The Election-Gun-Buying-Mania does not appear to be purely an American phenomenon. The black market in India have seen prices for guns double since before the general election. The arms dealers claim the spike in demand is attributed to the various political factions arming themselves. The Telegraph of India reports:

He said each round of bullet fetches Rs 150 to Rs 200, pipe-guns are Rs 1,000 a piece, and single-shotters between Rs 3,000 and Rs 5,000. “There is good demand during elections and both the CPM and the Congress buy them. That is why we have almost doubled the prices now. We test the fitness of each piece we sell, if a bullet turns out to be dud, we return half the money charged through the linkman,” he said.

Nice of them to return half the cost of any dud ammunition! One US Dollar buys about 50 Indian rupees.

The first phase of the general election began in mid April and will end mid May. There are an estimated to be 714 million voters.

A Homemade pistol found by Indian police.