In USA individuals not only own guns, they even propagate the need to have it as a right!

One of the most interesting things I noticed in Salt Lake City where I right now, is the prevalence of gun culture. Anecdotes take a round on how someone fired at an xyz person, and yet got way with it. Nothing new, as we in India also keep reading about how guns are commonly used in the US leading to fatalities even in schools.

As we were moving towards the nearby mountains, I noticed a young man on a motorbike. His t-shirt proudly advertised the necessity of keeping a gun. Printed on the backside of the t-shirt was "You can't buy happiness, but you can buy guns", offering the name of the place where you can have it. Searching on the internet, I found that, as per a 2023 survey, 32% of Americans own at least one firearm. From 1994 to 2023, 28% gun ownership increased in America, in which women ownership increased by 13.6%!

The recent use of an assault rifle by asuspected gunman who shot Donald Trump at a rally in Pennsylvania on July 13 may be a stark reminder about the dangers of gun culture. The two main parties, the Democrats and the Republics, only differ on how much should one control guns. The former advocate gun control through increasingly restrictive regulation of gun ownership; the latter advocate for gun rights oppose increased restriction, or support the liberalization of gun ownership.

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Instilling sense of insecurity among 'fearful' millions, Modi to win comfortably

This was one of the most interesting reports I read on the Lok Sabha elections. Titled, "If Sangam Pilgrims Are Bellwether, They Indicate Clear Majority for Modi", published in what is considered to be an anti-Narendra Modi site, "The Wire", it reports on interaction with boatmen and pilgrims from across India, even as pointing towards why Modi would get a "clear majority."

India's 78% firms think achieving net zero is cost to business, 52% say it's risky: Report

A leading global management consulting firm working with more than three-quarters of the Fortune Global 500, as well as with government bodies and nonprofit organizations, has said that while vast majority of Indian businesses surveyed (91%) claim they have set targets to reach net zero, with 51% of them viewing these targets as “highly achievable”, ironically, most of them (78%) consider sustainability as a cost to business rather than opportunity.

Anti-Rupala Rajputs 'have no support' of numerically strong Kshatriya communities

Personally, I have no love lost for Purshottam Rupala, though I have known him ever since I was posted as the Times of India representative in Gandhinagar in 1997, from where I was supposed to do political reporting. In news after he made the statement that 'maharajas' succumbed to foreign rulers, including the British, and even married off their daughters them, there have been large Rajput rallies against him for “insulting” the community.

India 'not keen' on legally binding global treaty to reduce plastic production

Even as offering lip-service to the United Nations Environment Agency (UNEA) for the need to curb plastic production, the Government of India appears reluctant in reducing the production of plastic. A senior participant at the UNEP’s fourth session of the Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee (INC-4), which took place in Ottawa in April last week, told a plastics pollution seminar that India, along with China and Russia, did not want any legally binding agreement for curbing plastic pollution.

'Modi govt's assault on dissent': Foreign funds of top finance NGO blocked

In a surprise move, the Ministry of Home Affairs, Government of India, has cancelled the foreign funding license of the well-known advocacy group, Centre for Financial Accountability (CFA), known for critically examining India's finance and banking sectors from human rights and environmental angle.

'28% rise in sedition cases': Top global NGO alliance rates India's civil space 'repressed'

Rating India's civic space as repressed , Civicus, a global civil society alliance, in its new report submitted to the UN Human Rights Committee (UNHRC) on the state of civic space in the country has said that the use of sedition law against the Modi government’s critics continues. "Under the government of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, sedition cases have increased by 28 per cent with over 500 cases against more than 7,000 people", it says.

Urban Naxal to Amit Shah, AAP Bharuch candidate tops ADR's Gujarat criminal cases list

Refusing to go beyond the data released by the Election Commission of India (ECI) on the Lok Sabha candidates’ own declarations of their criminal record, educational qualification and assets, the Association of Democratic Reforms (ADR), a top-notch advocacy group, has declared Aam Aadmi Party candidate Chaitar Vasava, 35, having the highest number of criminal cases of all those fighting the electoral battle on 26 seats in Gujarat.

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