“The shooting of two government officials during a meeting Wednesday comes amid a rise in gun-related crimes in China, which has maintained a stringent, decades long ban on owning firearms,” wsj.com reports (and not for the first time). Wait. Does China’s soaring “gun violence” mean that anti-gunners who point to The People’s Republic as an example of the joys of civilian disarmament are wrong? Well . . .
It’s important to realize that the people running The People’s Republic aren’t big fans of a free and independent press. Any information on Chinese “gun violence” comes through a fascist filter, which usually means total censorship. (Reporters Without Borders gives China’s press the worst ranking on their five-point scale.) So any report of Chinese firearms-related crime should be viewed as tip of the iceberg stuff.
That said, here’s the Wall Street Journal’s all-too-credulous but still revealing take on the topic:
Gun violence and the use of firearms to commit crimes are unusual in China, where rules effectively ban all private ownership and police exercise wide authority to question and detain suspects. Violent crimes tend to be committed with knives or explosives available for mining and road construction.
Government statistics show the number of violations of controls on firearms and ammunition rising by more than 50% in one year, to 81,668 cases in 2015. The national police ministry said in August that overall gun-related crimes are continuing to rise, especially internet sales of guns, “seriously affecting public safety and stability and the people’s sense of security.”
You gotta love any organization that wrings its hands about “the people’s sense of security” rather than their actual security. Organizations like…all of America’s gun control advocacy groups. Orgs that would like nothing more than to see The Land of The Free become a gun-free people’s paradise — despite the fact that there is and can never be any such thing. Even under a brutal totalitarian regime.
Despite restrictions and public attitudes, handguns, rifles and other firearms still circulate in China. Primary sources include smuggling, theft and lax controls at arsenals and factories producing them for export or law enforcement. Others originate from small-scale workshops forging guns and homemade devices.
Last year, a Beijing judge was fatally shot by attackers armed with a homemade gun. A villager in the southern county of Dongyuan used a homemade shotgun to kill three people last summer in what was believed to be a property dispute.
A man from Hong Kong, a partly autonomous Chinese territory, was caught late in the year smuggling two dozen guns and thousands of ammunition rounds over the border by Shenzhen customs officials.
The Ministry of Public Security routinely announces crackdowns and sweeps urging citizens to turn in guns and call in tips for generous rewards. Hunan province last year began offering rewards as high as 100,000 yuan ($14,400) for tips pertaining to gun violations.
Homemade guns? You mean you can’t stop the signal? That’s exactly what it means: gun control is a fool’s errand. Anyone who thinks otherwise is either seriously deluded, a totalitarian-in-disguise, or both.