The Japan lesson: Can America learn from the country that has almost zero gun deaths?

The linked are placed in reserve chronological order to ensure that the author's position is clearly understood.

Japan's gun control does play an important role in the low Japanese crime rate, but not because of some simple relation between gun density and crime. Japan's gun control is one inseparable part of a vast mosaic of social control. Gun control underscores the pervasive cultural theme that the individual is subordinate to society and to the Government. The same theme is reflected in the absence of protection against Government searches and prosecutions. The police are the most powerful on earth, partly because of the lack of legal constraints and particularly because of their social authority.

http://www.guncite.com/journals/dkjgc.html

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The author's original article written after the Aurora Colorado incident.

http://www.theatlantic.com/internat...-virtually-eliminated-shooting-deaths/260189/

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The follow-up article prompted by the Sandy Hook incident, and the article referred to in the Subject line.

The contrast between the United States and Japan could not be starker. If the United States has the loosest gun laws in the developed world, then Japan has the strictest. Most guns are illegal, with onerous restrictions on the few that are legal. Police also have far broader search-and-seizure powers. But the country also has a remarkably low rate of firearm deaths.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs...-the-country-that-has-almost-zero-gun-deaths/

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The study by DAVID B KOPEL is a very interesting read. If there is a "final solution" for the 2A, liberals have only to look to the Land of the Rising Sun for that final solution. Make no mistake, and let me be crystal clear, liberals are not interested in controlling guns just as the Japanese government is not interested in controlling guns, liberals are only interested in controlling the citizenry.

I'm not sure we ought to be learning any "lessons" from the perpetrators of the Rape of Nanking and human vivisection experiments in Manchuria...

Having lived in Japan, I can say that they do indeed have gun violence. Just not reported or recorded as a crime perhaps. I could not follow the news in Japanese, of course, but every now and then I'd come across an English language Japanese newspaper and noted that they too have murder, rape, muggings, theft, etc. just as we do. If they have a lower rate, it has more to do with cultural and societal variables than anything else.

I recall reading about a police officer shooting the driver of a car for failing to stop. He may or may not have been justified, but that begs the question . . . why on earth do the Japanese police need guns if the Japanese people don't have any themselves?

By the way, in Japan you don't have the same rights as we do here in America.

The police can stop anyone. Refusing to cooperate with the police constitutes interfering with an officer in the performance of his duties. You do not have the right to an attorney unless and until you have been charged with a crime. You will be virtually compelled to make a confession (hence Japan's extremely high conviction rate). Bail is at the discretion of the prosecutor. You do not have the right to remain silent. You do not have the right to a phone call. The police are under no legal obligation to notify anyone that you are being detained (arrested or not). Likewise, they are under no obligation to acknowledge your detention if contacted.

Clearly, crime would be a lot lower in the United States and other western countries if the above was the legal norm, but it is not. Like I said there are significant cultural and societal differences between Japan and the U.S. Same goes for Singapore, they are very authoritarian and citizens have nowhere near the same legal rights as enjoyed by U.S. Citizens. Their crime rate is also very low, go figure. A substantial and inescapable trade-off exists between freedom and security! You simply can't have both.

After having spent several years in Japan I too can say that they do have crime issues (including gun crime). But they also have a completely different society. There the primary criminals with guns are the mafia (Yakuza) and for society as a whole they are more likely to do the "honorable" thing and commit suicide than commit crime (hence why their suicide rate is so much higher than ours...and why some places have covered entrances to protect people from jumpers). Also as said they don't always report the crime (especially if they know the perp). And while you can choose to remain silent (at least us military could) you're supposed to state that you are exercising that right every time they ask you a question. Not to mention that remaining silent gets you treated worse than admitting guilt as to them you're trying to hide something if you remain silent.

I hate it when people try to cherry-pick differences between societies and completely fail to look at the whole picture of what makes the societies different (not directed at anyone here, just a general statement).

This is apples to oranges! We would need to compare crime involving guns and violent crime in general in countries that once had somewhat liberal gun laws and access to firearms and now don't with that of the United States. And when we do this, we realize that after firearms are heavily restricted to the law-abiding populace the violent crime rate goes through the proverbial roof! Taking firearms from the hands of law-abiding citizens will dramatically increase violent crime. It has been proven time and time again, but the facts don't suit the anti-gun agenda, so they have to fish for anything that will make them seem right; even if that is comparing a country that has never really had access to firearms and that does not have Constitutional rights to one that has and does!

Aknazer said:

remaining silent gets you treated worse than admitting guilt as to them you're trying to hide something if you remain silent.

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Well, there's one thing our police have in common with theirs.