Daily Times

Sir: Suspension of licenses for automatic weapons with a provision for being exchanged for semi-automatic weapons or being paid for with money is not safe in any way. World War I and II were both mostly fought with bolt action rifles, but millions died anyway.

People today still haven’t accepted that it is the criminal and not the gun which commits crime. Weapons in safe hands are a deterrent to criminals. For example, Iceland has one of the highest gun ownership rates in the world, but also has one of the lowest crime rates in the world. On the other hand, the notorious ‘Thuggee’ cult from Central India which was eliminated by the British killed thousands of travellers with strips of silk cloth.

The number of illegal military grade arms is much higher than licensed arms, but the government still concentrates more on regulating licensed arms which are mostly never used for crimes. Recently, arms licenses were computerized in an effort to bring down rates of violence crime.

The computerisation came at enormous cost to license holders, especially senior citizens. Significant benefits from license computerization remain to be seen. Of course, I am not talking about the revenues made through heavy taxation of self-defence.

M AKRAM NIAZI

Rawalpindi

Published in Daily Times, November 24^th 2017.