A lot of it involves terrible accidents - a car plowing into some innocent victim. Stuff like that.
Other stories involve pure malice, things that make you really aware of evil. Over the 13 years I've been in Japan there have been incidents involving: a kid tossing a pipe bomb into a store because he wanted to see body parts go flying, the Akihabara stabbing spree that left 7 dead, and a few (rare) shooting related incidents.
But for the most part Japan is a very safe and murder free society. And that's where I get to the point of this post.
The recent gun attack at the screening of the new Batman movie in Colorado is just baffling in the level of violence and hatred on display. It's also as clear of a display of a simple fact as I think can be possible.
Guns are bad. People don't need them.
I like guns; I have to admit that. I have always been a bit of a military history freak, so it comes with the territory that I got interested in firearms from an early age. Now when it comes to actually shooting them, I'm glad that I learned how but the actual act of shooting has never really been that fun for me.
But almost from the minute I started living in Japan I started to feel that gun laws that allow normal people to get them are just dumb. OK I might let some people keep guns for hunting, but that's all. And self-defense isn't a legitimate reason to have them. Get rid of them all.
I've felt the fear of unknown danger in the US several times - am I safe in this neighborhood or on this street? I've never really felt that kind of fear in Japan (or a lot of other countries for that matter), and part of it is the guns. And yes, a guy with a knife can take you out too, but it takes a special kind of crazy to go on a knifing spree or randomly choke or club someone to death. Guns distance the attacker too much, make it take a lot less effort, and this results in the huge number of people killed and injured by guns in the US every year. Look around just a little and the statistics are overwhelming in every category.
In the US I say make having a handgun be a crime and punish it like you punish other dangerous crimes like driving drunk, selling hard drugs or rape and then destroy confiscated guns and you'll wipe a lot of guns off the market quick. Yes, some criminals will still have guns, but stop the endless flow of legal guns into pawnshops and make the simple possession of a gun a crime. Make it so bad that the possession part dwarfs the penalty they would've otherwise had for that crime.
Alas, this will probably never happen, but for anyone who still thinks keeping guns is a defensible right, I say try living in a gun-free society for a month. You'll feel it. It's what I feel, a certain kind of safety, and you'll never get that as long as people can buy guns in the US like they can now.
The recent gun attack at the screening of the new Batman movie in Colorado is just baffling in the level of violence and hatred on display. It's also as clear of a display of a simple fact as I think can be possible.
Guns are bad. People don't need them.
I like guns; I have to admit that. I have always been a bit of a military history freak, so it comes with the territory that I got interested in firearms from an early age. Now when it comes to actually shooting them, I'm glad that I learned how but the actual act of shooting has never really been that fun for me.
But almost from the minute I started living in Japan I started to feel that gun laws that allow normal people to get them are just dumb. OK I might let some people keep guns for hunting, but that's all. And self-defense isn't a legitimate reason to have them. Get rid of them all.
I've felt the fear of unknown danger in the US several times - am I safe in this neighborhood or on this street? I've never really felt that kind of fear in Japan (or a lot of other countries for that matter), and part of it is the guns. And yes, a guy with a knife can take you out too, but it takes a special kind of crazy to go on a knifing spree or randomly choke or club someone to death. Guns distance the attacker too much, make it take a lot less effort, and this results in the huge number of people killed and injured by guns in the US every year. Look around just a little and the statistics are overwhelming in every category.
In the US I say make having a handgun be a crime and punish it like you punish other dangerous crimes like driving drunk, selling hard drugs or rape and then destroy confiscated guns and you'll wipe a lot of guns off the market quick. Yes, some criminals will still have guns, but stop the endless flow of legal guns into pawnshops and make the simple possession of a gun a crime. Make it so bad that the possession part dwarfs the penalty they would've otherwise had for that crime.
Alas, this will probably never happen, but for anyone who still thinks keeping guns is a defensible right, I say try living in a gun-free society for a month. You'll feel it. It's what I feel, a certain kind of safety, and you'll never get that as long as people can buy guns in the US like they can now.
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