Hacker News Reader

While the gun laws are strict, you can get a licence for hunting or sport. Requirements include testing, demonstration of safe usage, separate safes for gun and ammunition and possible random police checks on your gun and storage.

Shotguns are most common. Rifles are rarer but possible with a history of ownership of a shotgun.

View on HN

Sure, but I assume this wasn't out in the countryside either. I can't imagine it would be easy to get close with a shotgun or rifle.

It was in Nara which is a reasonably big city but has lots of surrounding rural areas. According to NHK, police are saying it may have been a shotgun (the article has been edited multiple times and it's even less sure of that then when I left my comment).

If it was a shotgun it certainly looks modified if it's a shotgun.

Yeah I just saw the photo. I guess that was just the first impression they had when they were asked by the news?

I'm not sure hunting deer in Nara is allowed (it IS known a "deer city" and deer freely roam the streets. Maybe permitted outside of the city), but of all places where someone could have a shotgun - Nara is definitely one of them.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com