How do you tell if a gun-shaped object is a toy or a real weapon?

Widespread debate around this topic was triggered in China, after 51-year-old Zhao Chunhua was sentenced to three and a half years in prison on January 2 for illegally possessing six air rifles. The topic was reactivated on Thursday, as a higher court modified the sentence, allowing her to spend her Lunar New Year's Day at home.

Zhao was running a balloon-shooting game stall in northern China's Tianjin Municipality when she was caught by police in October 2016. Among the nine air rifles she provided for customers to shoot balloons, six were identified by authorities as real guns.

According to a document published by China's Ministry of Public Security in 2010 about identifying firearms, unauthorized guns able to fire bullets with a force of over or equal to 1.8 joules per square centimeter are treated as illegal firearms.

The six guns Zhao owned were measured to have a firepower between 2.17 to 3.14 joules per square centimeter, and she bought them through illegal channels.

But after the first verdict was given, Zhao's daughter appealed to a higher court, claiming the guns were all toys.

Her appeal was supported by many netizens, who questioned if the standard of firearms identification was too strict. One of them was called XiaoL, who crafted a slingshot with a force of more than 10 joules per square centimeter. He asked if the slingshot should be called a firearm.

After conducting a second trial, the Tianjin No.1 Intermediate People's Court ruled that the six air rifles were illegal firearms, and Zhao should be sentenced to three years in prison. But her intentions of possessing the firearms were for business, not to hurt anyone, and the guns didn't cause any serious damage. Considering both sides, the new sentence reduced the time of imprisonment to three years, and came up with a three-year reprieve, enabling her to enjoy the Lunar New Year's Day with her family.

Balloon-shooting has long existed at tourist sites and amusement parks in Chinese cities. Players use gun-shaped toys to shoot balloons on a wall to earn points, and hopefully prizes.

Divorced and unemployed, Zhao could only support herself through the game stall, earning about 3,000 yuan (roughly 431 US dollars) a month.

(With input from Xinhua)