BB gun smuggler's 'inappropriate' life sentence cut to just over 7 years

A man serving life in prison for buying 24 BB guns online saw his sentence reduced to seven years and three months on Tuesday in East China’s Fujian province.

Liu Dawei, now 22, was convicted of smuggling firearms from Taiwan in 2015 after a hearing at Quanzhou Intermediate People’s Court.

Prosecutors said he had purchased 24 BB guns — pneumatic weapons that fire small pellets — from an online vendor in Taiwan for 30,540 yuan ($4,700). Liu, a native of Dazhou in Sichuan province, was detained after the goods were seized by customs officers in Shishi, Fujian.

In 2016, the Fujian High Court agreed to rehear the case, stating that the sentence was “clearly inappropriate”.

An appeal hearing was held in August, and on Tuesday the court announced its decision to reduce Liu’s sentence.

As the BB guns had not been placed in circulation or sold on to the public, the crime had a lower impact, the court said.

Hu Meidong in Fuzhou contributed to this story.