Replica gun nut blasts neighbors' windows

A man suspected of illegally possessing guns has been detained, the Global Times confirmed with the People's Procuratorate of Haidian District Monday.

The suspect, surnamed Huang, 31, from Beijing, spent 19,000 yuan ($3,016) purchasing three replica guns from an online friend in September 2011 and in January this year.

On October 23 last year, and February 20 this year, Huang shot over 20 lead bullets at a residential building opposite his home from his balcony, some of which broke the bedroom windows of two apartments, belonging to residents surnamed Jing and Yu.

After Yu reported the latest shooting to local police on February 20, Huang was arrested at home the next day. Police confiscated three replica guns and some restricted knives.

"Those guns were confirmed to be firearms by the authorities, and the knives, including an army bayonet and two sharp knives, are all restricted," Jin Zhi, the procurator responsible for the case, said yesterday.

"Huang claimed that he collected these guns and knives just for fun, without any other purpose," she said.

According to the China News Service, the Ministry of Public Security issued standards for replica guns in 2008.

A gun is judged to be a replica if it is of a similar shape and color to the original, and the length reaches half or more of that of the original, the standards stipulate.

Jin explained that a person could be charged with gun possession, if the replica gun is found to possess certain criteria, such as the diameter of the muzzle and the power, or antipersonnel force, which will be decided by a police technical department, she said.

In this case, the replica guns were of a higher caliber, so there was a considerable risk of injury to a person, Jin said.

"The bullet could break a window, so it obviously can cause injury to people. If it was aimed at a person's vital organs, it may be fatal. That's why we pay so much attention to these replica guns," she said.

In October, a Beijing parent, surnamed Shen, complained to the police after his son bought a gun from a stationery store near Tsinghua University Primary School.

Police confiscated the mock revolver his son bought, but left the ones on sale at the store, Shen told the Global Times at the time. He complained that the plastic pellets the gun fired could easily injure a child.

Qu Xinjiu, a law professor at the China University of Political Sciences and Law, said that it is forbidden to manufacture and sell replicas of guns, which is stipulated by the law on control of guns, so both the seller and a buyer could be prosecuted.

"People who are charged with the crime of illegally possessing guns will face a punishment of up to three years' jail time," he said.

The Global Times found that replica guns can be bought easily at online shops on Taobao, a popular platform for online shopping in China. Replica AK47s, for example, were on sale for around 100-200 yuan.

Police do periodically raid sellers of such replica weapons.

In the latest incident, police in Yangzhou, Jiangsu Province, seized over 160 replica guns and 400,000 air gun bullets, according to a report on People's Daily Online Thursday.

Altogether 301 suspects were arrested, the report said.

Xiamen Customs, in Fujian Province, destroyed 70,000 replica guns and 20,000 accessories on February 20, according to a report on cctv.com. The items destroyed matched real weapons in color, shape and size, and included sub-machine guns, sniper rifles, revolvers and bullets.

"For all the chambers made of metal, the weapons are not like ordinary toys, and if used illegally, they could hurt people," said Xu Xiangmin, the deputy commissioner of the Anti-Smuggling Bureau of Xiamen Customs.