" If you deny the reality of the cultural importance of guns to many Americans, whether they've been in the military or in law enforcement or they grew up hunting, or they just like action movies. If you don't accept that then you are rejecting reality." http://www.npr.org/tablet/#story/?storyId=145035468 I have seen over and over this mentality that the right to bear arms is of insignifact value and that the people who want them are marginalized by gun control advocates.
It's true. You could tell an American that they're more likely to be shot, true or false, if they were to carry a gun and they wouldn't care. They just love guns. All I ask is that they have the ability to control them. Stop having American guns in Japan. No guns here, please.
Criminals on both sides smuggle them. It's not exactly by choice. Americans can shoot themselves to death if they want. Japan will enjoy a murder rate that's.. what? 50 times smaller. And that's ONLY when Japan includes attempted murders as homicides.
WTH are you talking about? You make it out to be that America is forcing guns on your criminals, it is their choice if they want to buy them or not.
People in America complain that Mexican cartels push drugs into America, or that China pushes cheap goods into American hands; it's the same concept.
They do because there is a demand..... They do because there is a demand....mmmmmmm pattern forming???? It seems there may be a demand in your country for guns..... Not that Miroku and Howa don't make enough, just not the right kind I guess..
Our murder and suicide rate combined is lower than your suicide rate alone. I guess living in a murder free society is a pressure cooker and causes people in Japan to rather die than continue living. I'll take my chances in the U.S. U.S. guns don't magically appear in Japan. They come there by way of criminals. They aren't being legally sent over by the U.S. I would imagine that soviet and chinese weapons also make it to Japan.
Well, there are a few problems with this... * Criminals smuggling goods is a fact of reality; no matter how many controls you put in place, its always going to happen. As long as someone is willing to pay a significantly higher price for something, people are going to take the chances to reap the benefits. * If there wasn't a demand in your country for firearms, no one would take the risk in smuggling them. So even though its not /your/ choice, there are groups of people (most likely Yakuza and the like) who have a demand on these illegal firearms. Maybe control them better? This is a risk vs. rewards situation. I might suggest that if you want to help reduce this, increase the risk involved (harsher penalties). If you become more harsh with laws around this area, it may make people believe that the risk isn't worth it. The actual impact won't ever be perfect, as risk increases, reward increases (higher prices). However, I'd imagine it would have some impact on lowering the rates at which this is happening. Also, don't forget about the Philippines in all of this; a lot of your imported illegal firearms are sourced from this country as well.
The true Japanese murder rate is unknown. When someone kills another and then commits suicide then both deaths are listed as suicide. Many of your suicides are actually murders.
And even banning guns completely would not stop crime. People will simply find other weapons to use. And a good gun can last 100 years or more if you take good care of it. Just stopping production of them now would still leave quite a few guns out there. Furthermore, it's not that hard to take a crude explosive and put it in a metal tube that's open on one end and fill the thing with shrapnel . . .
Real popular fantasy is religion. It is a best seller, with people who realy believe in the stuff; that's how good it is.