The American Politics Thread

His own words will be his undoing.  "I didn't have to do this."

In fact, this reminds me of something I read on quora today. This is about an incident that happened in Mumbai.  There was heavy traffic, as usual, and a young chap riding a motorbike brushed the side of a car.  There was no damage to either vehicle but the motorcyclist got down and started hitting the front lamps of the car to register his displeasure. The driver, an apparently old and harmless man, pointed his handgun at the young man at which the latter froze and then asked him, "What's the matter, son?  Why are you so angry?"  The latter fled with his tail between his legs.  

So what's the crux of this anecdote?  That the old man with the handgun would have had to be an ex army/police officer as only they are usually able to legally obtain guns in India.  I have never heard the sound of a report and never seen a police officer brandish a gun at anybody nor seen a civilian with one.  To be sure, there are places in India where people do obtain it illegally and of course gangsters do so all over.  But you don't hear of mass shootings in schools or colleges or cinema halls here for a reason.  Because the wrong guys can't get hold of guns.  This is counter-intuitive because criminals are morally and technically the wrong guys to get hold of guns.  But (a) they are going to do so either way and (b) they use it only purposefully.  Yes, this may mean it is not advisable passing through certain neighbourhoods alone at night as armed robbers can easily get the better of you.  BUT at least deranged or just plain mad-as-hell people don't get to let loose their weapon on unsuspecting and innocent victims. 

I may add though that while some people do maintain civilisation cheek by jowl with forests in India (a leopard got into the parking lot of a shopping mall in a distant suburb of Mumbai earlier today!), it is the aberration rather than the norm and it's usually only indigenous people who live there and who have long experience in living alongside animals.  Hunting for deer, even the plentiful chital, is not a concept in existence in India whereas I have read that James Hetfield shifted to Colorado because, among other things, he wanted to be able to hunt for food.  I believe it is for such reasons that the gun lobby wants to preserve the right to own firearms in the USA and not because it improves safety because it doesn't.