Mara Hvistendahl examines China’s burgeoning gun culture in The New Republic:
Over the last decade, they cropped up in cities throughout China, tucked into raucous markets or along forgotten side streets, their interiors smelling of musty canvas and crammed with bounty for aspiring young soldiers: illicit weapons shops with names like ARMY GOODS STORE and GUNCOOL. For a few thousand yuan–a few hundred dollars–assault rifle-like air guns await in dirty back rooms, along with fatigues, bulletproof vests, kneepads, long underwear, camouflage t-shirts, rucksacks, bandoliers, helmets, helmet sleeves, walkie-talkies, and two-liter CamelBaks. Once outfitted, China’s militiamen organize into clubs–Guangzhou Fight Men, Shanghai Band of Brothers, Tianjin Seals–and storm remote lots or abandoned warehouses, shooting at each other with pellets, to stage what they call “war games.” The term belies the seriousness participants assign the activity: The more established clubs have dedicated battlegrounds whose surrounding trees are nailed with DANGER signs.
