Chinese civilian take on gun rights and the shooting.

According to the Small Arms Survey, a research project based at the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies in Geneva, in 2007 China had the third largest number of civilian firearms holdings (behind the U.S. and India), with about 40 million. When ordered by rate of gun ownership, China?s rank dropped significantly; China had between 2.3 and 3.9 guns per 100 people, compared with the U.S. range of 83 to 97.

Gun crimes are common in China and receive considerable media attention. Gun smuggling -- an offense against the state - - appears to be the most widespread. But violence, including shootouts both large and small, receive their fair share of coverage. And while Chinese officials like to claim that such crimes are in decline, reports of massive weapon seizures suggest they?re battling an endless rising tide of weapons.

For all these guns, and crimes associated with them, China?s microbloggers and editorial-page writers have rarely written in favor of, or in opposition to, gun rights. This isn?t a matter of censorship: Guns can be discussed freely on blogs and microblogs. Rather, the topic appears to have lacked an event to inspire the discussion. That all changed as the news of the Newtown, Connecticut shooting reached China.

Much of the initial and official Chinese response to Newtown was as sincerely shocked, emotional and -- in American terms -- antigun as the reaction in the U.S. and other countries. It was also highly critical of the U.S. and its liberal gun policies.

China?s microbloggers, too, expressed outrage at U.S. policy and attitudes toward guns. Zhang Xin, the celebrity chief executive officer of Soho China Ltd., one of China?s biggest property developers, used Sina Weibo, China?s leading microblog, to tweet her thoughts: ?When I opened weibo this morning, the biggest news was the American campus shooting. . . . Honestly, can?t the politicians set aside politics and ban guns? There are always mental patients in the crowd and we can?t give guns to them.?

As of Dec. 19, Zhang?s tweet had been forwarded (or re- tweeted) more than 12,200 times. It has also generated close to 8,000 comments. While most of the early comments were supportive, by the morning of Dec. 16 the tenor of much of the discussion had turned against Zhang, with the ire no longer directed so much at the U.S., but at China and its restrictive gun laws. The congratulatory editorializing in which many Chinese newspapers engaged was absent, replaced by pro-gun- rights arguments that intimated and often expressed outright antipathy toward Chinese authorities.

?Dictatorship has brought disasters much greater than the losses from the shooting,? wrote one anonymous Sina Weibo microblogger in the lengthy comment thread. Another, in Guangzhou, wrote of the land seizures that have caused so much despair -- and unrest -- across China: ?If people have guns in their hands, can the government come to your house and demolish it??

On China

Source: http://www.nyfirearms.com/forums/firearms-news/38793-chinese-civilian-take-gun-rights-shooting.html

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