Despite already having some of the world’s strictest gun control laws, Beijing is about to embark on a nationwide campaign to round up illegal firearms as part of its preparations for a trouble-free celebration of the 70th anniversary of the founding of the People’s Republic of China in October. The Ministry of Public Security said last week that the 100-day campaign would get under way at the end of the month, with its primary targets being e-commerce platforms that offer guns for sale and delivery firms that transport them around the country. The authorities would “intensify monitoring of online activity, increase supervision of courier companies and cut off distribution channels”, deputy public security minister Sun Lijun said. Private gun ownership is strictly prohibited in China and those who break the law can face up to seven years in prison. Despite that fact, the online market for illegal weapons is buoyant, with some vendors seeking to evade detection by offering firearms in kit form. Sun, however, said that no stone would be left unturned in upholding and enforcing the law, which in recent years has been extended to include everything from air rifles to replica guns and even toy pistols. In 2015, Liu Dawei from Sichuan province was sentenced to life imprisonment for buying 24 replica guns from an online supplier in Taiwan. Although the then 18-year-old believed the weapons to be fake he was convicted of smuggling weapons into the country after customs officers classified them as illegal firearms. His sentence was commuted in December last year to seven years and three months, but his lawyer Xu Xin said his client would continue to fight for justice. In a similar case, 51-year-old Zhao Chunhua from Tianjin was sentenced to 3½ years in prison in 2016 after being found in possession of nine air rifles. The guns were used for shooting at balloons at the fun fair stall Zhao ran in a tourism zone in the city. Police detain grandfather after 11-year-old kills his cousin Xu, who also represented Zhao and works as a professor at the Beijing Institute of Technology, said the legal definition of a gun was in urgent need of revision. According to regulations published by the public security ministry in 2010, in mainland China a firearm is defined as any weapon capable of firing a projectile with a force of 1.8 joules per square centimetre or greater. In 2001, the law set the line at 16 joules per square centimetre, while the equivalent definitions under Hong Kong and Taiwanese law are currently seven and 20 joules per square centimetre, respectively. “The current standard is too low. People are being sentenced for owning replica guns that are not lethal weapons,” Xu said in an interview. “It’s urgent that we start treating replica guns, toy guns and real guns separately,” he said. “People charged with owning replica or other non-lethal guns should be given administrative [non-custodial] punishments.” In a case not involving Xu, a man from east China who was sentenced last year to 13 years in prison for manufacturing toilet handles that looked like gun parts is set to face retrial. Jiang Zhiping was convicted in September of illegally producing, trading and storing guns, but the Anhui Provincial High People’s Court said last month that the “facts were unclear and evidence insufficient” in the original hearing. Xu said he feared that with the announcement last week of the start of the latest round of a nationwide crackdown on organised crime even more owners of non-deadly replica and toy guns would soon find themselves before the courts.