Loony gun lovers
I want to thank J. Michael Cole for his shocking expose of the Taiwan Defensive Firearms Association (TDFA), the anarchist, pro-violence fringe group that has now infiltrated the peaceful shores of Taiwan with its pro-gun message (“Taiwan gun group joins global fight to bear arms,” Oct. 25, page 2). As the singer and songwriter of the dynamic pro-community rock band Ballots Not Bullets, I promise I will do everything in my power to diminish the influence of these insane morons.
I was both alarmed and appalled when I read that the TDFA is promoting a referendum that would allow them to supply 8 million semi--automatic weapons to “qualified citizens” in Taiwan, wherein 5 million Taiwanese would be allowed to carry concealed handguns. This is a recipe for lawlessness and anarchy. If this becomes reality, I will leave Taiwan faster than you can say “one way ticket to New Zealand, please.”
In response to the TDFA’s claim about “semi-automatic defensive weapons,” I would respond that this is sheer lunacy. There’s nothing defensive about a semi-automatic weapon. Guns are made for one reason only: to kill.
Cole didn’t mention any statistics about how much gun violence there is in Taiwan, but I think the old adage is true: “If guns are outlawed, only outlaws will have guns.”
While pro-gun people use this quote to support their case, it’s actually quite true in Taiwan. Most of the guns in the possession of Taiwanese, outside the military, police force and Aboriginal hunters, are in fact owned by gangsters in criminal organizations and used for violent crimes.
In my view, the TDFA is a group that has a hammer and sees every problem as a nail. Simply put, it’s a solution that’s looking for a problem.
In the decade I’ve lived here in Taiwan, I’ve never once seen a violent crime. Traffic accidents, yes, but it seems like the only time people resort to gun violence to “solve” problems is during elections, like when former vice president Lien Chan’s (連戰) son, Sean (連勝文), was shot through the cheek with a bullet that killed an innocent bystander at a political rally last year. This is exactly the kind of crime we don’t need more of, and more guns in the hands of “qualified citizens” will surely exacerbate this problem.
Taiwan’s police need to get on this case like flies on ... honey and deport these trigger-happy idiots to a country where they might feel more at home, say Mexico or Somalia. And Mr Cole, please use your amazing investigative talents to follow up on this compelling story.
Torch Pratt
New Taipei City
Taiwan stands at the epicenter of a seismic shift that will determine the Indo-Pacific’s future security architecture. Whether deterrence prevails or collapses will reverberate far beyond the Taiwan Strait, fundamentally reshaping global power dynamics. The stakes could not be higher. Today, Taipei confronts an unprecedented convergence of threats from an increasingly muscular China that has intensified its multidimensional pressure campaign. Beijing’s strategy is comprehensive: military intimidation, diplomatic isolation, economic coercion, and sophisticated influence operations designed to fracture Taiwan’s democratic society from within. This challenge is magnified by Taiwan’s internal political divisions, which extend to fundamental questions about the island’s identity and future
Media said that several pan-blue figures — among them former Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) chairwoman Hung Hsiu-chu (洪秀柱), former KMT legislator Lee De-wei (李德維), former KMT Central Committee member Vincent Hsu (徐正文), New Party Chairman Wu Cheng-tien (吳成典), former New Party legislator Chou chuan (周荃) and New Party Deputy Secretary-General You Chih-pin (游智彬) — yesterday attended the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) military parade commemorating the 80th anniversary of the end of World War II. China’s Xinhua news agency reported that foreign leaders were present alongside Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平), such as Russian President Vladimir Putin, North Korean leader Kim
Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) Chairman Huang Kuo-chang (黃國昌) is expected to be summoned by the Taipei City Police Department after a rally in Taipei on Saturday last week resulted in injuries to eight police officers. The Ministry of the Interior on Sunday said that police had collected evidence of obstruction of public officials and coercion by an estimated 1,000 “disorderly” demonstrators. The rally — led by Huang to mark one year since a raid by Taipei prosecutors on then-TPP chairman and former Taipei mayor Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) — might have contravened the Assembly and Parade Act (集會遊行法), as the organizers had
Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) last week made a rare visit to the Philippines, which not only deepened bilateral economic ties, but also signaled a diplomatic breakthrough in the face of growing tensions with China. Lin’s trip marks the second-known visit by a Taiwanese foreign minister since Manila and Beijing established diplomatic ties in 1975; then-minister Chang Hsiao-yen (章孝嚴) took a “vacation” in the Philippines in 1997. As Taiwan is one of the Philippines’ top 10 economic partners, Lin visited Manila and other cities to promote the Taiwan-Philippines Economic Corridor, with an eye to connecting it with the Luzon
RSS