Shinzo Abe assassinated: RIP
Former long-term Japanese prime minister Shinzo Abe was assassinated by a gunman while Abe was giving a speech in the city of Nara.
Japan is a society with a low murder rate and also what are perhaps the strictest gun laws in the world. And yet this happened. There was security there for Abe, but it’s hard to understand what it involved:
Witnesses saw a man carrying what they described as a large gun fire twice at the former PM from behind. Abe fell to the ground as bystanders screamed in shock and disbelief.
Abe had a security team with him, but it appears the gunman was still able to get within a few metres of Mr Abe without any sort of checks or barrier.
Photos circulating in the aftermath of the shooting showed the suspect standing just behind Mr Abe as he gave his speech.
How on earth did the assassin get that close with a weapon that seems to have been relatively large? In a photo at the link, you can see him standing just behind Abe, dressed in gray, and he is carrying a large black bag slung over his shoulder and across his body.
If you scroll down further, you can see a photo of a police officer confronting the assailant afterwards; he was taken into custody. I’m no weapons expert, but the assassin’s weapon has been described as “homemade,” and I’m not sure what that is on the officer’s right hip. Is he armed, or not? It seems pretty clear to me that, had the perp so desired, he could have blasted quite a few other people there away. That didn’t happen.
It is also ironic, although quite irrelevant, that every single person in that photo of the officer and the perp is wearing a COVID mask, even though it’s outside.
More:
Gun violence is extremely rare in Japan, where handguns are banned – and incidents of political violence are almost unheard of.
I’m not sure what the BBC means by “unheard of.” Japan has a low murder rate and very very little gun violence, but it is no stranger to political violence. This article discusses that history, and you can see that it certainly exists.
The motive for Abe’s assassination is unclear:
The suspect, named as Tetsuya Yamagami…told officers he had a grudge against a specific group he believed Abe was connected to, police said, adding that they were investigating why the former PM was targeted out of other people related to the group.
The gun is being described as both “handmade” and “homemade,” and several other weapons of that type plus explosives were found in the perp’s home. Not only that, but in addition:
The weapon used in the attack on Abe was probably a “craft-made” firearm, according to N.R. Jenzen-Jones, the director of Armament Research Services, a specialist arms investigations firm.
He compared the weapon to a musket in which the gunpowder is loaded separately from the bullet.
“Firearms legislation in Japan is very restrictive, so I think what we’re seeing here, with what’s probably a muzzle-loading weapon, is not just an attempt to circumvent the control of firearms, but also the strict control of ammunition in Japan,” he said.
Where there’s a will, there’s a way.
Japanese police do carry guns when on duty, but they are rarely used.
I suspect some connection to chinese (abe was among the strongest opponents of xi) and korea, there’s a two generational tie there, yes that shooter firing from the back, was surprising,
if you wind the clock all the way back
https://www.republicworld.com/world-news/rest-of-the-world-news/shinzo-abe-assassinated-inukai-tsuyoshi-was-last-japan-pm-to-be-shot-dead-90-years-ago-articleshow.html
And as usual, Brandon stuck his foot in it in his significantly delayed message about Abe’s assassination:
https://twitchy.com/sarahd-313035/2022/07/08/wh-finally-releases-joe-bidens-statement-on-shinzo-abes-assassination-and-its-perhaps-the-stupidest-thing-he-has-ever-said/
Biden blathered something rather bizarre during his Executive Order speech a little while ago:
“one thing did strike my—get my attention, that this is the first use of a weapon to murder someone in Japan. And I think we have thus far 3000—don’t hold me to the numbers—688. Or between three and 4,000 cases. They have one.”
I’m still trying to parse whatever the hell he was attempting to say here. I certainly hope he doesn’t somehow believe that nobody in Japan has ever killed anyone with any kind of weapon. But even if he was trying to say something about homicides committed with firearms in Japan, it’s my understanding that there’s typically somewhere between 4 and 10 of those a year in Japan (most of which have been attributed to the Yakuza).
very curious
https://www.breitbart.com/asia/2022/07/08/abe-shinzo-spent-his-last-days-advocating-defending-taiwan-belligerent-china/
It is interesting the world progressive attempt to make this a story about gun violence rather than an assassination of a former and still influential conservative leader.
“what’s probably a muzzle-loading weapon, is not just an attempt to circumvent the control of firearms, but also the strict control of ammunition in Japan”
Good thing ABCNews got a firearm’s specialist to note the guy wanted to just to circumvent firearm laws. I suppose they are more draconian in Japan than the laws related to murder.
But before we get too far misdirected by the coordinated poor journalism of this story, let’s not forget that in NYC, a bodega owner was arrested for murder (using a knife) while defending his life from thief’s that already stabbed him with their knife. It is not about gun control. It is about removing the means and protection to defend yourself.
