Gun-toting policy a double-edged sword

Damned if you do, damned if you don’t.

This is the dilemma that bothers many gun-toting police officers in the US and other countries. Now Chinese officers would have to handle the same choice.

As terrorist attacks against civilians have risen in some parts of China this year, authorities have heightened public security alertness, allowing the “frontline” police forces, especially beat cops, to use riot guns after receiving intensive weapons training, according to an April notice from the Ministry of Public Security.

Now Shanghai has more than 1,000 police officers carrying guns when they are on routine patrol.

The move is necessary given the fact that the policemen — they used to mainly carry batons on duty — sometimes failed to put terrorist attacks in check given their lack of proper weapons. The fatal knife attack in the southwestern city of Kunming in early March, which led to 29 deaths and 143 injuries, is a case in point. Although policemen have arrived at the site soon after the attack was started, they failed to control the situation largely because they did not carry guns. Only when the special armed policemen arrived was the killing stopped and terrorists killed or arrested.

While having helped the public feel safer, the decision to arm officers may also cause some potential problems, such as accidental injuries and the misuse of guns.

A misfire by a local policeman in a Zhengzhou kindergarten in Henan province caused five injuries last months. Meanwhile, there have been several cases in which policemen fired to kill or injure alleged criminals. Some people have doubted the necessity of firing in those cases.