By: Teresa Mull
Fourteen children were injured in China last week when a woman attacked them with a knife.
Reuters reports:
The victims were taken to hospital while guards and staff at the kindergarten restrained the attacker, said the police, adding that they were investigating. The statement did not give possible motives for the attack.
Violent crime is rare in China compared with many other countries, especially in major cities where security is tight, but there has been a series of knife and axe attacks in recent years, many targeting children.
According to the Library of Congress website:
The Firearms-Control Law generally prohibits any private possession of firearms in China with extremely limited exceptions. Aside from firearms for military use, the Law categorizes firearms as those for official use and those for civilian use. Firearms for official use are strictly confined to the police, procuratorial personnel working on investigations, and customs personnel. In addition, guards and escort personnel working for important state defense enterprises, financial institutions, storehouses, and scientific research institutions may carry firearms if the firearms are necessary for the performance of their duties. Firearms for civilian use are permitted for specified “work units” in three areas: sports; hunting; and wildlife protection, breeding, and research. Individual hunters in hunting areas and herdsmen in pastoral areas may possess hunting rifles, which cannot be removed from those areas.
The Criminal Law provides harsh penalties for gun-control violations. Illegal possession of firearms is punishable by police supervision, criminal detention, or fixed-term imprisonment for up to seven years. Illegally manufacturing, trading, transporting, mailing, or storing five military guns, five gunpowder-propelled nonmilitary guns, ten other nonmilitary guns, fifty military bullets, five hundred nonmilitary bullets, three hand grenades, or any explosive devices that can cause serious damage is punishable by fixed-term imprisonment of not less than ten years, life imprisonment, or death. The same punishments may be imposed for theft or robbery of firearms, and using firearms to commit robbery.
China is not the only nation with extreme gun control to see a rise in other forms of violence. GPM reported last year:
“England … banned virtually all semi-automatic and pump-action rifles and shotguns in the 1980s, then imposed a near total ban on handguns in the 90s,” NRA-ILA reports.
So… have England’s firearm crimes decreased since draconian gun control took over? No. In 2017, gun crimes increased by 27 percent.
And lately, National Review reported in August 2018, “Great Britain has been suffering from a surge in knife crime,” leading to a desperate “stop and frisk” frenzy in parts of the country.
It’s not that England doesn’t already have knife control laws on its books. According to Gov.uk:
It’s illegal to: sell a knife to anyone under 18, unless it has a folding blade 3 inches long (7.62 cm) or less. carry a knife in public without good reason, unless it has a folding blade with a cutting edge 3 inches long or less. carry, buy or sell any type of banned knife.
Despite these rules, The New York Post reported in July 2018:
Knife attacks and homicides have soared in parts of the UK — as the number of police officers has dropped, according to new statistics.
The total number of homicides, which includes murder and manslaughter, surged 12 percent from the previous year to 701 in England and Wales for the year ending in March, the Office for National Statistics said.
Police-recorded knife crimes have also ballooned 16 percent to 40,147.
Gun crime saw a 2 percent uptick with 6,492 offenses over the same time period.
The repetitive “ban this, ban that!” mentality is maddening and deadly.
Teresa Mull is editor of Gunpowder Magazine. Contact her at [email protected].