The government should do more to crack down on the modification of toy guns and the production of illegal bullets, Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) legislators told a news conference on Thursday last week.
An increase in gun violence over the past few years poses a growing threat to national security, KMT Legislator Sandy Yu (游毓蘭) said, adding that most of the crimes were carried out with illegally modified guns.
The issue should be tackled through better inspection of imported toy guns, stricter legislation governing domestically manufactured toy guns and a crackdown on the modification of toy guns, she said.
Photo: CNA
From 2019 to 2021, the proportion of ammunition casings seized at the scenes of shootings that were found to be from modified bullets increased from 24 percent in 2019 to 39 percent in 2021, KMT Legislator Lee De-wei (李德維) said, adding that this pointed to a growing number of modified guns.
“Imitation guns are becoming increasingly similar to authentic weapons, and they are becoming easier to modify,” Lee said.
About 60 percent of the world’s imitation guns are manufactured in Taiwan, and their level of realism is so high that they are used for training by the US Military Academy West Point and the Swiss police, Yu said.
Photo: CNA
The guns’ realism and the ease with which they can be modified into offensive weapons showed that the government had neglected to manage the issue, she said.
While toy guns should not be outright prohibited, the government should oversee the industry, and regulate the color of and materials used in toy guns, she added.
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