I found this article very interesting because, as a believer in the second amendment, and the right to bear arms, I have always said that if these crazy people who do these mass murders didn't have guns, these things would still happen, whether it be with a knife, a sword, a car, etc. Here is proof. The cause and effect are very similiar to the many cases of gun violence we have here in the states, with just one little twist... no gun!
Blog warnings posted ahead of Tokyo knife rampage
By Isabel Reynolds June 9th, 2008
TOKYO (Reuters) - A man arrested for killing seven people (SEVEN people!) in a knife rampage on a crowded Tokyo shopping street posted dozens of warning messages on the Internet in the hours leading up to the attack, Japanese media reported on Monday.
Japanese police arrested a 25-year-old blood-spattered man at the scene for driving a truck into a crowd of Sunday shoppers in Akihabara, Tokyo's biggest electronics shopping district, and then walking down the street stabbing people at random.
Passers by prayed and dropped flowers on Monday at the scene of the attack, as a bewildered Japan tried to make sense of the latest in a series of random acts of violence.
Before the rampage in Akihabara, the arrested man, Tomohiro Kato, had warned on an Internet site that "I will kill people in Akihabara," Japanese media reported.
"I will crash my car and when the car becomes unusable, I will use a knife. Good-bye, everyone!," the man wrote on his Internet site early Sunday morning, the Asahi newspaper said.
The Mainichi newspaper said Tokyo police had heard of similar posts on another Internet site, but could not stop the attacks.
"I'm used to acting like a good person. I can fool everyone easily," Kato wrote, adding he was struggling to make friends.
In the last of more than two dozen Internet postings, he wrote a few minutes before the truck was rammed into the crowd: "The time has come."
Sunday's attack followed the killing of one person in a random stabbing outside a train station north of Tokyo in March, while five were hurt in a similar attack in January.
Also in March, a teenager pushed a stranger under a train in western Japan, saying he wanted to kill someone.
The latest attack sparked talk among Tokyo residents of failing communities and declining morality in a country proud of its low crime rate.
"Recently, peoples' relationships have become strained," said 29-year-old Taishi Ikeda, who works in the publishing industry. "There's no-one to talk to when you're troubled."
The suspect in Sunday's attack lived alone and had a temporary job at a car factory, media said. He was reported to be a regular visitor to Akihabara, known for high tech electronic products sold alongside "anime" cartoon goods and cafes where waitresses dress as French maids.
FEELING LIKE FAILURES
Japan's obsession with exam grades made many feel like failures and the decline of the extended family had also cut support for troubled youngsters, said Jinsuke Kageyama, a criminal psychologist at Tokyo Institute of Technology.
"Japan has entered a period of selfishness. People have the feeling that they can do anything," he said.
"But when these people fail to fulfill themselves in socially acceptable ways, they are treated as losers and their frustration builds up," he added.
"A series of disappointments can lead them to try to regain their sense of self through crime."
Tackling the root causes of such attacks would be a complex task, and harsher penalties would likely not be helpful, he said.
Total reported crime has been falling for five years, but Japan has toughened up sentencing and increased the pace at which it carries out executions in recent months under Justice Minister Kunio Hatoyama, a supporter of the death penalty.
"If they have the urge to commit suicide, people will do these things in countries that have the death penalty," Kageyama said.
Some members of the public pointed to an economic downturn and government policy as reasons for rising frustration.
"Politicians don't think about the people, they raise taxes and change the healthcare system," said Kentaro Inoue, a 56-year-old worker for an architectural firm.
"I think that's what breeds this violent behavior. People begin to hate society when they can't succeed."
And their answer to this...
Japan's top government spokesman, Nobutaka Machimura said it was hard to pin down the reason for Sunday's attack but tighter controls should be considered on survival knives like the one the attacker used. (Because large Kitchen knives could never do the same thing as these "Survival" knives... jeez.)
The moral of the story is this: Crazy people who want to kill people will find ways to do it. It's not the fault of the gun, knife, sword, lamp, ashtray, or baseball bat that they may use to do so, It is the fault of the crazy person! Banning the good law abiding citizens from having guns only insures that they will not be able to protect themselves from the crazy people when the need arises.
I'm going to hazard a guess that killing 7 people with a knife would take at least a good 3 mins, probably a while longer but as I've never killed 7 people with a knife I'm not sure how long it takes.
