The shooting of registered ICU nurse Alex Pretti by ICE agents in Minneapolis on January 24 captured on multiple cameras leaves little doubt about what happened. He had moved forward to challenge ICE agents and help another protester who had been pepper-sprayed but was wrestled to the ground and shot 10 times, the last five when he was already inert on the ground. His holstered registered handgun had already been seized by ICE before he was shot.

For anyone living in a country like India where most police personnel—let alone civilians—do not carry arms, the inescapable conclusion is that the US simply has too many guns. Why should immigration agents carry handguns? Why should registered nurses carry handguns? Why should anyone except those in regular conflict with either armed criminals or armed terrorists carry handguns? Why should ordinary people possess not one but multiple rifles and handguns?

According to a 2023 Pew Research Center survey, about 32 per cent of civilian Americans own handguns, or about 80-100 million people. And cumulatively they own 393 million firearms which, terrifyingly, works out to more than one gun for each American man, woman and child. According to a 2018 report by the Switzerland-based Small Arms Survey, the US has less than 5 per cent of the world’s population, but a whopping 40 per cent of the world’s civilian-owned firearms.

The main reason cited by Americans for owning them is “protection" not sport; most of them (77 per cent according to a 2025 YouGov survey) say they feel “safer" with a gun around. In........

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