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Comment by slightwinder | Hacker News Reader

Violence in Japan is so low, something like that is just outside their normal reality. It's more likely to see some malfunctioning tech, than experience a real gun fired. And with all the smoke, that's what people probably thought at first, that some tech went haywire.

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> something like that is just outside their normal reality

It's the case in most developed countries I believe.

Yes. I've never had a gun in my hands or saw/heard one being fired and don't know anyone who has.

Same for most non-developed countries I imagine.

Until I was 42, I had never seen a real gun except on the belt of a police officer. I lived near an Army barracks for a decade and never saw a soldier carrying a gun.

In my twenties one of the crazy types at work brought a very realistic replica gun to work. He's the type that in some countries would bring a real gun to work, but here... it was just a toy to freak people out with.

His strange proclivities weren't what really freaked me out. The toy gun did. I could name the manufacturer instantly when I saw it. I knew how every part worked, and what every part was called. I could operate it without difficulty or confusion. I knew that it had a grip safety, a manual safety, and a trigger safety. I knew what all of those meant. I knew how to reload it, and what to do to release the slide from its locked-back position.

It was like... a dragon.

We've all seen dragons on TV and read about them in books. We can describe a dragon in detail. We can talk about their behaviour, their capabilities, and their nature. Most of us can name specific dragons.

But they're a thing of myth, not something real.

Until some guy brings a dragon to work and you realise that they aren't just figments of our imagination.

Somewhere out there, there's a country where every second person has a dragon like we have dogs here.

There must be a lot of fires there instead of just... barking.

> It's more likely to see some malfunctioning tech, than experience a real gun fired. And with all the smoke, that's what people probably thought at first, that some tech went haywire.

What the hell did he shoot him with it, a relic musket from a Sengoku Jidai display? I don't think I've ever seen or heard anything like that outside of military battle reenactments, with all that smoke it sounds like a cannon more than a gun.

Abenomics would always end up this way, Japan has been facing an ACTUAL existential crisis since the end of the bubble era. You know you messed up when you made these people go from Karoshi to assassination.

It's a self-made gun.

> It's a self-made gun.

I guess that sort of makes sense, but even then DD's Liberator from 8 years ago was a far better option to go for here.

"better option" in what possible way?

I'm very sorry to say this homemade gun did exactly the job it was intended to do.

Terrible news. :(

You're forgetting that he also had to make his own ammo. A black powder shotgun is the easiest firearm to make from scratch if you have that constraint.

I read elsewhere that authorities think the gun was homebuilt as guns are so rare and hard to get in Japan.

It was literally two pipes strapped to what looks like a block of wood.

Abe is the sixth Japanese PM assassinated.

I don't think these people were in the same area all those times.

Let's put that in context shall we: the last Japanese PM assassination before Abe was close to 100 years ago.

Technically true, but looking it up, it seems the last PM was killed in 1936. Additionally, in the 192x and 193x many high ranking politicians died, of which were many PM or former PM.

Could you list them please? Some googling got me the following, which includes survivors and non prime-ministers.

* November 14, 1930, Yukio Hamaguchi

* May 15, 1932, 11 Prime Minister Takeshi Inuyo

* July 14, 1960, Nobusuke Kishi (survived an assassination attempt)

* October 12, 1960, left-wing Japanese Rep. Inajiro Asanuma

* October 25, 2002, Ishii Hiroki (opposition leader)

* April 17, 2007, the mayor of Nagasaki, Kazucho Ito

* July 2022: Shinzo Abe

I started with

https://www.tellerreport.com/news/2022-07-08-looking-back-on...

2022 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shinzo_Abe

1936 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sait%C5%8D_Makoto

1936 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Takahashi_Korekiyo (same incident as previous)

1932 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inukai_Tsuyoshi

1931 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hamaguchi_Osachi (initially survived assassination attempt, but succumbed to his wounds)

1921 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hara_Takashi

1909 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/It%C5%8D_Hirobumi

Fireworks are also everywhere and used for many occasions, easy to mistake that sound for a fire cracker.

I think this comment is irrelevant. I would not explain this unresponsiveness in this way. The video is truly one of the weirdest videos I've ever seen.

The gun has a bizarre sound, I think I’d be confused and bewildered hearing that right behind me too.

It was a DIY gun.

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