BEIJING, CHINA – In light of recent terrorist attacks and other mass stabbings, Chinese authorities announced that they will arm previously-unarmed regular police patrols throughout the country. [contextly_auto_sidebar id=”qZ7SJCGg71jYtoyhpjsYNq9DjTj3Fbum”]
The country’s Ministry of Public Security announced that the program to arm cops will begin in Shanghai before spreading throughout the nation. According to the announcement, officers will be issued the “05 Chinese Police Revolver.”
The revolver, an indigenous design introduced in 2005, carries six 9mm cartridges. Although most readers will recognize that standard 9mm ammunition, such as the 9x19mm Parabelum, 9x18mm Makarov and 9mm Kurz (short) are rimless cartridges optimized for semi-automatic pistols and indeed would not work in most revolvers without modification, the Chinese created a proprietary rimmed version specifically designed to work in this simple revolver.
Although creating proprietary ammunition that only works in a simple revolver might be strange considering that we are in the 21st century, it makes more sense when approached from the perspective of controlling a mostly-disarmed populace.
Chinese citizens are generally not permitted to own or use pistols, so very few police officers are exposed to firearms before their initial training. As a result, the government decided to build a simple revolver requiring less maintenance than mainstream semi-automatics commonly used by American cops. Because revolvers are less prone to jams and other failures, it generally takes less time to train large groups of novice shooters about what to do in the event their firearm fails.
Additionally, the ammunition choice was dictated by the impulse to keep guns out of the hands of the unarmed populace. If a police officer’s sidearm were stolen, it would be nearly impossible for the perpetrators to find proprietary police ammunition, particularly when it is in a caliber not produced or sold in foreign markets. The rounds, which are produced with standard bullets and a less lethal rubber-coated configuration, will not penetrate body armor.
Although the move to arm beat cops is hardly a victory for civil rights, it goes to show that even in the most backward countries there is recognition that the best way to keep a populace safe is to give good guys guns. Hopefully, we will see a decline in the number of tragic mass stabbings that plague China as more of its citizens are able to more effectively fight back.
[about_joe]
