China eases air gun laws after public outcry over harsh court rulings

Under new rules issued by China’s Supreme Court, the lower courts now must consider motivation and other factors in deciding air gun cases

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A series of controversial cases touched off criticism of the strictness and rigidity of standards used in China to distinguish toy firearms from real ones. Pictured: workers prepare illegal weapons for destruction at a yard in Ningbo, in eastern China's Zhejiang province. Photo: AFP

Published: 12:53pm, 30 Mar 2018Updated: 10:41pm, 30 Mar 2018

China has relaxed its air gun laws after a series of controversial cases touched off criticism of the strictness and rigidity of standards used to distinguish toy firearms from real ones.

Under new rules that were to take effect on Friday after being issued on Wednesday by the Supreme People’s Court and the Supreme People’s Procuratorate, China’s lower courts now must consider multiple factors when determining responsibility and setting punishments in air gun cases.

A major element in court decisions now will be the owner’s motivation for using the air gun.

China’s new air gun rules provide leniency in a country with some of the world’s toughest gun control laws. Photo: AFP

In the past, courts tended to look only at the number of air guns involved in a case or the gun’s “muzzle energy” – a term for the destructive potential a gun would have based on the amount of kinetic energy a bullet expelled from its muzzle would create.

Judges now also must consider a gun’s appearance, what it is made of, the kind of bullets it would use and the various ways it could be bought.