Chandigarh, December 6, 2019: Congress MP from Gurdaspur Partap Singh Bajwa has written to Prime Minister Narendra Modi about issues that have risen due to the amendments proposed by the Union Government, in the Arms Amendment Bill, 2019.
Here are the contents of the letter:
“I wish to draw to your attention the issues that have risen due to the amendments proposed by the Union Government, in the Arms Amendment Bill, 2019. The major issue is the reduction of the number of arms an individual can own from three to one.
From the data released by the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB), in 2017, there were 35,873 incidents that involved illegal firearms. While this is a growing problem and I concur with the steps taken to increase the punishments and other steps taken to combat the trafficking of illegal firearms, my point of contention lies in the reduction of the number of weapons that a licence holder can own.
According to NCRB Data from 2016, there were 322 murders committed by licenced weapons, while 3453 murders were committed by illegal firearms. I condemn those who used their licences to commit murders, but these murders can be traced to the owners and those individuals can be brought to justice accordingly.
Illegal firearms is growing problem, especially in the State of Punjab, where we have seen the reports of cross-border attempts of trafficking weapons.
Given the data, I inquire to understand the logic behind reducing the firearms owned by licenced holders. It is known that those who legally own firearms, go through a process that includes medical reports and security reports, so the threat is known and hence the licence is given.
Moreover, in the rural heartlands of India, owning a firearm may be necessary to protect one’s own farm. Given these conditions, owning three weapons as is the norm presently is ideal for the personal security and safety of those with licences.
There are other problems with this amendment. As seen earlier, the Ministry of Home Affairs put out a notification in 2016 asking for licence holders to receive their Unique Identification Number (UIN) by March, 2019. In Gurdaspur District, Punjab, out of the 38,290 licences, 11,526 licences have still not received their UIN. The details have been submitted to the authorities, but have not been allotted numbers.
Given that there are regulatory pressures, and the above mentioned issues already seen, I fail to see how this amendment can be carried out without causing undue harassment of legal owners of firearms within the present regulatory regime.
Therefore I urge you to reconsider this portion of the amendment. I support the steps suggested to curb illegal trafficking of arms and the expansion of the scope to include organised crime syndicates under the ambit of the Bill. The issue arises solely with the reduction of number of firearms owned.”