The United States is very unique in how we view gun ownership. Elsewhere in the world, permitting is required to some degree or another, and in most places, it’s very difficult to get a firearm at all.
India is a prime example. They require special training, limit how many guns you can own, and yes, you have to have a permit. They’re actually better than a lot of places because they see self-defense as a valid reason for wanting a firearm. Some nations don’t.
But now, they’re ready to issue gun permits in a particular region for a particular reason.
India’s Assam state will issue gun licences to “indigenous” residents near the Bangladesh border, its Hindu nationalist leader announced.
The move has raised concerns among Assam’s Muslim population, who make up roughly 35 percent of the state’s 31 million people.
Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma claimed Assamese-speaking communities face threats from Bangladesh and within their own villages.
A new website will allow indigenous residents in “sensitive areas” to apply for arms licences, Sarma said on Wednesday.
India maintains strict gun control laws, making the decision highly controversial.
India hasn’t been getting along well with its neighbors for quite some time now, so it’s interesting that they’re specifically looking at gun licenses for people in this region, which is having particular issues both due to its proximity to the border but also because of some ethnic tensions within the state.
But what gets me is how often we see things like this happen.
Some country doesn’t want its citizens to have relatively easy access to firearms, so they put a whole bunch of laws in place to make it difficult, then something happens, and they start trying to figure out how to get more people armed.
We saw it in Ukraine, Israel, and now India.
What that tells me is that when it all comes down to it, they recognize the benefits of an armed populace. They just fail to recognize the full benefits of that populace being armed until things start to get sporty and they have to.
That’s a shame, too, because it means a lot of those people buying guns to defend their nation and their homes or whatever they’re defending aren’t really well-trained in how to use those firearms for that particular purpose.
Still, it’s easy to be all about beating swords into plowshares when the barbarians are far, far away. When they’re across the river, though, suddenly people want those swords back so they don’t end up having to plow for the bad guys.
So maybe it’s a good idea for them to start thinking about those barbarians a little more closely and remember that no one just picks up a weapon and is naturally good with it. It doesn’t matter what the weapon is. They need those tools to train, to learn, and to become so damn scary that the barbarians start looking for a completely different river to cross.
That’s how you preserve a safer nation.
While Admiral Yamamoto may never have actually said it, I can’t help but some of thought about how it’s a bad idea to invade the US because “there would be a rifle behind every blade of grass.”
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