How in the world does one man stab 17 people? This would never happen in the southern US and it certainly would never happen in Texas. If some lunatic plowed a 2 ton rented truck into pedestrians and then jumped out and started stabbing people, at least one person would pull out a gun and shot the idiot on the spot. Even if no one had a gun, I’m guessing at least 4 burly, mean Texas dudes would walk up to him and break his scrawny little neck, machete or no machete.
I feel terrible for the people who died and their families but this is the final result of disarming the citizenry. If the good guys can’t protect themselves, the bad guys have all the advantages.
June 9, 2008 at 6:53 am
I’m not so sure about the gun part. You’re assuming that if people in the crowd had guns, it would have been gun vs. knife wielder. If you listened to the related video news coverage, at the end they say that obtaining a gun is extremely difficult in Japan. Meaning, the criminals can’t even get to one, which is why people are picking up a knife instead. If guns were obtainable in Japan, that very well might be the preferred weapon for all. As for how he managed to get to so many people, the report also says he was in a massively compacted and popular area- he ran over a lot of people and then stabbed those first, who were already incapacitated. And then, i dunno, shock factor or that there was too many people around to run out of the way? But I agree with you in that 17 is a huge amount and it’s hard to understand how someone could get that far without maybe a sumo wrestler bringin’ him down.
June 9, 2008 at 6:53 am
I’m not so sure about the gun part. You’re assuming that if people in the crowd had guns, it would have been gun vs. knife wielder. If you listened to the related video news coverage, at the end they say that obtaining a gun is extremely difficult in Japan. Meaning, the criminals can’t even get to one, which is why people are picking up a knife instead. If guns were obtainable in Japan, that very well might be the preferred weapon for all. As for how he managed to get to so many people, the report also says he was in a massively compacted and popular area- he ran over a lot of people and then stabbed those first, who were already incapacitated. And then, i dunno, shock factor or that there was too many people around to run out of the way? But I agree with you in that 17 is a huge amount and it’s hard to understand how someone could get that far without maybe a sumo wrestler bringin’ him down.
June 9, 2008 at 12:08 pm
Just because it is “extremely difficult” to obtain a firearm in Japan legally, does not mean that it is difficult obtaining one illegally. We seem to use laws the way people in the olden days used fixed fortifications or fortress walls, to protect us from the bad people outside. And as General George Patton once said, “Fixed fortifications are a monument to the stupidity of man.” People who do illegal things, don’t care, and do not think in terms of, oh this is against the law so I shouldn’t do it. Already, by terms of what society has deemed normal, righteous, and good, this person was thinking outside that box, for what ever reason, and he was going to do, what ever he set out to do. The real question would be, why did he.
June 9, 2008 at 12:08 pm
Just because it is “extremely difficult” to obtain a firearm in Japan legally, does not mean that it is difficult obtaining one illegally. We seem to use laws the way people in the olden days used fixed fortifications or fortress walls, to protect us from the bad people outside. And as General George Patton once said, “Fixed fortifications are a monument to the stupidity of man.” People who do illegal things, don’t care, and do not think in terms of, oh this is against the law so I shouldn’t do it. Already, by terms of what society has deemed normal, righteous, and good, this person was thinking outside that box, for what ever reason, and he was going to do, what ever he set out to do. The real question would be, why did he.
June 9, 2008 at 2:09 pm
just basing my commentary on what that particular report said. “trying to get a gun in Japan is extraordinarily difficult, so anyone who wants to commit a crime usually will turn to a knife”. Solely based on that bit at the end (http://www.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/asiapcf/06/08/japan.attack.ap/index.html#cnnSTCVideo), and considering that the attack appears to have been premeditated, maybe whatever gun laws they have over there are effective; or at least, they were on him. But why would he do such a thing? God only knows. Maybe.
June 9, 2008 at 2:09 pm
just basing my commentary on what that particular report said. “trying to get a gun in Japan is extraordinarily difficult, so anyone who wants to commit a crime usually will turn to a knife”. Solely based on that bit at the end (http://www.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/asiapcf/06/08/japan.attack.ap/index.html#cnnSTCVideo), and considering that the attack appears to have been premeditated, maybe whatever gun laws they have over there are effective; or at least, they were on him. But why would he do such a thing? God only knows. Maybe.
June 9, 2008 at 6:50 pm
My main argument was that no one would manage to use a knife to stab 17 people in Texas because someone would shoot him before he did. It’s my belief that the fact that almost anyone might be carrying a gun acts as quite the deterrent to random acts of violence like this one.
Obviously, this guy was nuts and was going to try and kill people whether he had to use a gun or a toothbrush. If he lived in Texas, maybe he would have shot 17 people. But somehow, I have the feeling some enterprising Texan might have taken him out before he had the chance. That was my main point.
A more telling point that I didn’t express very well was the fact that horrified bystanders stood by and watched while he stabbed people. I don’t think that would happen in Texas either, especially not after 9/11. That’s perhaps the more interesting thing to come out of this, the whole “sheeple” mindset.
June 9, 2008 at 6:50 pm
My main argument was that no one would manage to use a knife to stab 17 people in Texas because someone would shoot him before he did. It’s my belief that the fact that almost anyone might be carrying a gun acts as quite the deterrent to random acts of violence like this one.
Obviously, this guy was nuts and was going to try and kill people whether he had to use a gun or a toothbrush. If he lived in Texas, maybe he would have shot 17 people. But somehow, I have the feeling some enterprising Texan might have taken him out before he had the chance. That was my main point.
A more telling point that I didn’t express very well was the fact that horrified bystanders stood by and watched while he stabbed people. I don’t think that would happen in Texas either, especially not after 9/11. That’s perhaps the more interesting thing to come out of this, the whole “sheeple” mindset.
June 11, 2008 at 8:14 am
I really don’t think he would be shot if it happened in Texas. I think it would be more like you would have 10 to 20 bubba’s take him down and start pummeling him, using bare hands. No sense in wasting the ammunition if you don’t have to.
June 11, 2008 at 8:14 am
I really don’t think he would be shot if it happened in Texas. I think it would be more like you would have 10 to 20 bubba’s take him down and start pummeling him, using bare hands. No sense in wasting the ammunition if you don’t have to.