Amendments passed by the legislature on Monday add a penalty of at least seven years in prison for discharging a firearm in public, with exceptions for indigenous peoples.
The amendment to the Controlling Guns, Ammunition and Knives Act (槍砲彈藥刀械管制條例) stipulates the jail sentence in addition to a fine of up to NT$15 million (US$479,187) for discharging a firearm in public.
Firing a tranquilizer, gas, air or other type of non-standard gun in public is subject to five to 12 years in prison and a fine of up to NT$10 million.
Photo: Wang Chun-chi, Taipei Times
Another change says that those who surrender themselves with their weapons “may” have their sentence reduced, changing from “must” previously.
The softer language is intended to tamp down on instances of people under investigation shooting a firearm in public before turning themselves in to receive a more lenient sentence.
The amendments also raise the status of banned imitation guns to be regulated under criminal law, while their ammunition and components are to be handled under administrative penalties.
Inspections of firearm component manufacturers are also to be required under the law to prevent their products from leaking to illicit users.
Additionally, penalties for manufacturing, selling or transporting imitation guns are to be increased from a fine of up to NT$2.5 million, to a fine of up to NT$7 million and imprisonment of one to seven years.
Renting, lending, possessing, storing or displaying for the purpose of selling imitation guns is to be subject to a fine of NT$1 million to NT$10 million, up from a fine of up to NT$200,000 currently.
A magnitude 6.1 earthquake struck off the coast of Yilan County at 8:39pm tonight, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said, with no immediate reports of damage or injuries. The epicenter was 38.7km east-northeast of Yilan County Hall at a focal depth of 98.3km, the CWA’s Seismological Center said. The quake’s maximum intensity, which gauges the actual physical effect of a seismic event, was a level 4 on Taiwan’s 7-tier intensity scale, the center said. That intensity level was recorded in Yilan County’s Nanao Township (南澳), Hsinchu County’s Guansi Township (關西), Nantou County’s Hehuanshan (合歡山) and Hualien County’s Yanliao (鹽寮). An intensity of 3 was
Instead of focusing solely on the threat of a full-scale military invasion, the US and its allies must prepare for a potential Chinese “quarantine” of Taiwan enforced through customs inspections, Stanford University Hoover fellow Eyck Freymann said in a Foreign Affairs article published on Wednesday. China could use various “gray zone” tactics in “reconfiguring the regional and ultimately the global economic order without a war,” said Freymann, who is also a nonresident research fellow at the US Naval War College. China might seize control of Taiwan’s links to the outside world by requiring all flights and ships entering or leaving Taiwan
The next minimum wage hike is expected to exceed NT$30,000, President William Lai (賴清德) said yesterday during an award ceremony honoring “model workers,” including migrant workers, at the Presidential Office ahead of Workers’ Day today. Lai said he wished to thank the awardees on behalf of the nation and extend his most sincere respect for their hard work, on which Taiwan’s prosperity has been built. Lai specifically thanked 10 migrant workers selected for the award, saying that although they left their home countries to further their own goals, their efforts have benefited Taiwan as well. The nation’s industrial sector and small businesses lay
Taiwan has activated backup communications for its northernmost territory, the remote and strategically located island of Dongyin (東引), after poor weather conditions apparently shifted the wreckage of a ship onto an undersea cable causing it to break. The vulnerability of undersea communication cables linking Taiwan with its outlying islands has been a persistent cause of concern for Taipei, whose government has on several occasions blamed Chinese ships for intentionally causing damage. Dongyin, home to about 1,500 people, sits in a strategic position at the top of the Taiwan Strait and the island has a heavy military presence. It does not have an
RSS