Arming India Against Terrorism - Relaxing gun control laws would be a good start.

Wall Street Journal Asia ^ | DECEMBER 9, 2008 | SHIKHA DALMIA

[neverdem]

For three bloody days, just 10 determined killers held a city of 18 million hostage. The sheer ignominy of this fact has jolted Mumbaikars -- and Indians -- out of their fabled chalta hai (anything goes) attitude, and into a burst of citizen activism. Even Mumbai's business community has shed its habitual political timidity and filed an extraordinary public-interest lawsuit demanding that the government fulfill its constitutional obligation to protect its citizens.

But Indians shouldn't just stop there. They should also demand reform of the country's draconian gun laws -- a holdover from British times -- that prevent them from defending themselves. That would surely deliver far quicker results than waiting for India's slow-moving political classes to plug the vast lacunae in the country's security apparatus.

Associated Press A police officer stands guard as Muslims offer Eid al-Adha prayers in Mumbai. After all, what was particularly infuriating about the Mumbai attacks was not just that the Indian government failed to prevent them, even though it had received repeated warnings. Nor was it their tragic death toll; Mumbai, after all, experienced worse in the coordinated series of bombings in 1993 and 2006. Rather, it was that had there been anything resembling meaningful resistance, the attackers never would have been able to stage the kind of spectacle they did. Before they holed up in the Taj and Oberoi Hotels, they seemed to operate with almost complete impunity, freely moving from one target to another.

The same duo that opened fire at Café Leopold -- among the first targets -- managed to escape undetected and join their comrades at the Taj Mahal Hotel -- a few miles away -- before the police could even catch their breath. Likewise, the pair that attacked Chattrapati Shivaji Terminus subsequently hopped over to Cama Hospital, where they...

[neverdem]

Police fighting terror with cars and canes

[ajay_kumar]

Yes indeed, India needs 2nd amendment equivalent very badly.

[Tench_Coxe]

And it would be interesting if were to become practice to insert bullets into their cartridges using a pig lard derivative.

[goldstategop]

The lesson of Mumbai is the police cannot be present to defend every one - and react quickly. The attackers chose the targets they did because they knew in each case, the victims lacked the means to fight back. If they could have, the outcome would have been quite different.

"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." - Manuel II Palelologus

[Sir Francis Dashwood]

Kurukshetra War - Kali Yuga ping...

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[Sir Francis Dashwood]

Yes indeed, India needs 2nd amendment equivalent very badly.

A dear friend and former coworker lives in India, he has a legal .38 special. Getting the bullets is more difficult.

[Sir Francis Dashwood]

And it would be interesting if were to become practice to insert bullets into their cartridges using a pig lard derivative.

That would be bad karma... Hindus are vegetarians!

[Lurker]

I love it when I learn a new word.... lacunae

Now I just have to get the chance to use it in a sentence.

L

[neverdem]

Look up lacunar infarct.

[Lurker]

And it would be interesting if were to become practice to insert bullets into their cartridges using a pig lard derivative

The Brits tried getting the Indians to use a bullet that had a rendered fat product in it a while back.

It didn't work out to well for them.

L