Monday, March 2, 2015

South Korea to Tighten Gun Rules After Man Kills 3, Himself



A man fatally shot three people Friday and was found dead with a suicide note in the second deadly shooting in three days, prompting South Korean police to announce plans to tighten regulations on gun ownership.

Gun possession is tightly controlled in South Korea, with only one civilian murder with a firearm reported last year. But hunting weapons, like a shotgun in Friday's killing spree, are allowed.

The victims included a policeman, who was one of the first officers to respond, according to police in Hwaseong city, near Seoul. The 75-year-old suspect is believed to be the brother of an 86-year-old victim, whose wife was also dead, police said.

The suspect was found with gunshot wounds in his chest and near his right armpit in what the police believed to be a suicide.

It was believed that the slain officer, who wasn't wearing a bullet-proof vest and armed only with a stun gun, tried to talk the suspect into surrendering before being fatally shot in the chest.

The suspect had retrieved the shotgun from a nearby police station about 20 minutes before the shooting. South Koreans can obtain licenses for shotguns and air rifles for the purpose of hunting, but they are required to keep the weapons at police stations and use them only during legal hunting periods. Police said that the suspect had proper license for the shotgun he owned.

According to the National Police Agency, South Koreans legally owned about 160,000 guns as of January, a figure that included hunting weapons and self-defense tools such as gas-emitting guns.

The police agency said Friday it plans to tighten regulations on gun ownership, including strengthening the screening of those seeking to license a weapon and shortening renewal periods.

22 comments:

  1. I wonder if any of the proposed changes actually pertain to an aspect of this case or if it's just a list someone wrote up to show something, anything is being done. It's fortunate that citizens of this country have constitutional protections that prevent governmental bodies deciding to restrict the rights of citizens just because they can.

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    1. These incidents are rare there and in the future they'll be even rarer. That's what strict gun control can do.

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    2. The citizens who have these gun rights have obviously been abusing them, or we wouldn't have so many gun shot deaths accident, negligence, or intentional. I doubt many countries want the gun problems America has. A different choice for different cultures. I'm sure you support their right to chose what they think is best for them? Or maybe you don't.

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  2. proper gun control

    You mean the kind that utterly failed to prevent a triple murder and homicide, and that will never fly in the U.S., anyway?

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    1. That's really silly, Kurt. No one claims that proper gun control would prevent EVERY incident.

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  3. The police get to make the rules there? Yikes.

    And why did you tag this "proper gun control"? Citizens can't even keep their licensed and registered hunting shotguns in their own home. That's far beyond what you call for. And of course, they want more.

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    1. True, far beyond what I call for. That's probably why incidents like this are practically unheard of there.

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    2. But you like this level of gun control (and whatever stricter controls the police chose to add), right? And you think that will do an even better job than what you call for? Why is this level included in your "proper gun control" then?

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    3. That's probably why incidents like this are practically unheard of there.

      And that DGUs are, too.

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    4. TS, the tags I put on posts are not always endorsements of what the post says as much as topics for discussion.

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    5. "And that DGUs are, too."

      Kurt, I havn't bothered to look yet, but you wanna bet that the Korean murder rate is lower than that of the US? Looking at it that way would make TS happy, and if you had any integrity, it would shut you up (if I'm right, that is).

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    6. Kurt, I havn't bothered to look yet, but you wanna bet that the Korean murder rate is lower than that of the US?

      I strongly suspect that it is indeed considerably lower. My integrity is in no way compromised by my observation that this "point" is safely dismissed, for reasons that Jeff Snyder so eloquently explains (won't bother to repeat it here).

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    7. Ok, tags are not an endorsement. However, this sure sounds like an endorsement:

      MikeB: "These incidents are rare there and in the future they'll be even rarer. That's what strict gun control can do."

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    8. South Korea's murder rate is under 1/100,000.

      Are we back to calling murder rate the proper metric to examine, or is it only when it suits you? When we look at comprehensive figures, will "gun deaths" suddenly become more appropriate to answer the question of whether or not "guns make us safer"?

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    9. Murder rate is the best metric. That doesn't mean we can't look at the other and discuss it, trying to see what it's all about.

      In this case the incredibly low murder rate in South Korea kinda makes Kurt's crack about DGUs pretty stupid, doncha think?

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    10. No. I'm pretty sure people can't defend themselves with their guns too well when their guns are locked up at the police station.

      Is there some murder rate threshold below which you feel people have no right to defend themselves with the best tools? And what of violent crime rates, which are undoubtedly far more likely to occur in South Korea?

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    11. "Is there some murder rate threshold below which you feel people have no right to defend themselves with the best tools?"

      Well, when the murder rate is low, the need to own guns is lower than it would be if the murder rate were high. And when you compare the very low DGUs to the misuse of guns, which will always happen, it's clear that we'd be better off with no (or fewer) guns in civilian hands.

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    12. I didn't think you'd be so willing to admit your Catch-22, Mike.

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    13. Is that what I did? I was just doing "common sense and honesty."

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  4. I'll bet other countries look at America and decide to have stricter gun laws. 30,000 gun shot deaths a year, the senseless killing and mass murders, is a perfect example to do just the opposite of what America does with guns.

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  5. Will they now tighten the restrictions on sharp objects after the attempted murder of the US Ambassador?

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    1. That's your logic at work George? You are obviously one who thinks another country has no right to make decisions about guns different than yours.

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