Tuesday, August 28, 2007

Guns or Roses



There was a small arms survey done by Graduate Institute of International Studies. According to the survey there are 875 million guns held by civilians around the world. 270 million of them are with Americans. Shockingly (for me) India is second on the list with number of guns. Indian civilians have 46 million guns. Even though the number of guns per 100 people is very small for India, I could have never imagined more Indians have guns than anybody else except Americans.

I am an Indian living in USA. Concerned countries being #1 and #2 on the above mentioned list. I am living in a society where almost everybody has guns, but this very society is considered a very safe society. I do not disagree with that a whole lot. When I go out I do not worry about getting shot. But I do have difficulty understanding the need for guns. I could only come up with one, which is making me think of owning a gun myself. Looking at the numbers what happens if there is a conflict? what happens to those who do not have a gun? the only justifying reason I came up with is everybody has one, I do not want to be left out.

The other reasons which are a little farther from reality for me to own a gun include - one day I want to represent India in the Olympics or go on a hunting trip.

Now I am looking at owning a gun myself. This is a shocking development even for me, u would understand if you read my post after the Virginia Tech massacre.

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