The Shilin District Court on Tuesday sentenced Liao Ying-hsi (廖英熙), owner of airsoft gun manufacturer G&G Armament, to two years and eight months in jail for violation of the Controlling Guns, Ammunition and Knives Act (槍砲彈藥刀械管制條例).
The case stemmed from 2015, when police seized an airsoft gun model G960 and ammunition and forwarded it to the Criminal Investigation Bureau for further analysis.
The bureau concluded that if metallic bullets were used and the gun were equipped with a 22kg canister of gas, the bullets would exit the gun with between 24 and 32 joules of kinetic energy.
Photo: courtesy of Liao Ying-hsi
Liao was indicted by prosecutors, as the results exceeded the legal threshold of 20 joules.
During court hearings, Liao said that products made by his company were in full accordance with regulations for toy guns as written by the Ministry of Economic Affairs, which state that the standard for gauging the level of danger for toy guns is based on the pellets — non-spherical bullets for air guns — which must not be made of metal, should not be injected with liquids and must be used with the propellant suggested by the manufacturer.
G&G Armament specifically recommended that users load the gun with 12kg gas canisters.
Liao had the same gun tested by the Ministry of Justice’s Investigation Bureau, which found that the product met regulations.
However, the presiding judge ruled that the economics ministry’s regulations and the act were two separate matters.
The judge said G&G Armament’s gun met the definition of “gun” as specified in the act: “Any sort of equipment that can shoot metals or bullets and has the capability of damaging or injuring others.”
The capability of causing harm should be judged according to “the maximum capability” and there was nothing wrong with testing G&G Armament’s product using the most powerful propellant on the market, the judge said.
While the company has explicitly stated that users should outfit its products with 12kg canisters and warned people not to use metal pellets, 20kg canisters and metal pellets are easily obtainable on the market and would therefore make the G960 product dangerous, the ruling said.
Liao said he was surprised at the ruling and that he would launch an appeal due to the different standards used by police and the ministry, adding that the government should seek to unify such standards as soon as possible, or the majority of Taiwan’s airsoft gun manufacturers would be forced to leave the nation.
Actor Darren Wang (王大陸) was sentenced to six months in prison, commutable to a fine, by the New Taipei District Court today for contravening the Personal Data Protection Act (個人資料保護法) in a case linked to an alleged draft-dodging scheme. Wang allegedly paid NT$3.6 million (US$114,380) to an illegal group to help him evade mandatory military service through falsified medical documents, prosecutors said. He transferred the funds to Chen Chih-ming (陳志明), the alleged mastermind of a draft-evasion ring, although he lost contact with him as he was already in detention on fraud charges, they said. Chen is accused of helping a
SECURITY: Starlink owner Elon Musk has taken pro-Beijing positions, and allowing pro-China companies to control Taiwan’s critical infrastructure is risky, a legislator said Starlink was reluctant to offer services in Taiwan because of the nation’s extremely high penetration rates in 4G and 5G services, the Ministry of Digital Affairs said yesterday. The ministry made the comments at a meeting of the legislature’s Transportation Committee, which reviewed amendments to Article 36 of the Telecommunications Management Act (電信管理法). Article 36 bans foreigners from holding more than 49 percent of shares in public telecommunications networks, while shares foreigners directly and indirectly hold are also capped at 60 percent of the total, unless specified otherwise by law. The amendments, sponsored by Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Ko
The eastern extension of the Taipei MRT Red Line could begin operations as early as late June, the Taipei Department of Rapid Transit Systems said yesterday. Taipei Rapid Transit Corp said it is considering offering one month of free rides on the new section to mark its opening. Construction progress on the 1.4km extension, which is to run from the current terminal Xiangshan Station to a new eastern terminal, Guangci/Fengtian Temple Station, was 90.6 percent complete by the end of last month, the department said in a report to the Taipei City Council's Transportation Committee. While construction began in October 2016 with an
NON-RED SUPPLY: Boosting the nation’s drone industry is becoming increasingly urgent as China’s UAV dominance could become an issue in a crisis, an analyst said Taiwan’s drone exports to Europe grew 41.7-fold from 2024 to last year, with demand from Ukraine’s fight against Russian aggression the most likely driver of growth, a study showed. The Institute for Democracy, Society and Emerging Technology (DSET) in a statement on Wednesday said it found that many of Taiwan’s uncrewed aerial vehicle (UAV) sales were from Poland and the Czech Republic. These countries likely transferred the drones to Ukraine to aid it in its fight against the Russian invasion that started in 2022, it said. Despite the gains, Taiwan is not the dominant drone exporter to these markets, ranking second and fourth
RSS