The Abe gun was two pieces of pipe with what looks like a battery ignition system. Two shots only. Home Depot special.
The assassin’s weapon looks like a double barreled zip gun. Except, if conventional cartridges (required for zip gun) can’t be obtained, then it would likely be something like a muzzle loader with separate powder and an improvised ignition method. Two shots and you are finished.
It’s very hard to tell what is on the officer’s hip, but it might be a leather pistol holster with some unusual white or silver object covering part of the holster’s bottom.
Nonapod,
Despite Bidet’s incoherence, it seems to me that he was comparing the current US gun death rate of 3-4k to Japan’s rate of one. Nor does it matter how inaccurate Biden’s ‘facts’ may be, his point is that if the American public is disarmed, eventually we will be as free of “gun violence” as is Japan.
When liberal tyranny arrives in Japan, as it surely will, its citizens will have no more recourse to redress of grievance than do China’s enslaved populace.
Oops.
As Neo pointed out- the regular/patrol the neighborhood cops in Japan, carry handguns for their duties.
On another page on this site, I said that they did not.
Dang. Well, that’s what I get for reading too many Japanese comic books, that have settings in, “most-cops-don’t-carry-guns-England”!
*looks sheepish* 🙂
I’m guessing that-
the regular, Japanese police officers, carry Nambu [tm] revolvers.
I think the Nambu revolvers carry 5-6 bullets in them.
I wonder if these police use the Wild West idea of:
“If you can’t do the job with 6 shots, then you probably can’t do it at all.”
(I think that was a motto made, to get people to practice their marksmanship.) Hm.
The cop in the last picture has a holster, possibly for a pistol of some sort.
One thing to understand about Japan is that it is homogeneous or nearly so. Homogeneous societies invariably have low crime rates and high trust in their fellow citizens. This is probably why the perpetrator was able to get so close to Abe.
I wonder what the criminal penalties are for the Japanese equivalent of capital murder?
Yawrate–
Japan has capital punishment–“applied in practice only for aggravated murder, although it is also permitted for certain crimes against the state, such as treason and military insubordination, as well as kidnapping resulting in death. Executions are carried out by long drop hanging, and take place at one of the seven execution chambers located in major cities across the country.”
There are presently 107 prison inmates on the Japanese version of Death Row, and about 80% of the public is in favor of keeping the death penalty.
The opposition leader in Japan was assassinated in 1960. The weapon was a ceremonial sword. Life magazine caught an image of the man attempting to ward off a second thrust.
https://mmc.tirto.id/image/share/fb/2018/03/03/pembunuhan-inejiro-asanuma–istimewa.jpg
https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x9serd
In 2018, there were only 334 murders in all of Japan, a country with 128 million people. In the U.S., with over 300 million people, there were 16,214. Crime is out of control here. Some years back a lawyer pointed out that Japan has strict gun laws and people can’t obtain guns so this must be the reason the murder rate is so low. A commenter pointed out that Japan also has low rates of assault and rape. This must be because Japan makes it impossible for people to obtain hands, feet and penises.
The police have recovered several other weapons of similar design from the assassins home. I don’t think they’ve formally identified the propellant, but they’re not firearms.
It appears he’d used components from a electrically actuated propellant detonator, or perhaps a deflagrating charge – i.e. rapid combustion. He’d served in the Japanese Maritime Force and may have become familiar with similar components used to inflate flotation devices and in underwater demolition. Less powerful versions can be found in car airbag systems.
Those were screwed into one end of each pipe and their lead wires were connected to a power switch – shrapnel of some sort was then added to the pipe. It was basically a blunderbuss driven by the pressure of their discharge. That’s what produced the large cloud of white gas that can be briefly seen in some coverage. Unfortunately after the first shot either missed or failed to reach Abe, the assassin was able to get close enough for the second to hit him.
And for all the reasons mentioned. That is the reason I have seen so little about this in the press.
Abe was the prime minister less than two years ago. And was currently campaigning. This is the type of thing the press would normally go full on board with story after story.
But as noted it happened in a country that has very low gun violence and strict gun laws. So any real outcry would damage the lefts preferred narrative. Especially when you point out that it appears he made the gun himself. It illustrates that their “solutions” to gun crimes really do not work.
Add in the fact that Abe was very anti China. And I see plenty of reasons why they are treating this in a very matter of fact way
Related:
From the media goons at NPR…
‘NPR Denigrates Slain Shinzo Abe As “Divisive Arch Conservative” ‘—
https://www.zerohedge.com/political/npr-denigrates-slain-shinzo-abe-divisive-arch-conservative
It happened that I was opening a new bottle of sake last night and had gotten a couple of traditional sake cups recently. The first use to which I put these was to drink to the peace (hopefully) of PM Abe’s soul.