Quote:Ayiekie wrote:I feel pretty much the same way about it myself. The Japanese seem to have a similar attitude in regards to scaling responsibility - penalties for traffic accidents are extreme, to the point where all drivers involved in an accident are considered at fault because if you carry a license to drive, then you are considered, in the eyes of Japanese law, to be a professional driver.
I'm not really anti-gun-ownership (I'm very ambivalent about it), but if you're going to let private citizens tote handguns, then they should be required to be extensively trained, tested and certified in their use. And anyone convicted of using them irresponsibly should have them taken away for life. That's not really much more onerous than the laws about driving cars, and I see no reason why handguns should not be more heavily regulated than cars.
Same applies to guns in the Land of the Rising Sun. Pretty much banned outright, though I think there is some hunting allowed. If so, I'm pretty sure the laws regarding hunting rifles have even heavier penalties than those for traffic accidents.
Oh, one other interesting note about Japan, and a another possible reason why violent crime is rare here: approval for the death penalty in this country has never once dropped below fifty percent in their entire history as a democratically rulled country. And though rare, they will put someone between the ages of eighteen (considered adulthood in most 1st World Nations) and twenty (adulthood in Japan) on Death Row if the offense is severe enough.