BBC NEWS | Appeal in Australia nail gun case

A post-mortem examination revealed that Mr Liu was shot 34 times. Australian police have released an X-ray image showing the skull of a murdered Chinese immigrant shot repeatedly with a nail gun. Police are appealing for help to solve the murder of Chen Liu, 27, whose body was found by two children last year in marshland in south Sydney. Detectives said the weapon was a gas nail gun used in construction, firing nails up to 85mm 3.3in long.

Mr Chen arrived in Melbourne in 2000 on a student visa, and moved to Sydney.

A post-mortem examination revealed that Mr Liu was shot 34 times in the head and neck with a high-powered nail gun, police said. The weapon has not yet been recovered. Police have appealed for information from anyone who may have been in the area at the time of Mr Chen’s death.

via BBC NEWS | Asia-Pacific | Appeal in Australia nail gun case.

Ever since watching “Lethal Weapon 2″ (at least, I think it was the second film) I’ve always wondered why a nail gun wasn’t a more popular weapon.  Criminals must know by now that forensic scientists are able to match a bullet to a gun with some certainty.  I’m fairly certain the same could not be said of a nail gun.  And, it seems that a nail gun can be just as effective as a hand gun.

What I can’t get over in this case is why in the hell this poor man was shot so many times!  34 shots in the head seems to indicate he really pissed someone off.  I would think after the first 10 nails were pumped into the skull of Mr. Lui, he’d be pretty much dead.

I really can’t imagine what a person must do to incur such a punishment.  I really hope that the person who did this is found and appropriately punished (I’m thinking an “eye for an eye” here, pursuant to Hammurabi’s Law), but mostly, I just want to know what motivated this murder.  I just can’t figure it.