Time for courts to apply same standards in similar cases

HEBEI DISTRICT PEOPLE'S COURT in North China's Tianjin recently found a 51-year-old woman guilty of "possessing guns" and sentenced her to three and a half years in prison, even though her "guns" are usually considered toys. Days later, a county court in Central China's Henan province was found to be publicly auctioning similar "guns" on its website. Southern Metropolis Daily comments:

The Tianjin court said they handed out the sentence because the Ministry of Public Security issued a document in 2008, which defined a gun as being able to fire a projectile with a muzzle energy exceeding 1.8 joule per square centimeter. According to that standard, six of the nine toy guns collected from the woman were identified as true guns.

There has been criticism of the standard, as some people claim it is too low because the gun's muzzle energy can be exceeded when someone throws a piece of chalk, for instance. However, even if we put the challenges to the standard aside, a serious problem still exists.