India must make strict gun legislation

INDIA: Lt Gen B S Mallik, president of Control Arms Foundation of India, said here Wednesday that it is a need to make a strict gun legislation to control firearms following the shooting incidents in school campuses across the country.

“We want to make the Indian Arms Act of 1959 more stringent. Everyone should not be allowed to possess arms. Those provided license for possessing weapons should be accountable for their use“ Mallik said at a seminar.

He said children should not be allowed to use these weapons at all.

“Children should be denied access to arms,” he said at the seminar on ‘Lessons from Gurgaon school shoot-out: Call for redrafting India’s gun legislation’.

The issue assumes significance in view of recent incidents of children resorting to shooting their friends in schools. A boy was shot dead by his classmates in a Gurgaon school in December last year, while another student in Satna district in Madhya Pradesh was shot dead by a fellow student last month. Enditem

MumbaI, Thursday, Xinhua