A string of shooting incidents involving Chinese police leaving at least four people dead has the public wondering if its rank-and-file police force is really ready to carry guns, as mandated by new regulations.
Last month, two policemen brought a loaded gun to a kindergarten show-and-tell. The handgun mistakenly went off, injuring four parents and one child.
The next day, an officer responded to a village quarrel and fatally shot a man in murky circumstances.
Police also fired repeatedly at a knife-wielding man driving a truck, killing him even though witnesses said he posed no real threat.
The incidents which have generated widespread media coverage and social media buzz come after authorities decided in April to issue guns to patrolling officers to better protect the public and improve police response to crime and attacks.
The trigger seems to have been a brazen attack by a group of assailants who stabbed 29 people to death and wounded 140 others in train station in the southern province of Yunnan. Officials blamed the attack on extremists from the western Xinjiang region.
For decades, Chinese police were unarmed because the country has very little gun violence and firearms are hard to obtain. The change leaves Britain, Norway and New Zealand among developed countries where patrolling police officers generally aren't armed.
"Broadening the right (to carry guns) to more police officers could bring more harm than good if they do not follow the laws. Police must learn to minimize use of force," said Liu Zhirong, an independent scholar.
The Public Security Ministry has the daunting task of training hundreds of thousands of local police on how to handle a deadly weapon in the line of duty.
The Chinese police force is 1.7-million strong, and it is not clear how many will be armed. In Shanghai, about 1,000 of its 40,000 police began carrying standard-issue revolvers during routine patrols in April.
Experts worry, however, that the training will focus too much on technical aspects such as firing accuracy and not enough on psychological and legal aspects such as when to draw the gun and how to quickly size up chaotic situations.
