CCTV News:Zhao Chunhua, 51, who lives in Hebei District, Tianjin, set up a shooting booth on the street to play balloons for two months. He was suddenly arrested by the police not long ago. On December 27, 2016, the court of Hebei District, Tianjin held the first instance.For the crime of illegal possession of firearmsSentence Zhao Chunhua.Three years and six months in prison.. What’s going on here?
△ Tricycle for Zhao Chunhua Balloon Shooting Booth.
The old lady put a shooting stall on the street. The police seized 6 guns for illegal possession.
Zhao Chunhua’s daughter, Wang Yanling, told reporters that her mother divorced her father a few years ago and she lived with her mother. Zhao Chunhua used to sell rice in the factory. In August 2016, Zhao Chunhua resigned and took over the shooting booth from an old man. He used a toy gun to hit the balloon. "It is the kind of common plastic bullet, and the gun is also that kind of plastic gun."
Wang Yanling said that because stalls were not allowed during the day, Zhao Chunhua set up stalls at eight or nine o’clock every night, and then closed the stalls at about twelve o’clock in the evening. After about two months, nothing happened.
△ Zhao Chunhua’s stall.
At around 22: 00 on October 12, 2016, Zhao Chunhua was suddenly arrested. According to the first-instance judgment of the case, the court found through trial that the public security organs arrested Zhao Chunhua during the inspection, and seized 9 guns involved and related gun accessories and plastic bullets on the spot, which were appraised by the Tianjin Public Security Bureau’s Material Evidence Appraisal Center.Six of the nine guns involved are guns powered by compressed gas that can normally fire..
In the first instance, the court sentenced him to three and a half years for illegal possession of firearms.
The People’s Procuratorate of Hebei District accused Zhao Chunhua of illegally holding six guns powered by compressed gas in violation of the state’s gun control system, and the circumstances were serious, so he should be investigated for criminal responsibility for the crime of illegal possession of guns.
On December 27, 2016, the Hebei District Court made a first-instance judgment on the Zhao Chunhua case. The court held that,Zhao Chunhua violated the state’s gun management system and illegally held guns. The circumstances are serious, which has constituted the crime of illegal possession of guns.; Zhao Chunhua voluntarily pleaded guilty in court and can be given a lighter punishment as appropriate; Defender’s defense opinion that Zhao Chunhua has a frank plot, is a first-time offender and has a good attitude of pleading guilty was adopted by the court as appropriate. In the first instance, the Hebei District Court convicted Zhao Chunhua of illegal possession of firearms and sentenced him to 3 years and 6 months’ imprisonment.
△ Zhao Chunhua
Appeal against the judgment has entrusted an attorney.
However, on January 1 this year, the reporter learned from Zhao Chunhua’s daughter Wang Yanling that her mother had filed an appeal, and the second trial had entrusted Xu Xin, an attorney for the case of Liu Dawei’s smuggling of weapons (Liu Dawei bought 24 imitation guns online in the BB Gun Zone of a website in Taiwan Province in 2014, and the goods were seized by the customs, and Liu Dawei was sentenced to life). Wang Yanling said that she had signed a power of attorney with Xu Xin on January 1, 2017. Next, the lawyer will do some work on evidence, such as the identification of the case, whether the evidence collection procedure is legal or flawed, and so on.
According to the "Regulations on Performance Appraisal of Firearms and Ammunition Involved in Cases by Public Security Organs" issued by the Ministry of Public Security in 2010, non-standard firearms that can’t fire standard ammunition are all recognized as firearms when the muzzle specific kinetic energy of the projectile fired is greater than or equal to 1.8 Joule/cm2. According to the relevant gun certificate, the six guns operated by Zhao Chunhua can normally fire the matching projectiles powered by compressed gas, and the muzzle specific kinetic energy ranges from 2.17 Joule/cm2 to 3.14 Joule/cm2. This has exceeded the standard set by the Ministry of Public Security.
Why does the Ministry of Public Security take the muzzle specific kinetic energy as the standard of 1.8 Joule/cm2 or more? In this regard, according to the research results of the forensic science appraisal department of Nanjing Public Security Bureau and related literature, there is a view that 1.8 Joule/cm2 is the critical point of gun appraisal, which means that it can cause minor injuries or more to the human eyes, the most vulnerable part of the human body. It is determined by experiments that when the muzzle specific kinetic energy reaches 1.8 Joule/cm2, it will cause damage to the naked eyes of the human body. However, there are also views that this standard is relatively low, because the eye part is special, and this muzzle specific kinetic energy will hardly cause damage to other parts.
Xu Xin believes that Zhao Chunhua has no subjective intention to commit a crime, and the social harm is small. He will question whether the gun appraisal standard formulated by the Ministry of Public Security is applicable in court judgment when defending.
△ data map
There are precedents for being sentenced for setting up balloon shooting booths.
The reporter found that Zhao Chunhua was not the first case to be investigated for criminal responsibility for the crime of illegal possession of firearms for setting up a balloon shooting booth. There were 23 similar cases all over the country, among which 17 cases were sentenced to probation, 3 cases were sentenced to public surveillance, and only 3 cases were sentenced to actual punishment.
All three cases that were sentenced to actual punishment occurred in Fangshan, Beijing.
Zheng, a woman, runs a simulated gun and balloons business in Shidu Town, Fangshan District, Beijing. On July 7, 2015, the public security organs seized 23 guns in their stalls. After being appraised by the Beijing Public Security Judicial Appraisal Center, 16 of them were identified as guns powered by compressed gas, and the other 7 could not be identified as guns. The court sentenced Zheng to three years and six months in prison for the crime of illegal possession of firearms.
In addition, Song and Zheng Mouhua, who were investigated together, were also sentenced to three years and two months and three years and three months respectively.
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Paragraph 1 of Article 128 of the Criminal Law: Whoever illegally holds or hides guns and ammunition in violation of the regulations on gun control shall be sentenced to fixed-term imprisonment of not more than three years, criminal detention or public surveillance; If the circumstances are serious, they shall be sentenced to fixed-term imprisonment of not less than three years but not more than seven years.
Article 5, paragraph 2, of the Supreme People’s Court’s Interpretation on Several Issues Concerning the Specific Application of Laws in the Trial of Criminal Cases of Illegal Manufacturing, Trading and Transportation of Firearms, Ammunition and Explosives: In any of the following circumstances, it belongs to "serious circumstances" as stipulated in the first paragraph of Article 128 of the Criminal Law:
(a) illegal possession and possession of more than two military guns;
(2) Illegally holding or hiding two or more non-military guns that fire bullets with gunpowder or five or more other non-military guns that are powered by compressed gas;
(3) illegally holding or hiding more than 100 military bullets, more than 5,000 air gun lead bullets or more than 1,000 other non-military bullets;
(four) illegal possession, possession of more than three grenades;
(5) Having reached the minimum quantity standard stipulated in the first paragraph of this article, and having other bad circumstances such as causing serious consequences.
(Source: Beiqing Daily The Paper)