Even as an 11-year old school student shot herself  while “playing” with her father’s gun and lay critical near New Delhi, the Control for Arms Foundation of India (CAFI), an organisation working on human security, has decided to send a petition to the Union Home Ministry to tighten regulation of licensed arms in the country.
“The Indian government should sincerely honour its commitment made to United Nations Programme of Action on Small Arms and to take the lead in participating constructively in Group of Governmental Experts on Arms Trade Treaty in order bring an end to rampant arms proliferation in our society,” Ms Binalakshmi Nepram, Secretary, CAFI, told Deccan Herald.

Nepram said a delegation led by former ambassador to UN, Arundhati Ghosh, would meet Union Home secretary and seek the reworking of the arms control act of 1961.

According to police, an eleven-year old girl Soumya shot herself at Ghaziabad, close to Delhi border, on Saturday while “playing” with a licensed gun of her father. No adult was at home when the girl picked up the gun and fiddled with it. At least 12 persons have been killed in Ghaziabad and Noida, in the last couple of years using licensed pistols.

Incidents of school children using guns against their peers at schools have also shocked parents and law enforcing authorities in the National Capital.