Taiwan retiree jailed over homemade anti-drone gun
Bastillepost · 1 SOURCESabout 2 hours ago2 MIN
Summary
A Taiwanese court has upheld a two-and-a-half-year prison sentence for a 67-year-old retired man surnamed Lu after finding that he illegally manufactured a lethal firearm at home. Judges rejected his argument that the modified nail gun was only an anti-drone device for self-defence and had never been taken outside his residence
Key Points
- Lu bought a nail gun, steel pipes and explosive primers through Shopee and Taobao in December 2024, then used a 3D printer at home to make gun parts
- Investigators said he assembled a modified nail gun capable of firing nails, and testing found the barrel was drilled through and the firing mechanism worked normally
- Police searched his home at about 6am on January 23 last year and seized the completed weapon, seven steel pipes and several unfinished suppressors
- Officers also found explosive primers, lead bullet heads, potassium nitrate, carbon powder, black powder and shells for timed remote-controlled bombs inside the residence
- On appeal, Lu said the Russia-Ukraine war made him fear the future lethality of drones, and he believed he had exceptional ability to study ways to shoot them down
Why It Matters
The appellate court said the stockpiling of black powder, bomb casings and 3D-printing equipment created a serious potential threat to public safety if police had not intervened in time. For Hong Kong readers, the case underscores how online shopping and home fabrication tools can be combined to produce prohibited weapons inside a private residence