New | 'Americans love their guns': Chinese microbloggers mock US firearms culture
Recent shooting incidents in the United States have inspired a flurry of conversation on the Chinese internet
In the wake of Ferguson and the accidental death of a shooting instructor in Arizona, US gun culture has been a hot topic on the minds of Chinese social media users for the last several weeks.
“Americans love guns” was the common stereotype echoed from a number of commentators on Chinese social network Weibo, where debates on United States domestic affairs have been trending ever since the April 9th police shooting of an unarmed black teenager in Ferguson, Missouri.
On Monday, the news of the death of 39-year-old Charles Vacca at the hands of a nine-year-old girl only added further fuel to the conversation. Vacca, an instructor at the Last Stop shooting range in White Hills, Arizona, was accidentally shot through the head while teaching the girl how to fire an Uzi sub-machine gun.
WATCH: The moments before a girl accidentally shoots her instructor dead
“If Americans start teaching their children how to use an Uzi at such a young age, it’s no wonder that shootings in the United States occur so frequently,” one Weibo microblogger wrote as news of the incident emerged. “And [owning and using guns] is still considered a ‘normal’ thing in the US, simply because it’s a so-called ‘democratic’ country.”
“I think China is right to prohibit firearms,” another wrote, “It makes things safer, and if this [sort of disaster] was only an accident, just imagine an actual dispute.”
