Bullet Points
Our country is battling an increase in circulation of illegal arms and the following data sums it up…
₹4000 that's what you need to pay for a country-made pistol. It could be less if you bargain well.
₹2 lakh is what you need to pay to illegally acquire a sophisticated weapon in New Delhi.
4 crore illegal arms are currently in circulation in India.
50% of the global illegal arms are in India, according to the International Action Network on Small Arms, Amnesty International and Oxfam.
2 That's India's standing in the list of proportion of civilians who own guns while US tops the list.
5000 people in India are killed during small arms violence according to The Control Arms Federation of India.
9% of the 241,986 crimes reported in India in 2010 involved guns.
464 illegal weapons were seized till July 2012 in New Delhi. The corresponding figure for 2009 was 573, 634 in 2010 and 770 in 2011.
90% of violent crimes in Delhi are committed using unlicensed guns.
50 countries supply illegals arms to extremists group in the country according to a 2012 survey by the NGO, Control Arms Foundation of India.
7.6% is the gun crime rate in India while it's the highest in Mexico at 54.6% according to The United Nation’s Office on Drugs and Crime.
25% is the rate at which gun crime in the country has risen over the last decade.
5 is the number of times that illegal weapons exceed legal weapons in New Delhi.
4 crore of the 7.5 crore illegal small arms in the world are in India according to the International Action Network on Small Arms, Amnesty International and Oxfam. Repetitive point
8000 illegal arms are seized every month in Bihar.
60,000 illegal firearms – mostly country-made pistols and revolvers – were lying in police stations in Bihar till 2011.
₹1500 is the minimum profit that an illegal arm manufacturer registers on the sale of a 9mm pistol that is made at ₹12,000 and sold at 24,000. The middlemen eat into the rest of the profit.
Guns throughout history
The one that silenced Abraham Lincoln
The gun: Single-shot .44 caliber Philadelphia Derringer with 2 1/2-inch barrel
When: April 14, 1865
Accused: John Wilkes Booth
Used in Mumbai terror attacks
The Gun: AK 56
When: November 26, 2011
Accused: Kasab and others
Used in Gandhi's assassination
The gun: Beretta semi-automatic .38 pistol
When: January 30, 1948
Accused: Nathuram Godse
For killing JFK
The gun: 6.5 x 52 mm Italian-made Carcano M91/38 bolt-action military rifle with six-round magazine and 4 x 18 mounted telescopic sight
When: November 22, 1963
Accused: Lee Harvey Oswald
Ex-Beatle, John Lennon's assassin
The gun: Charter Arms Special short-barrel five-shot .38 revolver
When: December 8, 1980
Accused: Mark David Chapman
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr's assassination
The gun: Remington Gamemaster 760 .30-06
When: April 4, 1968
Accused: James Earl Ray
Killed US president James A. Garfield
The gun: Webley British Bulldog .442 revolver
When: July 2, 1881
Accused: Charles J. Guiteau
From the March 2013 issue of FHM India.
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