The participants at a seminar -Lessons from Gurgaon school shoot-out: call for redrafting India's gun legislation—held in the Capital today pointed out that easy availability of guns was a major reason for increase in such incidents.

According to findings of a UN research presented at the seminar, “There were 587 incidents of licensed gun killings in India in 2006.”

Said Lt Gen (retd) B S Mallik, president of Control Arms Foundation of India, an organisation involved in the movement against misuse of arms, “We want the Indian Arms Act of 1959 to be made stringent. Every one should not be allowed to possess arms. Those provided license for possessing weapons should be accountable for their use."

He said children should not be allowed to use weapons at all. “Children should be denied access to arms,” he said.

Some recent incidents of children resorting to shooting their friends in schools include a boy being shot dead by his classmates in a Gurgaon school in December last year, while another student in Satna district, Madhya Pradesh, was shot dead by a fellow student last month.

Experts pointed out the shared responsibility of parents and school in providing a balanced education to children.

Dr Venita Kaul, a specialist in early childhood care and education, said access to guns was not the only trigger to violence and similar incidents.

Terming the causes for children turning violent as the '4 As': Alienation, Anger, Aggression and Access to weapon, she said, “the factors are all related to a child's education and development”.

Alienation, Dr Venita said is the deviation from the mainstream and “is particularly threatening children between 14 and 17 years as it is the main identity-constructing period”.

“While highly driven to compare themselves with others, children are particularly sensitive to notions like superiority and success. This sensitivity is a natural part of identity construction and must not be a source of worries. The overall environment in educational institutes is tainting the realisation of a child's balanced identity construction,” Dr Venita said.