Man fires gun to scare off dancers

A man who fired into the air in an attempt to drive away people dancing beside his house was put on trial on Tuesday in Beijing after being charged with illegal possession of firearms.

A verdict is expected next week, Yang Weidong, the judge with the Changping District People's Court who presided over the trial, told the Global Times on Wednesday.

On August 30, irritated by the loud noise caused by the dancing music in a square near his house in Changping, the suspect, surnamed Shi, fired into the air with a double-barreled shotgun while intoxicated. He was then arrested by the police after the group leader of the dancers, surnamed Guo, called the police.

Shi did not mean to scare the dancers by shooting the gun from his courtyard, and he had endured the noise for a long time, Han Xiao, Shi's lawyer, told the Global Times on Wednesday.

Shi, 56, who has possessed the gun since 1994, said that he had negotiated with Guo several times about the noisy dancing, which made it hard for him to sleep, but it did not work, according to Han.

Media reports said that Shi released three Tibetan mastiffs to scare the dancers, but this claim was denied by the lawyer, who said that Shi's daughter told her they have several golden retrievers and did not let them out of the yard.

The prosecutor has called for a sentence of six to nine months, given Shi's confession, Han said.

The case has prompted discussions online, as Net users debated whether this kind of dancing, which is quite popular among middle-aged and elderly people in China, is causing complaints. "I have tolerated it for a long time," said a Beijing resident who lives beside a square. He said he complained to the dancers several times, but they just turned down the volume and continued, the Beijing Youth Daily reported.

In October, residents in Wuhan, Central China's Hubei province, even poured excrement on people dancing in a square. The dancers said that the residents had previously thrown coins and rocks at them, and quarreled with them over the noise, the China News Service reported.