Is this 4cm key chain a gun? Chinese police think so
An online retailer is awaiting trial for offering firearms that break muzzle energy limits, but his lawyer says the law needs to be reviewed
The lawyer representing a man from southeast China who was arrested for selling miniature pistol key chains capable of firing tiny bullets has appealed for clarity on the country’s stringent gun control laws, according to state media.
The suspect, who has not been identified, was apprehended in July, but the case came to the public’s attention only on Tuesday when it was featured in a report by The Voice of China.
While the guns function as a firearm, the suspect’s wife, identified only as Cheng, said they were not intended to be used as a weapon.
“It can be fired, but we have not made anything like gunpowder ammunition,” she said. “It’s just a small keychain pendant for collectors.”
The guns were manufactured in China and based on a design her husband had seen on a trip overseas, Cheng said. They sold online for a few hundred yuan apiece.
The radio report did not say if the tiny pistols are powerful enough to hurt or kill a human, but a video of one of them being fired was viewed more than 9 million times on social media last week. The footage, uploaded to Weibo, China’s Twitter-like service, showed a person shooting small holes into a tin can from several inches.
