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.Cool...I'm for it! Mo' guns worldwide is better.
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.
Tuesday, October 14, 2008
Chinese Gun Culture?
Pretty cool article from WSJ on the bizarre and unlikely rise of Chinese gun culture:
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3 comments:
FTA:
"China may be freer from gun crime than many nations"
IF you don't count the government's use of guns against the civilians, that may be a true statement.
MB have you ever thought of doing a couple of Shooting Galleries from overseas? I would love to hear about the shooting sports in say Asia or Finland or heavens FRANCE !
To be quite honest I don't believe the hype from the NRA for instance on Australia. Every Camp Perry has competitors from down under and they talk of SAS shoots and pretty active competition. The Philipines even allows CCW by non-nationals. I would like to get the real skinny on these other countries and the current situation.
"Verrrrry Interrresting" [/artejohnsonmode]
Here we have an ancient culture, involving a significant portion of humanity, which has historically been among the most suppressive in terms of which we are pleased to call "individual rights".
They can't own firearms, at all, even though the Chinese invented gunpowder.
It's a culture of contradiction, and the individuals which populate this culture cannot be discouraged from expressing their intense interest in weapons technology.
I think this demonstrates that people, not cultures, illustrate basic human interests.
Most people seem to find that weapons/firearms ownership is empowering. If they are denied that empowerment, they fantasize it. We look at pictures of arms, we talk about arms, we are drawn to entertainment venue which depict the use of arms.
Any nation, or society, which restricts this natural urge to the personal empowerment represented by the availability of arms imposes an artificial source of tension on its populace.
The artificiality of restrictive governments is best typified by their refusal to allow their members to arm themselves. In their imperatives to control The People, these governments are establishing the conditions which are most likely to overwhelm their control structures.
When the day comes that the populace rises up against an intrusive government, it may not be specifically because it disallowed private ownership of arms. But this will be the Tipping Point, and the most significant factor leading to cultural revolution.
The strongest Steam Engine may discover that its Boiler bursts because the engineering did not include a Safety Valve.
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