Sunday, June 28, 2015

In Japan, Even the Gun Enthusiasts Are In Favor of Gun Control

Washington Post

Here’s how it works in Japan.

If you want to apply for a permit to shoot and own a gun (there are no rentals), you must first attend a class on gun laws and gun safety, then pass a written test.

Next, submit all of the paperwork — including your family, work and educational background, and a medical certificate declaring that you’re not depressed or an alcoholic, among other things — to the police, who will also check out your criminal record and look into whether you’ve had any domestic or neighborhood disputes. A police officer will visit your home to see where and how you intend to store your equipment.

Then you must attend a full-day training course where instructors teach basics such as etiquette at shooting ranges, how to handle guns and how to hit a target.

If you pass the shooting test, you can apply for a permit. Once it is issued, you can go to buy a gun, then take it to a police station for inspection and registration. Only the registered person can fire that gun.

The permit is valid for three years. To renew it, a gun owner must enroll in a refresher course and pass a practical test.

Where would you keep your gun? In your gun locker, of course, which regulations stipulate must be affixed to the wall, have three locks on the outside and a metal chain on the inside to run through the trigger guard.

Your ammunition will of course be kept in a separate, locked safe, per regulations, and you will probably keep the bolt in a yet another safe. This last part is just an advisory to make sure the gun is fully disabled, but almost all Japanese comply.

“This is probably our national character, but people seriously follow the laws and keep their guns and bullets according to the regulations,” said Toshiaki Okazaki, an inspector in the community safety department of the Kanagawa Prefectural Police, which incorporates Isehara.

Okazaki said he had never found a gun owner who was storing his equipment incorrectly. “How they keep guns at home is actually one of the most strictly monitored parts of the process,” he said.
Think such rules sound excessive? Not here, they don’t. In Japan, even the gun enthusiasts are in favor of such restrictions.

14 comments:

  1. Yeah, and Japan only recently outlawed child pornography, too.

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  2. The link seems to be dead now. Click on it and you get this,

    "This file was inadvertently published."

    I did see the article earlier, perhaps it will come back. Japan has its own set of issues that make it an intrusive society. An example being the police visit every household twice a year to collect personal information on whoever lives there.
    There is a pretty good book that outlines the differences in various nations in comparison to the US. Its titled, The Samurai, the Mountie and the Cowboy.

    http://www.amazon.com/Samurai-Mountie-Cowboy-David-Kopel/dp/0879757566/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1435503208&sr=1-1&keywords=the+samurai+the+mountie+and+the+cowboy

    And of course, they have to contend with periodic visits by Godzilla.

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  3. "In Japan, even the gun enthusiasts are in favor of such restrictions. ".....talk about a whopper of a lie..Having spent many wonderful days in japan with my wife and her family and extended family it is certainly not my experience that the "gun enthusiasts" are in favor of such restrictions in fact i have heard from many people that they believe the laws to be to restrictive and would like to see some changes made...when ever we have hosted people from Japan at our home in the states one of the first things almost all of them ask is when can we go shooting and they express how they wish things were different in japan in fact we are planing a trip to Hawaii in Oct to see family friends from Japan and they have already asked me to plan a day of shooting at the range...The societal pressure to conform in japan is suffocating hence why my wife chose to leave people there rarely speak their minds about such things in public..but get them in private and your in for an earful of what they think about their Gov and the laws under which they live...Another one of the questions I get asked most by them is when is the US going to get the hell out of their country and all I can tell them is likely never which of course is not what they want to hear

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    Replies
    1. George makes an excellent point. Especially when as the article says, the licensing process is about as discretionary as you can get, do you really think they're going to speak ill of the policy on the record, at a government facility?

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    2. George's point is based on a very small selection of people he's encountered. I don't think TS would approve of drawing such a sweeping conclusion from such a small sample.

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    3. But it is ok to draw the conclusion of "In Japan, even the gun enthusiasts are in favor of gun control" because the gun inspector (whom the gun owners must suck up to) says they all love it?

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  4. Tell us again how you only want "reasonable regulations" while you keep pointing out how awesome Japan is. You do realize they go way beyond what you call "proper gun control" don't you? They can spend this much effort vetting people who buy guns, because so few people buy guns. You couldn't even come close to doing this for the 30-50 million people who you say should be allowed to get guns.

    On top of that, there is no evidence that it actually works (other than lowering gun ownership). When you look at Japan's non-gun related crimes compared to ours we can see the difference is the culture of the people combined with a police state.

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    1. But at least the ultra-restrictive gun laws and Japan can be credited for the country's low, low suicide rate. Oh . , . wait.

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    2. Sure, TS. There's no evidence. Hahahaha.

      I suppose the accidental shootings we have are replaced in Japan by accidental stabbings. Is that your contention. Same with the mass and spree shootings we experience. Japan must have weekly mass and spree stabbings.

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    3. Oh, and let's not forget their overall murder rate. I know how much you love that one.

      Kurt mentions suicide even thought that's been debunked repeatedly. Maybe he forgot about their tradition of honorable suicide, something totally lacking in our culture. More honesty from Kurt.

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    4. Kurt mentions suicide even thought that's been debunked repeatedly. Maybe he forgot about their tradition of honorable suicide, something totally lacking in our culture.

      Oh, I remember your claim that Japan's very high suicide rate and ultra-restrictive gun laws do nothing to invalidate the notion that "gun control" translates to "suicide control." What I don't remember is ever having bought that little fiction of yours. In fact, I seem to remember chuckling dismissively--and waddya' know? I'm doing that again.

      So do I have this right? The confluence of Japan's high suicide rate and low gun ownership can be explained away by differences in Japanese and western culture, but Japan's low murder rate is all about gun laws, rather than culture. Is that what I am being asked to believe?

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    5. MikeB: "Same with the mass and spree shootings we experience. Japan must have weekly mass and spree stabbings."

      Mike, Pay Attention. No, this is not my contention. I just got done telling you that their non-gun rates of violence is a small fraction of ours- which is the big piece of evidence that it has nothing to do with their gun laws, but instead the culture of the people. We also see that Japanese-Americans who come over to live in the states still don't kill people dispute being surrounded by guns. It's quite obvious why you want to ignore damning evidence like this and instead argue against the exact opposite of what I just said.

      MikeB: "I suppose the accidental shootings we have are replaced in Japan by accidental stabbings. Is that your contention."

      Again, pay attention. You just asked me this question last week on the Carole Bowne thread, and I said accidents is one area where there wouldn't be a whole lot of substitution.

      MikeB: "Kurt mentions suicide even thought that's been debunked repeatedly. Maybe he forgot about their tradition of honorable suicide, something totally lacking in our culture. More honesty from Kurt."

      Of course now you want to talk about culture- when the conversation shifts to suicide. Yes, Mike, they have a different culture than us! Their honor tradition also makes them less violent towards others, as well as offing themselves more dispute not having guns. You are right about their culture, so why can't you accept that in the violence side of the equation?

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    6. Ugh. Twice my phone autocorrected the word "despite" to "dispute". Normally, I let these go, but twice in a row, and the sentences reading quite weird with "dispute", I though I would issue a correction.

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  5. Most japanese gun enthusiasts visit Nevada if they want to fire a gun. The various mobs that constitute the power structure in Japan have guns but most of the head count do not.

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