Staring Down the Barrel: the Rise of Guns in China

[308Mike]

Linkarooni

* OCTOBER 14, 2008

Staring Down the Barrel: the Rise of Guns in China
In a Nation That Bans Guns and Celebrates Them, Armed Criminals and Hunters Pose New Problems for Authorities
By JAMES T. AREDDY

Shanghai -- China's weapons laws are among the world's toughest. Its blanket ban on private ownership of rifles, pistols and even gun replicas is a core tenet of social policy. Still, a gun culture is taking hold.

China may be freer from gun crime than many nations, and official statistics show overall crime on a continuous down trend. Yet, these days, reports about gun crimes turn up as often as several times a week even in the tightly controlled state-run media. The reports are often brief, without much follow-up as cases progress. Still, the splashy gunfights, murders, gun-factory raids and smuggling busts that get reported contrast with China's zero-tolerance stance on guns, and point to changes in criminals' behavior.

But the trend is about more than crime. Guns are now fashionable in paintings and movies, while Chinese-language Web sites and glossy magazines cater to gun buffs. And legal shooting clubs in cities let customers fire away at targets for a fee. Bored with golfing, some affluent businessmen slip into the countryside for hunts.

Even as China's government seeks to keep guns off the street, and shields its massive gun-manufacturing business behind state-secrets laws, it helps stoke the public imagination about guns. Schoolchildren learn to salute the flag shouldering imitation rifles, while state media celebrate the heroism of military and athletic marksmanship.

More..............

EDIT:

Here's what our libtards would LOVE to see happen (note this is a COMMUNIST country's results):

The government holds gun-surrender drives, appealing to citizens with posters in subways to turn in arms with no questions asked, or even for cash. A six-month campaign this year netted 79,000 guns, 1.8 million replica guns and 5.75 million bullets, the Ministry of Public Security said last month. A similar effort in 2006 turned up 178,000 guns and 638,000 replicas in four months.

[martini]

In 1938, as the Communists battled the Japanese and the ruling Nationalists for control, Mao Zedong made his famous remark that "political power grows out of the barrel of a gun" -- foreshadowing strict gun laws the Communists later imposed.

that pretty much says it all. it is also a nice commentary on our current politics. not a positive one.

[Jered]

Apparently some stories can slip through the ministry of truth.

[arkythehun]

Gun crime is very high in China. It's perpetrated by government agents though.

[esa5444]

If they are reporting gun crime in the media there are two possibilities:

1) The level of gun crime going on is about what they are reporting. This is unlikely since they are commies, and generally not very apt at using the media for the purpose of telling a truth that conflicts with their political ideology. Robberies, gang violence, other gun related crimes are a sign that communism is not working, as these people feel stealing is better than working. It's the same reason why, in the USSR, especially in the 20s-30s, theft was a greater crime than murder. If you kill, you killed some one guy, who cares, but if you steal, you are stealing from everyone.

2) Gun crime is huge, to the point that stories of it are passing through word of mouth. If you say that "there has been no gun-related crimes in China all year" people will know outright it's bullshit. So you tell people that gun crime is low, report a few incidents so it looks like one occurrence of it is so rare and unusual that it warrants a report. Then people think, yes it happens, but it's rare, and the commies can safely go on pretending that communism is working, despite a few bad apples in the proletariat.

I tend to think #2. Gun crime in communist countries has always been very high, and I don't see why China should be any exception. The only difference is that in communist countries, they steal whole crates of AK-47s and RPGs from the Army at a time, instead of just stealing a 22 from someone's house.