Robert Tsao (曹興誠), the founder of United Microelectronics Corp (UMC), has been making waves with his “all-out defense” proposal.
Critics have said that if civilians are trained to use firearms to defend against a potential Chinese invasion — to the extent that people have guns in their homes as the Swiss do — it might lead to the proliferation and misuse of guns.
Such concerns are redundant and are the unfortunate legacy of the Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) authoritarian rule, which left Taiwan with a severe case of hoplophobia — an irrational fear of guns.
There is no widespread misuse of guns in Switzerland, despite the stunningly high rate of gun ownership there.
Rifles used by the military are not suitable to engage in criminal activities. In Taiwan, such violence has revolved around handguns. The unsolved 1996 murder of Taoyuan county commissioner Liu Pang-yu (劉邦友) and seven others is an example. The murderer had used handguns and killed the people execution-style, meaning that the result would have been the same if guns were not available, just that the weapon would have been a knife.
The most infamous case of military-grade arms ownership was gangster Chang Hsi-ming (張錫銘) and his heavily armed gang. Chang was arrested after a gunbattle with police in 2005. Despite Chang’s rifles and submachine guns — which were deployed in several shoot-outs with police — they did not cause a lot of casualties.
On Sept. 4, there was a mass stabbing in Saskatchewan, Canada, in which 10 people died and 18 were injured.
In 2014, Cheng Chieh (鄭捷) killed four people and injured 22 in a stabbing frenzy on a Taipei MRT train with a Swiss pocket knife.
Prohibiting knives is obviously unworkable, and regardless, crimes are committed by people determined to do so. The lack of a particular form of weapon will not stop them.
Most ordinary Taiwanese have an aversion to guns, which probably stems from the KMT’s authoritarian regime. Fearing that people might rise up against it, the party instilled a fear of firearms. Even realistic-looking toy guns were once on the brink of being banned. With most people fearing guns, Taiwan has unconsciously undermined its national self-defense.
People might think that they are safe with strict gun controls, but they do not realize that black-market guns are in wide circulation, leading to criminals like Chang having weapons more powerful than even the police.
If critics of Tsao’s ideas have doubts about public security, they should focus on clamping down on crime and black-market guns instead of worrying that such policies might go astray.
Moreover, an all-out defense policy can be realized step by step instead of adopting the Switzerland model outright and immediately allowing military reservists to keep guns at home.
The first stage could be to enable people to get used to shooting at ranges. If stricter caution is deemed necessary, guns could be supervised by the military and given to people only at practice sessions. Such details could be ironed out to develop a workable and safe policy.
Having supervised many shooting practice sessions for students and conscripts, the military is familiar with weapons management and regulations.
Taiwan must be able to defend itself. To ensure its survival and to keep enemies at bay, people need basic military knowledge, not an ingrained fear of guns.
The first step toward safeguarding Taiwan is to repel the ghost of hoplophobia.
Tommy Lin is director of Wu Fu Eye Clinic and president of the Formosa Republican Association.
Translated by Rita Wang
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