I went by this store in Tainan in the morning and I was puzzled at just what were they selling. Could it be Zeus's thunderbolts from Mount Olympus or had they found a way of packaging guilt? Later that week, I went by at night and the store was open. What they sell is realistic life-size replicas of firearms. M16s, AK47s, Uzis,
shotguns, pistols ... all nonfunctional. Gun ownership is illegal in Taiwan and mainland China. These are the only guns legal in Taiwan.
Here's a picture of the same store later at night. There were a bunch of toughs hanging out in front but they all retreated in to the store when I pulled out my camera. The boys must have their toys.
I thought that store may have been an exception but I found a similar store within
about a half a mile from by dorm.
It looks like any gun store in the US. They even sell fake ammo, but I suppose nobody stocks up on fake ammo.
They even have a website but it seems to be a travel agency website now.
Here are some comparison of crime rates between US and Taiwan per 100,000
people in 1998.
- ..............................................U.S.A.....Taiwan
- Murders.................6.32...1.17
- Rapes..................34.20.. 8.82
- Robbery/Violent Theft.169.50..14.35
- Serious Assault...... 357.94..37.30
I feel very safe here in Taiwan, as opposed to the US, partly because gun ownership is illegal. If someone robs me it might be with a knife but not with a gun. A automatic weapons can turn a punk into a mass murderer but not in Taiwan.
2 comments:
What interesting observations on fake guns! I wonder if war games are as popular there as here. Would the fake ammunition have paint in the bullets? Thanks for including the statistics on crime in Taiwan vs. US. I wonder if our crime rate would go down so dramatically if guns were outlawed. I would love to feel safer walking around.
When Eli was 7 years old , he brought a fake gun on the flight to come back to US. We had no problem to get on the flight from Taiwan to Japan. But when we went to gift shop in Japan airport and had to check in again, his gun get confiscated. I had no idea how real it looked like since I never held a real gun. The airport security thought it looked too real to be on board. Eli didn’t seem too upset about it.
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