We should not be like the US in this.

Two days back police interrupted a robbery in west Delhi. One robber shot at the police who returned fire, hitting the man 5 times. The man was taken to hospital where 4 policemen donated blood for his operation but the man died. Last year a 19 year old boy was shot dead by the son of a politician in the state of Bihar. In December a 17 year old girl was shot dead in Delhi by a friend, who would probably also be a teenager. India apparently has some of the most stringent gun laws in the world. You need to have a licence, which can take years to get, for even an air gun. But, almost everyday somebody is shot to death in India. Every punk, every petty criminal seems to posses a gun. Politicians, their guards and their children are usually heavily armed. It is not enough to say that the US has many times more gun related deaths than we have, South Korea has a much lower rate. Why do so many die of gunshot injuries in the US? Over 30,000 people are killed by guns each year in the US. Can gun control reduce the number of deaths by guns? After a mass shooting in Port Arthur in 1996, the Australian government responded by banning automatic firearms, registered every gun in the country and made permits compulsory for purchases of new weapons. Gun related homicide fell by 42%, while gun related suicide fell by 57%. So why can't the US do the same? Because gun ownership is protected by the second amendment of the Constitution, the National Rifle Association is very strong and gun makers donate a lot of money to campaign funding of politicians. Gun enthusiasts insist that owning a gun is a fundamental right, that mental illness is the cause of shootings and that everyone should carry a gun for self defense, which would increase safety. Seems that the gun problem in the US is deeply cultural and craven politicians do not have the will or guts to take on the gun lobby. Indeed, so brazen is the National Rifle Association that it grades politicians according to their support of guns. The big movie hero, John Wayne was almost never without a gun, yet he did not serve one day during the War to carry on his affair with Marlene Dietrich. Guns do not a hero make. A two-year old boy shot his 9-year old brother when his mother allowed him to play with a gun. The mother was charged with child abuse. But who will the police charge when a two-year old boy shot his own mother dead in Idaho? It is hard to imagine growing up with the guilt of having killed own mother. Since they do not know who is carrying a weapon police shoot suspects dead instead of trying to apprehend them. India has not reached that stage yet but there are too many shootings. Illegal guns must be stopped.