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> Plus, being from the 1970s, no attempt was made to make this look like a toy. This probably isn't just a '70s thing, but a Japan thing. Even today, toy guns
by curtisf 2y ago
> Plus, being from the 1970s, no attempt was made to make this look like a toy.
This probably isn't just a '70s thing, but a Japan thing.
Even today, toy guns in Japan don't have the tell-tale orange tips or plastic-y appearance; they try to look as real as they (cheaply) can.
While walking up some stairs in a public park, I once stepped over a toy gun left on the edge of the steps. Being an American, the sight of a pistol just left lying in the open a step in front of me gave me quite a momentary shock, before I remembered what country I was in.
My understanding is that this is because real guns are so uncommon in Japan, people generally wouldn't make the assumption that they're not toys.
Supposedly it has the added safety benefit of dissuading would-be-robbers from using firearms in robberies, because even confronted with a real firearm, the victims would assume it's a toy rather than the real thing, and so it wouldn't be as effective of a threat.
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- mike_hock 2y agoA little demonstration would take care of that.
- crazygringo 2y ago> the victims would assume it's a toy rather than the real thing, and so it wouldn't be as effective of a threat. I dunno... I was once mugged by a guy holding a gun that I was probably 95% sure didn't work. It was a pistol that was rusted and filthy and looked like he'd found it in the ocean or something... Nevertheless I have him what (small) money I had. I don't think a lot of people are willing to risk their life on the chance a gun might be a toy, you know?
- thsksbd 2y agoThere are basically no guns in Japan.
- curtisf 2y agoThe homicide rate in Japan is extremely low, owing largely to the extreme small number of firearms in the country: approximately 0.2% of the population own firearms (compared to 40% ish of US households) In a country of 125 million, there are only single-digit numbers of gun homicides each year. (The USA has about 20k, with a population a bit more than double at 333 million; about 800x the rate in Japan) It wouldn't even cross anyone's mind that it is a real gun.
- jojobas 2y agoAmericans intentionally kill more people with non-gun means (per capita per year) than either the Japanese or say Europeans or Australians total. Whatever their problem is, it's not guns.
- hiccuphippo 2y agoYes, the guns just helps with scale.
- idunnoman1222 2y ago‘owing largely’ is doing a lot of heavy lifting here have you been to the US or Japan?