Taking foreign exchange students to the range.

[MikeH]

Before I forget, I would like to ask you another question:why is it,that if Taiwan has these laws written down on paper, why do the government choose to ignore the rights of civillians?

RKBA is not in the Constitution. Gun ownership is regarded as a special privilege at best, not a basic right of a citizen. Therefore, the government can and does suspend the privilege at its whim.

and what tactics do the cops use on their annual firearm inspections?Do they bully citizens into handing over their guns, or do they use other serious forms of intimidation on people?

Not sure. Most of the gun-grabbing propably happened during the martial law decades ago. I would not be surprised if verbal intimidation or outright misinterpretation of the law were used by the authorities. Of course, there were always people whom ordinary police dare not touch, and these are the people who got to keep their guns.

 

[sterling180]

Thanks Mike H

Well, it seems that the Taiwanese started off with almost-reasonable gun-laws and ended up with nothing-except for those lucky few, because of imposed martial-law-decades ago.I think that the only time that Taiwanese citizens will get fairer gun-laws, is if there is a revolution by the citizens or a major change in the current government-via elections.

What is the polictical situation over there? and also What is the stability of the government at present?

 

[MikeH]

Unfortunately that's not going to help my fellow gun nuts in Taiwan. Martial was lifted in 1987, and Taiwan today is as democratic as it gets. However, the general public is anti-gun. There is no room for any politician in either left or right to promote legal gun ownership.

 

[hksw]

I'va always thought about what I would do if I had the opportunity to take a Japanese national (or any other non- or rudimentary-English speaking person) to the range. (Being in manufacturing, some raw materials used occassionally come from other countries and vendors would come in with representatives from their foreign headquarters. Occassionally, they would have some free time after work.)

I have come to the conclusion that probably the best way to communicate with the, short of through an interpreter, is with pictograms or photos. If you can, draw up some pictures of the right and wrong ways of the 4 rules. If you are not very artistic, take photos and edit them with red "no" slashes or circle what is wrong.

This seems to work well for when you read Japanese (or other foreign language) instructions to electronic goods.

 

[Koobuh]

I find it somewhat odd that they have trouble communicating. English is taught from grade-school on (mandatory in their standard curriculum education system, and tested for graduation), and since they are in the US they should have a greater than average ability with english because they passed their college entrance exams.
I would give them a standard english-language safety pamphlet a couple days ahead of time and let them go over it on their own. Before you go to the range, make sure that they read it and can demonstrate safe behavior with pantomime at the least.
They will be able to understand you better then the other way around, at least.
Giving them a website will also help out.

Most Japanese will only have seen a real gun on television or on the hip of a police officer. Airsoft is a very, very big there among younger adults, and it's likely that any of the students interested in shooting with you will have played with a couple airsofts at one point or another.

Civil weapon restrictions pre-date the current government, and can be definitively placed at the end of the Imperial Court era and the beginning of the period of rule by the Samurai class, which lasted several hundred years up until the Meiji Restoration at the end of the 19th century.
Peasants and merchants were not allowed to own swords and armor (though many did, looted from battlefields and such), and firearms were popular for only a short period of time during the feudal period. After the Restoration imported arms became available to people again, though largely for subsistence and criminal use. After the occupation, even sporting arms were quite rare among the populace, and there would have been little opposition to near complete bans as exist today.
Extremely strict arms restrictions are boringly common in Asian countries (heck, most countries for that matter; there are fewer free nations than we think). Legal private ownership of arms seems to be a completely Western trend.

 

[Fire4Effect]

It would seem to me that since Taiwan is always under the jealous gaze of China it would be in their best intrest to alow it's citizens to own guns...

 

[MikeH]

It would seem to me that since Taiwan is always under the jealous gaze of China it would be in their best intrest to alow it's citizens to own guns...

Most able-bodied men in Taiwan served in the military and had basic rifle training at the minimum. There are also hundreds of thousands of Type 57 and Type 65 rifles in arsenals all over the island if S actually HTF.

 

[entropy]

There are also hundreds of thousands of Type 57 and Type 65 rifles in arsenals all over the island if S actually HTF.

And do you trust the Taiwanese Govt. to hand them out when the SHTF?

I'd rather depend on the one at home, thank you.

I once took a Brazilian exchange student I was dating out shooting on her host families' back forty. He own dad actually did own some guns, (she was from a wealthy family in Sao Paulo) but being the chavanist, would not let his daughters shoot them. She shot my Trooper MKIII with .38 wadcutters and liked it. She might have been lying about not shooting before, though, she was as good as me!