6 ms·

Surprising that this happened in Japan, which has very low levels of gun crime.

by achenet 4y ago

m000 4y ago
How is that surprising? This was a targetted political assassination. Very little correlation with gun crime rates.
- mi_lk 4y ago
  > targeted political assassination do we really know already?
  - pjc50 4y ago
    You can infer that from who the victim is and no other information. It's not exactly "was shot accidentally in a convenience store robbery".
  - permo-w 4y ago
    how are you defining targeted?
  - waffleiron 4y ago
    > Police say the suspect told investigators that he was dissatisfied with the former prime minister and intended to kill him. https://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/en/news/20220708_37/ https://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/en/news/20220708_37/
  - hnbad 4y ago
    You're right. Maybe the guy with the homemade shotgun just shot the ex-PM by accident while trying to engage in unrelated gun crimes at a public appearance of the ex-PM -- or maybe he wanted to shoot him for non-political reasons (scorned lover?). We can't know for sure that this was a targeted political assassination attempt.
adwww 4y ago
Not really, it's almost like the negative correlation makes this possible. America has very high rates of violent crime, and because of that, assassinating a former president would be really difficult.
- deleted 4y ago
  [deleted]
- bigDinosaur 4y ago
  The American president also immediately becomes ultra famous the second they're elected in a way that most leaders don't, so they're definitely bigger targets regardless of America's crime rate.
- pjc50 4y ago
  It seems to have happened quite a lot. Far more so than almost any other country? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_United_States_presidential_assassination_attempts_and_plots https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_United_States_presiden...
  - drstewart 4y ago
    >Far more so than almost any other country Source for this assertion? Just Japan's page alone has more assassinated politicians: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Assassinated_Japanese_politicians https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Assassinated_Japanese...
    - waffleiron 4y ago
      You are comparing a list of presidents to a list of any Japanese politician, the wiki page you linked has mayors, governors, diplomates and at least one business man, and a few people who died before the US was founded.
      - drstewart 4y ago
        And he's comparing a list of US president assassinations to absolutely nothing. So why are you calling my comparison out, when it's directly refuting his claim? Show me the source showing the US has more assassinations than anywhere else in the world. Because a list of 4 assassinated Presidents over 300 years doesn't make that obvious to me. Thanks in advance for your no-doubt quick cooperation to cite sources.
mytailorisrich 4y ago
Japan has a rather long history of political violence. "levels of gun crime" is an irrelevant metric here. It was not even an actual gun (which probably illustrates how hard it must be to find a firearm in Japan).
- vanattab 4y ago
  >It was not even an actual gun. I mean... I seems like a real gun to me.

Surprising that this happened in Japan, which has very low levels of gun crime.

m000 4y ago

How is that surprising? This was a targetted political assassination. Very little correlation with gun crime rates.

mi_lk 4y ago
> targeted political assassination do we really know already?
- pjc50 4y ago
  You can infer that from who the victim is and no other information. It's not exactly "was shot accidentally in a convenience store robbery".
- permo-w 4y ago
  how are you defining targeted?
- waffleiron 4y ago
  > Police say the suspect told investigators that he was dissatisfied with the former prime minister and intended to kill him. https://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/en/news/20220708_37/ https://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/en/news/20220708_37/
- hnbad 4y ago
  You're right. Maybe the guy with the homemade shotgun just shot the ex-PM by accident while trying to engage in unrelated gun crimes at a public appearance of the ex-PM -- or maybe he wanted to shoot him for non-political reasons (scorned lover?). We can't know for sure that this was a targeted political assassination attempt.

adwww 4y ago

Not really, it's almost like the negative correlation makes this possible. America has very high rates of violent crime, and because of that, assassinating a former president would be really difficult.

deleted 4y ago
[deleted]
bigDinosaur 4y ago
The American president also immediately becomes ultra famous the second they're elected in a way that most leaders don't, so they're definitely bigger targets regardless of America's crime rate.
pjc50 4y ago
It seems to have happened quite a lot. Far more so than almost any other country? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_United_States_presidential_assassination_attempts_and_plots https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_United_States_presiden...
- drstewart 4y ago
  >Far more so than almost any other country Source for this assertion? Just Japan's page alone has more assassinated politicians: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Assassinated_Japanese_politicians https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Assassinated_Japanese...
  - waffleiron 4y ago
    You are comparing a list of presidents to a list of any Japanese politician, the wiki page you linked has mayors, governors, diplomates and at least one business man, and a few people who died before the US was founded.
    - drstewart 4y ago
      And he's comparing a list of US president assassinations to absolutely nothing. So why are you calling my comparison out, when it's directly refuting his claim? Show me the source showing the US has more assassinations than anywhere else in the world. Because a list of 4 assassinated Presidents over 300 years doesn't make that obvious to me. Thanks in advance for your no-doubt quick cooperation to cite sources.

mytailorisrich 4y ago

Japan has a rather long history of political violence. "levels of gun crime" is an irrelevant metric here. It was not even an actual gun (which probably illustrates how hard it must be to find a firearm in Japan).

vanattab 4y ago
>It was not even an actual gun. I mean... I seems like a real gun to me.