How Japan has almost eradicated gun crime

[LONDONER]

I don't expect Trump followers will agree:

http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-3836572...ine_070117

[Confuzzled4]

American culture is so vastly different than Japanese culture though. Not just the culture, but the demographics are also completely different as are the political institutions and programs.

[deephiance]

Don't think Japan had a gun problem to start with

[TigerLover]

Yeah being an island is a big part of it. Same with the UK. Total gun bans only work if you have easy control of the borders.

[matty7]

American culture is so vastly different than Japanese culture though. Not just the culture, but the demographics are also completely different as are the political institutions and programs.

I cant see how any of your points justifies the amount of gun crime and the thousands of deaths and mass shootings America has compared to Japan has just because of demographics and different political institutions - the article just shows the measures put in place to help prevent firearms been in the wrong hands and how they asses the people who do qualify a weapon , the laws can be applied to any country if needed - I would have thought any law abiding American would welcome these laws and practices . One very recent example that these laws would have help prevent is the airport shootings a few days ago - the soldier involved had previously entered an FBI office with a weapon complaining the were showing him ISIS videos or something to that effect - he was held under the mental health act for 7 days then released and given his weapon back - in Japan his previous mental state would have prevented him from acquiring a gun - that would have gone some way to saving the lives he went on to take im sure

[Confuzzled4]

I cant see how any of your points justifies the amount of gun crime and the thousands of deaths and mass shootings America has compared to Japan has just because of demographics and different political institutions

I am not justifying gun crime by any means, what I'm saying is that that solution works for Japan but wouldn't work in America for those reasons. You are never going to change the gun culture in rural America, where there is very little gun crime. In urban America you have racial tension, gang violence, drugs, etc. Of course you have in rural America as well, but per capita not like in urban areas.

[Pix]

I'm not against much stricter regulation of gun and ammo sales (though I wouldn't want it to go as far as Japan), but as the article made it sound like such strict regulation is why it's so low made me think of how Russia is even more strict (IIRC, you're technically required to inform the police for each round you fire, even in practice), and I think Mexico (a friend of mine from there described gun laws, and also common practices that didn't conform to the laws, that was even more confusing than gun laws in California), and yet those places are infamous for gun crime. And I can see why, reasons similar to why such strict gun controls (I'm talking about the extremes like Japan and Russia) wouldn't work well in the USA (and may make it worse) as well.

ETA: it's also worth noting that guns have never featured that greatly in Japan for various reasons. And it sounds to me like even their criminals have long worked very differently from the ones in the west, which goes to some odd cultural quirks.

[SilverBullet]

Yeah, there are allot of differences in Japan and USA.
Even besides some previously pointed out, IE Japan has fewer demographics than the USA.
One thing that makes USA soo great is infact how diverse we are, its also one of our biggest weaknesses.
Throw a bunch of people onto a piece of land, if each of those people have different opinions and ideals from religion to heritage even to physical makeup and education and wealth your going to have problems.

Japan seems to a bit more cut from the same cloth but even they have problems. While I have not heard of many mass shootings from Japan probably due to infrequency or limited scope I have heard of Japanese Yakuza and I have heard of cult leaders and Sarin attacks.

I think since the population of Japan is roughly 1/3 of the USA you could probably statistically reduce our crime rates to 1/3 to get a better comparison.

Hard to compare apples and oranges, there are good examples of heavily armed country's by militia groups IE Switzerland where almost every citizen is armed and very low crime rates.

I dont think there exist a good answer/good solution to USA gun crimes, but right now I think mandatory disarming of the citizens and following suit with countries like Japan is not the answer.
USA is saturated with fire arms, disarming the law abiding will not solve the issue and many people in many countries want to come to the USA, as it is in my area already I know some Illegal immigrants not that its a bad thing, they are actually very nice, but it shows we cannot control who enters very well. On a similar note if we cant control who enters we probably also cannot control WHAT enters.

On a last note, while there exist allot of gun crime in this country I can say in my life I have never seen a shooting save for TV, and I think allot of people are in the same boat. The media while showing these things people forget the size of this country and feel like this happens everyday everywhere when it doesn't. Many more people die in car crashes than are shot I have seen wrecks and I have seen people die. All deaths are tragic I think one step towards less gun crime would be EXTREMELY harsh punishments to those who commit them. IE you want to go to a mall and shoot people, you will suffer terribly for it. Going to prison for 20 years doesn't seem to induce the level of fear necessary to prevent these things.

[InbetweenDreams]

I think the problem is that many Americans would find the Japanese policy on guns as an invasion of privacy. I mean what they do all make sense and sounds like a good idea on paper but it does seem pretty intense that the government is going to interview your relatives and so forth.

The US is very different from Japan in every way, more diverse, more upheaval over social issues and all that I feel leads to more violence. There was a video posted about how Chicago sounds like a war zone...

Have to get about 1:40 into the video...




So people are shooting at each other. So take away the guns, let people fight it out. I still think we would see a great deal of violence...road rage anyone? I think we in the US have issues with our society and not so much a gun problem.

[artyboy]

Why does it Americans seem to like this sort of thing. JUST BAN Handguns and other guns that are designed to kill humans from the general public. The UK and other countries that have done similar to.

Not being nasty but its getting boring hearing about Americans shooting each other all the time.
I do think its time you do something about your out dated government system if its your consultation that is stopping some basic 21st century laws to be passed. Before I get an American middle class or red neck say the UK's is old, yeah its old but it flexible, more than the US style of government.