Minister of the Interior Jiang Yi-huah (江宜樺) said yesterday he would consider allowing private security guards to carry guns but rejected legalizing guns for the general public.
Jiang said he was open to discussion on the issue and that he would solicit opinions from experts and security firms.
He said his understanding was that there was some support for arming guards within the security industry but a consensus had not been reached. Not all security personnel wanted to be equipped with guns, he said, because it could make their job more dangerous.
Jiang was speaking in response to questions filed by Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Yu Tian (余天) during a question-and-answer session of the legislature’s International Administration Committee meeting.
The sale of guns was a lucrative business, Yu said. A 9mm hand gun cost between NT$70,000 and NT$80,000 on the black market, with a submachine gun costing between NT$150,000 and NT$500,000. As long as a person had the money or contacts, it was easy to get hold of a deadly weapon, he said.
“But ordinary people and security personnel only have [electroshock weapons] to protect themselves,” he said.
Yu said he wondered whether the Ministry of the Interior would consider legalizing guns so ordinary people could protect themselves, to which Jiang said he did not think it was necessary.
“If people can have guns, the potential criminal may think twice about doing something bad,” Yu said. “That might help reduce the crime rate.”
Jiang said owning guns might not necessarily help cut the crime rate but could create more problems than it solved.
“We will not go down that path,” he said.
Jiang agreed to consider Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Wu Yu-sheng’s (吳育昇) proposal to study the possibility of increasing the visibility of police patrols and equipping all police vehicles with GPS in response to a recent slew of violent crimes.
This week has seen a number of high-profile violent crimes.
A Taichung man was gunned down at his home on Monday. Police said suspects fired 17 rounds and they found seven bullets in the victim’s body.
On Tuesday, a gang of 15 people beat up a man accompanying a friend to an intensive care unit only to find out they had attacked the wrong man. On Wednesday, a taxi driver turned himself in after he allegedly ran over and killed a passenger in Taipei City on Tuesday after the two got into a fight.
DPP Legislator William Lai (賴清德) expressed surprise when National Police Agency Director-General Wang Cho-chiun (王卓鈞) told the committee that the state of public security as “stable,” saying there was a yawning chasm between the public’s perception and Wang’s.
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