A bulldozer crushes hundreds of seized guns and knives in Baoshan district Tuesday. Police have confiscated more than 300 guns and 2,200 controlled knives this year. Photo: Yang Hui/GT

 

Police destroyed more than 300 confiscated firearms Tuesday outside a steel plant in Baoshan district.

The seized weapons were the fruit of a citywide campaign to reduce crimes with dangerous weapons, according to a press release from the Shanghai Municipal Public Security Bureau. Police also confiscated about 13,000 bullets, 2,200 controlled knives and blades, and 340 pellet guns.

"We seized some of the guns at security inspection points, like the ones at train stations, airports and long-distance bus stations," said an officer surnamed Lu, who participated in the campaign. "There were also some that we confiscated from gun lovers."

Police have arrested 26 suspects in 18 gun-related cases this year.

In one case, a patrolling police officer came across a resident selling two pellet guns on the street in Songjiang district Friday.

The man, surnamed Chen, was a collector of the weapons, the press release said. Police took Chen into custody and found 14 other pellet guns in his apartment.

Most of the weapons that police confiscated were handed over voluntarily, including 89 percent of the firearms and pellet guns and 26 percent of the knives, the press release said.

China strengthened gun control rules in the 1990s so that individuals who had been allowed to own firearms had to hand in their hunting rifles, according to Xu Tong, a lawyer from the Yingke Law Firm.

Under the gun administration law that took effect in 1996, only hunters and herders in designated hunting and pastoral zones are allowed to apply for permits to own firearms.

Gun crime returned to the public's attention last month after an elderly former soldier, Fan Jieming, killed six people in Shanghai, including a guard at a military camp. Fan shot the guard with a hunting rifle that he had kept in his possession.

The Ministry of Public Security paid special attention to the incident, ordering the seizure of all guns that remained illegally in residents' hands, the China Youth Daily reported.