TOKYO: It has been said that if you ban guns, only illegals will have guns, but that is not true in Japan, which has some of the strictest laws on books that ban possession of weapons and still imposes sanctions. harder to use. If you shoot a gun at someone here, you’re likely to spend more than 20 years in prison. Severe sanctions even deter the yakuza, Japan’s organized crime unions, from using firearms. In 2017, there were only three people killed by gunfire nationwide.
But humans will always find ways to kill each other, and as it turns out, when you ban guns in Japan, outlaws will resort to other deadly weapons, such as crossbows.
Thwack.
Now, the Japanese government is considering banning most people from buying, selling or owning these arrows and semi-automatic arrows. After a series of terrible crimes with the use of weapons, there are now pending revisions to Japan’s laws that will limit their use to sporty and reassuring animals. The new revisions are expected to be approved in the current session of parliament.
The new laws will be retroactive, so outlaws who were planning wrongdoing with their crossbow practices will have to hand them over to authorities, get a permit, or be punished in prison. If you plan on making a shot of being a green (homicidal) real-life arrow, think twice. The penalties for using it as a weapon are likely to be severe. However, if you use a crossbow for a legitimate purpose, such as crossbow shooting, you will be allowed to hold it. Yes permission is granted.
There have been several horrific murders over the past decade that provided the impetus to crack down on the handling of these potential weapons. According to the Japan National Police Agency, there have been 32 cases of crossbows in crime in the last ten years, with six people killed and 11 injured.
Of these murders, the most horrific was a familicide that left three people dead and one person in critical condition.
Last summer, Hideaki Nozu, a troubled 23-year-old living in the western Japanese city of Takarazuka, allegedly bought a crossbow and used it to shoot his entire family. According to reports from Diary of Sankei and other Japanese media, he was murdered on the morning of June 4 and shot his little brother twice in the remote bathroom, his mother in the living room and his 75-year-old grandmother in his bedroom. .
Each shot was fired into the head and pierced the skull. Later that day, he summoned his aunt to the house. When he arrived and opened the door, he shot him in the neck at the entrance. He ran out of the house with the arrow still around his neck and called for help. After successfully removing one of the arrows, his younger brother was still breathing when police arrived, but died at a hospital seven hours later.
During a period of self-imposed isolation and possible mental illness, Nozu allegedly accused his family of all his problems, including having to drop out of college because he could not afford tuition. He was charged with murder and attempted murder and reportedly told police that with the goal of killing his entire family, he had practiced crossbowing at home several times before starting his plan.
Crossbow killings triggered a large number of crimes against cats. An incident on July 26 prompted Hyogo Prefecture to issue an ordinance restricting sales and ownership of crossbows. She was an unemployed housewife who shot her husband with a crossbow while sleeping. Luckily for her husband, the arrow just shaved her head and she woke up before her wife could finish the job trying to cut her throat with a kitchen knife. The crossbowwoman told police investigators that after losing her job and being trapped at home due to the pandemic she had become increasingly irritable. She had heard of the murders committed in June this month and decided to buy her own crossbow to use on her husband.
The following month another incident occurred: a 28-year-old unemployed woman used a crossbow to shoot a senior social worker, piercing his right arm. Fortunately, he was alive and the assailant was arrested for attempted murder.
Under pending laws, crossbows, commonly known as “bow weapons” or “western bows and arrows” in Japan, although officially called crossbows in parliament, will be strictly defined as a bow that uses a mechanism. lock by Hold down the rope after it has been drawn and you can release an arrow with enough force to hurt a living human.
Nine months after the crossbow bill becomes law, citizens who want to get their hands on guns will need to get permission from the local public safety commission and keep the bows closed when not in use. The use of a crossbow will only be allowed on shooting ranges and in other special places. Recently released ex-convicts, drug addicts and under-18s will not be allowed to have crossbows.
Illegal possession of a crossbow can be punished with a prison sentence of up to three years or a fine of up to 500,000 yen (about $ 5,000). Restrictions on the purchase and sale of crossbows are being adjusted as the bill is heading towards completion, but crossbow dealers who do not do proper background checks or do not confirm whether the buyer is licensed will have to go through to six months in prison a fine of up to $ 2,000.
If there was a National Crossbow Association in Japan, they would be smoking. The Daily Beast asked the National Bowgun Shooting Association to comment on the pending law, but from the press they had not responded.