CONTROVERSIAL

China’s strict gun controls sparked wide controversy after a senior citizen in Tianjin was sentenced to three and a half years in prison for earning money from a street balloon game in which customers pay to shoot balloons to win prizes. The court charged the woman with illegal possession of firearms, claiming that the “guns” the woman provided for balloon shooting discharge kinetic energy greater than 1.8 joules per square centimeter, China’s threshold for defining a firearm, and the strictest measure worldwide. Netizens and experts alike argued that the threshold is too low for such devices to cause harm and that the penalty is too heavy for the woman, who did not use the “guns” to threaten anyone.