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Guns In China. More, More, More....

By Dan Harris and Steve Dickinson

I love talking about guns with Asian lawyers because their views on them are so....so un-American. Let's face it people, most Americans love guns. (This week's passage of a law allowing guns in National Parks is further proof of this.) And we Americans have a history with guns and an attachment to guns that is probably unique. Asian lawyers tend to be fascinated with this. And their assumptions about who carries a gun in the United States tends to be way off. I get a kick out of telling them about a relative of mine who owns about a thousand guns and another relative of mine who once put a gun to the head of his sister's boyfriend who was tapping on her window. Right when I see the shock in their eyes, I tell them that the relative with the massive gun collection is one of the nicest people I know and that he has never shot anyone. Oh, and the relative who stuck the gun to his sister's boyfriend's head. He did that thinking he was a burglar, but, to his credit, he gave the boyfriend a chance to identify himself, which he did. Oh, and he ended up marrying the sister too. And then I tell them about all the lawyers I know who carry guns. There was my former partner who was always a bit paranoid. He was convinced that the Russian mob had a hit out for him and so he got a concealed weapons permit and he was always "packing." Then there was another lawyer I knew from Montana who thought it "uncivilized" to not be carrying a gun at all times so as to be able to protect anyone who needed it. There are many more. I then explain that many people in the United States who do not have a gun do not do so out of opposition to the right to bear arms, but because their own cost benefit analysis says they would be safer without a gun than with one. Like it or not, ours is a gun culture. I had this discussion the last time I was in China and one of the lawyers (in front of many other Chinese lawyers from his firm) said it is a good thing China is so tough on guns because if it were not, there would be 1.0 billion people in China, not 1.3 billion and everyone knows who the .3 billion would be and that is why the government is so tough on guns. I raised my eyebrows, smiled, laughed, and then said nothing. Apparently Chinese government toughness on guns is declining as reports of guns in China seem to be increasing. James Areddy, a crackerjack China reporter for the Wall Street Journal, recently blogged on this in a post entitled, "Bang! Bang! Shots In Shanghai." The post is mostly about a recent gunfight in Shanghai but it also discusses other violence in China involving firearms. For more on guns in China, check out this 2008 WSJ article. So what's up with guns in China?

Full post as published by China Law Blog on May 23, 2009 (boomark / email).