov.in/govt/rajyasabhastwise.php )

Please contact your Members of Parliament TODAY and ask them to OPPOSE this amendment -- the future of our basic human right to self defence depends on it! For those of you who know one/ more Members of Parliament personally OR know people who may be able to put them in touch with one/ more MPs - PLEASE don't hesitate in contacting them with all urgency. Unless you make them aware about what is happening and what is intended to be done, even if they are so inclined they will not be able to help us!

If anyone would like to have someone from NAGRI accompany them to any meetings with OR needs specific material to present to Members of Parliament that they may know personally - PLEASE do not hesitate to get in touch with us. We will try to ensure that you have every support possible from our end.

2) We also need to make more and more people aware of what is being done. Most people are simply not aware of what is happening or the complete ramifications of this amendment. Towards this, besides spreading the word through our own personal network, we also need to get the true story out through the media - specially the vernacular press which is widely read in small towns and rural areas.

At the end of the day, WE MUST ALL be prepared to stand up for our rights as citizens of a free country, because if we don't try to protect our rights - no one else is going to do it for us!

In the immortal words of Ben Franklin - "Those who give up their liberty for more security neither deserve liberty nor security"

Our next mail will contain details of WHAT TO EXPLAIN TO MEMBERS OF PARLIAMENT - about the proposed Amendments to the Arms Act. In essence it is an indicative list of questions/ points to help everyone properly brief the MPs they contact, please feel free to amend/ expand/ condense as you deem appropriate.

[nagarifle]

thanks mate, this is vary useful way to let the MPs ask the right questions.