In the People's Republic of China, access by the general public to firearms is subject to some of the strictest control measures in the world. With the exception of individuals with hunting permits and some ethnic minorities, civilian firearm ownership is restricted to non-individual entities. Law enforcement, military, paramilitary, and security personnel are allowed to use firearms. Police are to use issued pistols only to stop serious or dangerous crimes.

Airsoft gun Airsoft guns are replica toy guns used in airsoft sports. They are a special type of low-power smoothbore air guns designed to shoot non-metallic spherical projectiles (pb) often colloquially (but incorrectly) referred to as " BBs", which are ...

s are practically prohibited in China, as muzzle energy limits classify them as real firearms.

History

Gunpowder was invented in China more than a thousand years ago,James T. Areddy
Staring Down the Barrel: the Rise of Guns in China
''Wsj.com'', 14 October 2008 (accessed on 18 August 2019) with the first definitive written record of chemical formulae found in the mid-

11th century The 11th century is the period from 1001 ( MI) through 1100 ( MC) in accordance with the Julian calendar, and the 1st century of the 2nd millennium. In the history of Europe, this period is considered the early part of the High Middle Ages. T ...

Song dynasty military

compendium A compendium (plural: compendia or compendiums) is a comprehensive collection of information and analysis pertaining to a body of knowledge. A compendium may concisely summarize a larger work. In most cases, the body of knowledge will concern a s ...

Wujing Zongyao The ''Wujing Zongyao'' (), sometimes rendered in English as the ''Complete Essentials for the Military Classics'', is a Chinese military compendium written from around 1040 to 1044. The book was compiled during the Northern Song dynasty by Z ...

'', and the very earliest possible reference dating to the

Eastern Han dynasty The Han dynasty (, ; ) was an imperial dynasty of China (202 BC – 9 AD, 25–220 AD), established by Liu Bang (Emperor Gao) and ruled by the House of Liu. The dynasty was preceded by the short-lived Qin dynasty (221–207 BC) and a wa ...

. During the

Ming The Ming dynasty (), officially the Great Ming, was an imperial dynasty of China, ruling from 1368 to 1644 following the collapse of the Mongol-led Yuan dynasty. The Ming dynasty was the last orthodox dynasty of China ruled by the Han pe ...

and

Qing dynasties The Qing dynasty ( ), officially the Great Qing,, was a Manchu-led imperial dynasty of China and the last orthodox dynasty in Chinese history. It emerged from the Later Jin dynasty founded by the Jianzhou Jurchens, a Tungusic-speaki ...

matchlock A matchlock or firelock is a historical type of firearm wherein the gunpowder is ignited by a burning piece of rope that is touched to the gunpowder by a mechanism that the musketeer activates by pulling a lever or trigger with his finger. Before ...

muskets were used in China, and the Chinese used the term "bird-gun" () to refer to muskets. Mao Zedong remarked "

Political power grows out of the barrel of a gun ''Political power grows out of the barrel of a gun'' () is a phrase which was coined by Chinese communist leader Mao Zedong. The phrase was originally used by Mao during an emergency meeting of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) on 7 August 1927, ...

" in 1927 and 1938, a sentiment that was maintained after winning the civil war. The country's strict centralized stance on gun control was officially instated in the country in 1966, and extended in 1996 when the government banned the buying, selling and transporting of firearms without official permission.Hu Yinan
Writing on the wall for guns
''Chinadaily.com'', 18 August 2010 (18 August 2019) According to the Chinese police, up until 2006, an underground gun-trading triangle in Southwest China fed the Chinese gun market, with guns being manufactured in

Songtao Songtao Miao Autonomous County () is an autonomous county in the northeast of Guizhou province, China, bordering Chongqing to the north and Hunan province to the east. It is under the administration of the prefecture-level city of Tongren Tongre ...

and trafficked into Xiushan and Huayuan before reaching a national distribution scale. According to official figures, from June to September 2006 (six-month crackdown) the Chinese authorities confiscated 178,000 illegal guns, 3,900 tons of explosives, 7.77 million detonators and 4.75 million bullets. In 2007, a study released by the Geneva-based Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies estimated that around 40 million guns were owned by Chinese civilians, a gross over-estimation according to Chinese analysts. Throughout the 2000s, '' The Wall Street Journal'' noted a rise of gun popularity in China.

Specifications

In China, firearms can be used by law enforcement, the military and paramilitary, or security personnel protecting property of state importance (including the arms industry, financial institutions, storage of resources, and scientific research institutions). Civilian ownership of firearms is largely restricted to non-individual entities such as sporting organizations, hunting reserves, and

wildlife Wildlife refers to undomesticated animal species, but has come to include all organisms that grow or live wild in an area without being introduced by humans. Wildlife was also synonymous to game: those birds and mammals that were hunted fo ...

protection, management and research organizations. The chief exception to the general ban for individual gun ownership is for the purpose of hunting. Individuals who hold hunting permits can apply to purchase and hold firearms for the purpose of hunting. Illegal possession or sale of firearms may result in a minimum punishment of 3 years in prison, and the penalty for a gun crime is

death penalty Capital punishment, also known as the death penalty, is the state-sanctioned practice of deliberately killing a person as a punishment for an actual or supposed crime, usually following an authorized, rule-governed process to conclude that ...

s are also practically prohibited due to the Ministry of Public Security dictating very restrictive new criteria that rendered most such toy guns being defined as real firearms, and violation may lead to a criminal conviction for illegal possession of firearms. Official media has discussed potential dangers of imitation guns ().

Special regions

Miao people

The possession of traditional smoothbore blackpowder muskets is allowed to some

Miao Miao may refer to: * Miao people, linguistically and culturally related group of people, recognized as such by the government of the People's Republic of China * Miao script or Pollard script, writing system used for Miao languages * Miao (Unicode ...

hill people, the so-called Miao gun tribes, as an essential element of traditional dress and culture; however, possession of gunpowder is regulated. The Biasha (Basha) Miao people () living in Bingmei, Guizhou, claim they can legally possess guns, since they use them for their annual traditional performance.

Hong Kong and Macau

Firearm ownership in the

special administrative regions The special administrative regions (SAR) of the People's Republic of China are one of the provincial-level administrative divisions of the People's Republic of China directly under the control of its Central People's Government (State Co ...

of Hong Kong and Macau is tightly controlled and possession is mainly in the hands of law enforcement, military, or private security firms (providing protection for jewelers and banks). Still, possessing, manufacturing, importing, or exporting

airsoft gun Airsoft guns are replica toy guns used in airsoft sports. They are a special type of low-power smoothbore air guns designed to shoot non-metallic spherical projectiles (pb) often colloquially (but incorrectly) referred to as " BBs", which are ...

s with a

muzzle energy Muzzle energy is the kinetic energy of a bullet as it is expelled from the muzzle of a firearm. Without consideration of factors such as aerodynamics and gravity for the sake of comparison, muzzle energy is used as a rough indication of the de ...

not above is legal to citizens in China's SARs. Firearms control was inherited during

British British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and Crown Dependencies. ** Britishness, the British identity and common culture * British English, ...

and Portuguese rule and more or less retained today. Under the Section 13 of Cap 238 Firearms and Ammunition Ordinance of the Hong Kong law, unrestricted firearms and ammunition requires a license. Those found in possession without a license could be fined HKD$100,000 and imprisonment for up to 14 years.

References