That being said, you could kill ten times that number in 3 mins with a gun, probably more if it were fully automatic. I don't view gun control as being crime prevention, more like damage control. If I limit your pistol to a 15 round clip then that drastically reduces the amount of damage you can create in a given time against a 30 round clip.
Moral of the story: Gun control isn't about banning guns, it's about restricting the types of weapons which the public is allowed to have.
__________________
"The best argument against democracy is a five-minute conversation with the average voter" -- Winston Churchill
"If I limit your pistol to a 15 round clip then that drastically reduces the amount of damage you can create in a given time against a 30 round clip."
Actually, I can reload my 15 round clips in less than 1 second, so that argument doesn't fly.
Many of the gun violence stories that you hear about were less than the seven people killed by a knife in this story.
I agree that it is easier to kill people with a gun. My point was that if you take away the guns, you leave us defenseless against people like this looney with a knife.
Why is it that every time a tragedy happens in this country, lawmakers are quick on the "trigger" to write crimes to prevent? I know that it is human nature to react to things this way, but is it really the government's job to police every bad thing that happens to us? I think people should be given a little credit. I think we know how to protect ourselves! Maybe I sound cold hearted, but I'm afraid that in another 10-20 years we will not have a right to do anything. SG, I'm with you on our rights to own guns all the way!
Yeah MO2, I highlighted the part in the article where the first response from the government was to ban "survival knives". So ridiculous! As if a "survival" knife could do any more damage than a large kitchen knife. It is so stupid to me that people want to blame inanimate objects when tragedies happen. Guns and knives don't jump off their racks and kill people by themselves (except in Stephen King novels). Some people are just crazy and dangerous, and no amount of regulation is going to keep crazy people from doing bad things. All regulation will do is insure that us sane people are unable to defend ourselves if these crazy ones go monkeysh*t and try to kill us.
Do you think that next time some one sets off a pipe bomb, they'll ban all the items in it they used to make it...pipe, marbles, nails, etc? What about when someone commits a crime with a baseball bat? Where does it end? Everyone is always looking for a reason bad things happen -- it's because there are BAD PEOPLE!!!!!
Kind of like the cities who ban kids under 18 from purchasing spray paint. Is this the proper way to defeat graffiti? The majority should not be punished for what the few do! The innocent should not lose their rights because of the guilty.
Yeah, I couldn't believe it the first time I got carded to buy spray paint.. or eggs even (it was close to Halloween). It gets a little ridiculous. We have given up so many rights in this country. The founding fathers are rolling in their graves.
Just wait and see what happens when they start going door to door taking our guns.
The unabomber made his bombs from black iron gas pipe and *****-***** (a common item found in everybody's house which costs about $2.00 per cardboard box at the grocery store). You can make a perfectly fine detonator from mechanical pencil lead and a 9 volt battery. The military's largest non-nuclear bomb is made from aerosolized gasoline and air. You don't need fertilizer to blow something up, sugar works just fine.
It's clear that it isn't the weapon, it is the person. It is also clear that guns in the hands of kids and psychos is a problem.
I'm not against my neighbor having a glock to put a cap in a burglar, but I don't want him owning a rocket propelled grenade. And I don't want the glock laying around unsecured when my kid goes over there to play.
And there are some people who I wouldn't want to have a gun or knife of any kind.
Some people go through life having all kinds of "accidents" with weapons, and I think there should be some kind of financial responsibility or maybe insurance they are forced into.
So what do you do?
How about: anybody can own any non-military hand gun or sporting rifle they wish until they do something aggressive or stupid with it, at which time they have to pay all damages for civil or do time if criminal, and they get a tattoo that marks them as prohibited forever from owning a gun.
That is basically how the system is set up now. Anyone without a history of mental illness or a criminal record can own any kind of non-military (meaning no full-auto, not RPGs, no C-4, etc) gun they want, but as soon as someone is convicted of a felony or a domestic violence crime (even if it's a misdemeanor which I have a problem with, but that's a different story), they lose their right to have a gun.
And you should always teach your kids about guns, and never to touch them, even if you don't have them in your house... because, as you said, someone your kids visit may have them in theirs. My kids have been around guns all their lives, and know better than to touch one without my say so.
