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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsHow Japan Virtually Eliminated Shooting Deaths
http://www.businessinsider.com/how-japan-virtually-eliminated-shooting-deaths-2012-7To get a gun in Japan, first, you have to attend an all-day class and pass a written test, which are held only once per month. You also must take and pass a shooting range class. Then, head over to a hospital for a mental test and drug test (Japan is unusual in that potential gun owners must affirmatively prove their mental fitness), which you'll file with the police. Finally, pass a rigorous background check for any criminal record or association with criminal or extremist groups, and you will be the proud new owner of your shotgun or air rifle. Just don't forget to provide police with documentation on the specific location of the gun in your home, as well as the ammo, both of which must be locked and stored separately. And remember to have the police inspect the gun once per year and to re-take the class and exam every three years.
Even the most basic framework of Japan's approach to gun ownership is almost the polar opposite of America's. U.S. gun law begins with the second amendment's affirmation of the "right of the people to keep and bear arms" and narrows it down from there.
Japanese law, however, starts with the 1958 act stating that "No person shall possess a firearm or firearms or a sword or swords," later adding a few exceptions. In other words, American law is designed to enshrine access to guns, while Japan starts with the premise of forbidding it. The history of that is complicated, but it's worth noting that U.S. gun law has its roots in resistance to British gun restrictions, whereas some academic literature links the Japanese law to the national campaign to forcibly disarm the samurai, which may partially explain why the 1958 mentions firearms and swords side-by-side.
Of course, Japan and the U.S. are separated by a number of cultural and historical difference much wider than their gun policies. Kopel explains that, for whatever reason, Japanese tend to be more tolerant of the broad search and seizure police powers necessary to enforce the ban. "Japanese, both criminals and ordinary citizens, are much more willing than their American counterparts to consent to searches and to answer questions from the police," he writes. But even the police did not carry firearms themselves until, in 1946, the American occupation authority ordered them to. Now, Japanese police receive more hours of training than their American counterparts, are forbidden from carrying off-duty, and invest hours in studying martial arts in part because they "are expected to use [firearms] in only the rarest of circumstances," according to Kopel.
*** dear mr. kopel -- with americans as heavily surveilled as they are, with the police behaving like storm troopers with peaceful protestors, and the security state disappearing muslim americans for 1st amendment violations -- we already live in a police state.
i'd like to be able to go to the movies without an armed to the teeth crazy person with murderous intent shooting the place up.
Read more: http://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2012/07/a-land-without-guns-how-japan-has-virtually-eliminated-shooting-deaths/260189/#ixzz21XN7bdMe
Hells Liberal
(88 posts)With the exception of India, Japan has one of the longest class/caste systems in place in the world. Unlike the United States, commoners were discouraged from owning weapons or learning martial arts, sometimes under pain of death.
Americans would never tolerate either situation.
Capt. Obvious
(9,002 posts)joeybee12
(56,177 posts)from a low-count poster.
Lizzie Poppet
(10,164 posts)They are also almost certainly not currently in possession of firearms anyway...
formercia
(18,479 posts)unlike the US.
Here, Guns are a Culture.
TheMightyFavog
(13,770 posts)Over there building and collecting ultra-realistic non firing gun replica kits is a popular hobby.
Hoyt
(54,770 posts)hack89
(39,171 posts)Hoyt
(54,770 posts)hack89
(39,171 posts)4th law of robotics
(6,801 posts)and nonsense like the 4th amendment can be safely assumed to be a gun-nut and should be arrested on the spot.
We're making the world a better place Citizen. All we ask of you is to obey.
Mojorabbit
(16,020 posts)Hoyt
(54,770 posts)to be improved.
hack89
(39,171 posts)Is this what you really want? Officially sanctioned profiling /stop and frisk?
ileus
(15,396 posts)Edweird
(8,570 posts)Sancho
(9,067 posts)In the US, we should license gun owners: 1.) training, 2.) mental health check, 3.) background check.
4th law of robotics
(6,801 posts)not just violent crimes either.
It's a different culture.
obamanut2012
(26,046 posts)As are other sex crimes, WAY more than here. Pedophile and sex with teen minors also doesn't have social stigma as it does here.
I am always leery when Japan is held up as a low-crime haven, because it really isn't in many ways, and I'm not even including the Yakuzi and their crimes.
OneGrassRoot
(22,920 posts)Gregorian
(23,867 posts)I'll spare my rant of things that Americans get for essentially free that they might have to be licensed more carefully for. All I can say is freedom is not free for all. This is what Europe gets that America doesn't.