If this had happened in say Texas he might have made it to stabbing one person before he was gunned down and stopped. Good job Japan gun laws keeping them safer.
http://www.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/...n.attack.ap/index.html
OKYO, Japan (AP) -- A man police said was on a murder mission plowed into pedestrians with a truck in a crowded Tokyo neighborhood Sunday and then stabbed 17 people in three minutes, killing at least seven in a grisly attack that shocked Japan.
art.japan.stabbing.ap.jpg
Rescue workers from the Tokyo Fire Department gather to help the injured in Tokyo's Akihabara district.
The lunchtime assault -- on the seventh anniversary of a mass stabbing in Japan in 2001 -- sent thousands of pedestrians into a panic in Tokyo's crowded Akihabara district, an electronics and video game area wildly popular among the country's cyber-wise youth.
A 25-year-old man, Tomohiro Kato, was arrested with blood on his face. Police said Kato provided no motive for the attack -- other than he wanted to murder strangers.
"The suspect told police that he came to Akihabara to kill people," said Jiro Akaogi, a spokesman for the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department.
"He said he was tired of life. He said he was sick of everything," Akaogi said.
The violence began when he crashed a rented, two-ton truck into pedestrians. Kato jumped out and began stabbing the people he'd knocked down with the truck, then turned on horrified onlookers, police said.
Police confirmed seven deaths -- six men and one woman -- but they could not say whether the victims had died of injuries from the truck or were stabbed to death. Video Watch report on stabbing spree »
Reports said the attacker grunted and roared as he slashed and stabbed at Sunday shoppers crowding a street lined with huge stores packed with computers and other advanced electronics, and the latest in video and computer games.
"He was screaming as he was stabbing people at random," an unidentified male witness told public broadcaster NHK.
A witness also told NHK the suspect dropped his knife after police threatened to shoot him. Amateur video filmed by mobile phone showed policemen overpowering the bespectacled, bloodied suspect.
The attack paralyzed the district and sent thousands of Sunday shoppers into a panic. Amateur video taken five minutes after the rampage showed shoppers helping victims and a man screaming, "Ambulance, Ambulance!"
At least 17 ambulances rushed to the scene, and rescue workers feverishly tended to victims in the blood-pooled street.
As night fell on Akihabara, several pedestrians stopped by and prayed at the crime scene. A bouquet of flowers, bottles of green tea and incense sticks were placed at the site.
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Once rare, stabbing attacks have become more frequent in Japan in recent years as violent crime has increased.
In March, one person was stabbed to death and at least seven others were hurt by a man who went on a slashing spree with two knives outside a shopping mall in eastern Japan. In one of the worst attacks, a man with a history of mental illness burst into an elementary school in Japan on June 9, 2001, and killed eight children. The killer was executed in 200
Originally posted by: eskimospy
Gun deaths per 100,000 in Japan in 2007:
0.7
Gun deaths per 100,000 in the US in 2007:
7.07
Originally posted by: eskimospy
Gun deaths per 100,000 in Japan in 2007 = 0.7
Gun deaths per 100,000 in the US in 2007 = 7.07
Living in a free society = Priceless
Originally posted by: eskimospy
Gun deaths per 100,000 in Japan in 2007:
0.7
Gun deaths per 100,000 in the US in 2007:
7.07
Originally posted by: eskimospy
I didn't say anything about the value of a free society, relative homogeneity, blah blah, whatever. If you plug it into a regression with the overall murder rate between Japan and the US you will still find a significantly lower rate of gun deaths.
I was just pointing out that the OP's contention that Japan's gun laws weren't keeping people safe because of the lack of a CCW guy there is somewhat specious.
Originally posted by: Perknose
Originally posted by: eskimospy
I didn't say anything about the value of a free society, relative homogeneity, blah blah, whatever. If you plug it into a regression with the overall murder rate between Japan and the US you will still find a significantly lower rate of gun deaths.
I was just pointing out that the OP's contention that Japan's gun laws weren't keeping people safe because of the lack of a CCW guy there is somewhat specious.
Stop throwing facts at the gunz fetish boyz. It makes them homicidally mad.
Originally posted by: RichardE
If this had happened in say America he might have purchased guns with lots of bullets to shoot many person before he was gunned down and stopped.
Fixed
TOKYO, Japan (AP) -- A man police said was on a murder mission plowed into pedestrians with a truck in a crowded Tokyo neighborhood Sunday and then stabbed 17 people in three minutes, killing at least seven in a grisly attack that shocked Japan.
Originally posted by: dawp
TOKYO, Japan (AP) -- A man police said was on a murder mission plowed into pedestrians with a truck in a crowded Tokyo neighborhood Sunday and then stabbed 17 people in three minutes, killing at least seven in a grisly attack that shocked Japan.
A gun would be hard pressed to stop a truck or any vehicle traveling at speed. if the truck hadn't been used, the death toll would have been lower. weather or not a gun had been there, the truck did the most damage. the gun control argument just does not hold water for me. using this as a pro gun argument falls far short.
Police confirmed seven deaths -- six men and one woman -- but they could not say whether the victims had died of injuries from the truck or were stabbed to death. Video Watch report on stabbing spree »
Originally posted by: babylon5
Originally posted by: RichardE
If this had happened in say America he might have purchased guns with lots of bullets to shoot many person before he was gunned down and stopped.
Fixed
Originally posted by: eskimospy
Gun deaths per 100,000 in Japan in 2007:
0.7
Gun deaths per 100,000 in the US in 2007:
7.07
Originally posted by: RichardE
Originally posted by: dawp
TOKYO, Japan (AP) -- A man police said was on a murder mission plowed into pedestrians with a truck in a crowded Tokyo neighborhood Sunday and then stabbed 17 people in three minutes, killing at least seven in a grisly attack that shocked Japan.
A gun would be hard pressed to stop a truck or any vehicle traveling at speed. if the truck hadn't been used, the death toll would have been lower. weather or not a gun had been there, the truck did the most damage. the gun control argument just does not hold water for me. using this as a pro gun argument falls far short.
Police confirmed seven deaths -- six men and one woman -- but they could not say whether the victims had died of injuries from the truck or were stabbed to death. Video Watch report on stabbing spree »
what do you know that we don't
Either way, if someone had a CCW he would have been shot down after stabbing one person, or even before that when running around with a knife.
Originally posted by: magomago
Originally posted by: eskimospy
Gun deaths per 100,000 in Japan in 2007:
0.7
Gun deaths per 100,000 in the US in 2007:
7.07
Well I don't think this statistic is fair because it makes it seem like deaths only come through guns. OF COURSE in a society where it is banned you will have substantially lower deaths due to guns. The question is if many of these deaths get shifted to other areas.
However, what this statistic should really show to us is that in a society where guns are banned, you still have about ~1000 shootings a year. This shows that if a criminal really wants a gun, they WILL find a way to get a hold of one. Is it worth it to ban guns for the safety of society? Its a slippery slope, and one I'd prefer we do not go down because the same rationale can be used to limit our own freedoms to protect us against the "TerrA4ists"
If this had happened in say Texas he might have made it to stabbing one person before he was gunned down and stopped. Good job Japan gun laws keeping them safer.