Buying and selling 8 toy replica guns, sentenced to 3 years in prison! Wang Weilong was formerly a history teacher at a private middle school and was criminally detained on July 23, 2023, on suspicion of the crime of illegal trading of firearms. Among the involved replica guns, 8 had muzzle energy exceeding 1.8 joules/cm² and were therefore identified by the appraisal agency as firearms powered by compressed gas.
Born in 1996, Wang Weilong stated that he encountered replica gun drop-shippers through online platforms, and after August 2021, he had resold about 70 replica guns worth about 10,000 yuan (about 5,800 ringgit), from which he made a profit of about 5,000 yuan (about 2,889 ringgit). These guns fired 6mm BB pellets (a type of hard plastic projectile) or water beads.
On September 25, 2024, the Fengfeng Mining District Court in Handan City, Hebei Province, found Wang Weilong guilty in the first instance of illegal trading of firearms and illegal possession of firearms, sentencing him to 3 years and 6 months in prison. After the second trial, the Handan Intermediate Court upheld the conviction for illegal trading of firearms, revoked the conviction for illegal possession of firearms, and changed the sentence to 3 years.
After the second-instance verdict, Wang Weilong's family filed an appeal for him, arguing that the appraisal opinion had major flaws and should not be used as the basis for the verdict; and that the defendant had no subjective intent to commit a gun-related crime. The appeal also mentioned that, in order to ensure the muzzle energy of the involved gun-like items did not exceed the limit, Wang Weilong even purchased a speed tester online to measure them.
On April 8, 2026, the Handan Intermediate Court rejected the appeal from Wang Weilong's family on the grounds that "the original trial clearly established the facts, the evidence was true and sufficient, the procedure was legal, the conviction was accurate, and the sentence was appropriate."
In recent years, several cases of "crimes over buying and selling replica guns" have attracted public attention. In 2018, the Supreme People's Court and Supreme People's Procuratorate issued the "Reply on Issues of Determining Guilt and Sentencing in Criminal Cases Involving Firearms Powered by Compressed Gas and Airgun Lead Pellets," providing regulations on guilt and sentencing in such criminal cases.
The Criminal Division of the Research Office of the Supreme People's Court also published an article explaining the above "Reply," pointing out that, for cases involving firearms powered by compressed gas with relatively low muzzle energy, when deciding whether to pursue criminal responsibility and how to determine punishment, the decision should not be based solely on the number of firearms but rather on a comprehensive assessment of the social harm according to the circumstances.