The Cabinet is considering pressing for tighter gun-control regulations following violent incidents such as the March 19 shooting of President Chen Shui-bian (
According to a Cabinet official who asked not to be identified, the Cabinet is scheduled to review the draft amendments to the Statute Regulating Firearms, Ammunition, Knives and Other Deadly Weapons (
On June 18, Premier Yu Shyi-kun requested government agencies to present to the Cabinet within a week their proposals for strategies to crack down on gangsters and illegal possession of firearms.
His request followed a police shootout with suspected kidnappers in Taichung on June 16 that left two police officers dead. In the election-eve shooting, Chen was gashed across the stomach and Lu was wounded in the knee by bullets fired from a homemade handgun.
In addition to proposing the draft amendments, the Ministry of the Interior also started a three-month amnesty starting July 1 for those holding illegal firearms to hand in the wea-pons to authorities without being charged.
As of July 5, police nationwide have arrested 92 people suspected of being involved in 71 cases of illegal possession of firearms and have cracked down on three criminal groups, as well as taking into custody two people suspected of involvement in a shooting.
The crackdown has resulted in solving 130 outstanding criminal cases, with a total of 145 suspects detained as well as 105 illegal guns and 326 bullets seized.
The draft amendments would impose sentences of up to life imprisonment to those manufacturing, selling or transporting firearms or remade firearms. Under the current law, those manufacturing, selling or transporting firearms are subject to prison terms of up to five years and fines of up to NT$10 million.
Those intentionally using or providing firearms to others for criminal purposes are subject to sentences of up to seven years in prison and fines of up to NT$10 million.
The Cabinet is also considering revoking an article punishing career or elected civil servants who fabricate evidence in order to falsely accuse others of manufacturing, sell-ing, transporting, possessing, hiding, loaning or transferring ownership of firearms, ammunition or deadly weapons.
The draft would also extend the regulations to toy guns. Under the draft, law enforcement officers would be authorized to conduct inspections in toy stores.
Government agencies concerned should make public a list of toy guns with external features, color, structure, materials and firing mechanisms similar to those of real guns. Possessors of such toys would be required to report to authorities.
An essay competition jointly organized by a local writing society and a publisher affiliated with the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) might have contravened the Act Governing Relations Between the People of the Taiwan Area and the Mainland Area (臺灣地區與大陸地區人民關係條例), the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said on Thursday. “In this case, the partner organization is clearly an agency under the CCP’s Fujian Provincial Committee,” MAC Deputy Minister and spokesperson Liang Wen-chieh (梁文傑) said at a news briefing in Taipei. “It also involves bringing Taiwanese students to China with all-expenses-paid arrangements to attend award ceremonies and camps,” Liang said. Those two “characteristics” are typically sufficient
A magnitude 5.9 earthquake that struck about 33km off the coast of Hualien City was the "main shock" in a series of quakes in the area, with aftershocks expected over the next three days, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Prior to the magnitude 5.9 quake shaking most of Taiwan at 6:53pm yesterday, six other earthquakes stronger than a magnitude of 4, starting with a magnitude 5.5 quake at 6:09pm, occurred in the area. CWA Seismological Center Director Wu Chien-fu (吳健富) confirmed that the quakes were all part of the same series and that the magnitude 5.5 temblor was
The brilliant blue waters, thick foliage and bucolic atmosphere on this seemingly idyllic archipelago deep in the Pacific Ocean belie the key role it now plays in a titanic geopolitical struggle. Palau is again on the front line as China, and the US and its allies prepare their forces in an intensifying contest for control over the Asia-Pacific region. The democratic nation of just 17,000 people hosts US-controlled airstrips and soon-to-be-completed radar installations that the US military describes as “critical” to monitoring vast swathes of water and airspace. It is also a key piece of the second island chain, a string of
The Central Weather Administration has issued a heat alert for southeastern Taiwan, warning of temperatures as high as 36°C today, while alerting some coastal areas of strong winds later in the day. Kaohsiung’s Neimen District (內門) and Pingtung County’s Neipu Township (內埔) are under an orange heat alert, which warns of temperatures as high as 36°C for three consecutive days, the CWA said, citing southwest winds. The heat would also extend to Tainan’s Nansi (楠西) and Yujing (玉井) districts, as well as Pingtung’s Gaoshu (高樹), Yanpu (鹽埔) and Majia (瑪家) townships, it said, forecasting highs of up to 36°C in those areas
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