What a tragedy... and to children,in a nation that prides itself on its non-violence.
However, this DOES do a lot to dispell the myth that a knife (as opposed to a handgun) cannot be used as a weapon of mass-killing.
-------------------- "The best defense is not a good offense. The best defense is a terrifyingly accurate and devastatingly powerful offense, with multiply-overlapping kill zones and time-on-target artillery strikes." -- Laurence, Archangel of the Sword
posted
Yeah. I just heard about that too. I would expect something like this in America, but it's a bit of a surprise to something like this happen in Japan.
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Shik
Starship database: completed; History of Starfleet: done; website: probably never
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posted
There is a rant coming on this. I'll link to it forthwith.
-------------------- "The French have a saying: 'mise en place'—keep everything in its fucking place!"
Registered: Jun 2000
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- If I'm correct, this is the FIRST incident of this type in this decade, if not FIRST in Japanese history.
- Carried out by PSYCHOTIC ADULT, not TROUBLED TEENAGER!
- KNIFE instead of GUN
Japanese plan on making this type of incident HISTROY. With all due respect, good US of A only started to pay real attention after Columbine, who knows how many kids are killed in the ghetto before and after Columbine that never hit the news.
Plus Columbine only hit national because of the sear "magnitude" of the incident.
This accident shows that a pycho somehow got lose, not that the Japanese are "violent", or failed as a peaceful race! we can not linked the behaviour of some crazy bastard to some deep sociological failings of Japanese society!
Columbine and repeated incidents after Columbine on the other hands, shows that North American has failed their children in basic education and moral standard.
In my opinion, Japanese have nothing to worry about, North Americans on the other hands, should really starting to do something about their education.
[ June 09, 2001: Message edited by: BlueElectron ]
-------------------- "George Washington said, 'I cannot tell a lie.' Richard Nixon said, 'I cannot tell the truth.' Bill Clinton said, 'I cannot tell the difference.'"
-- comedian TOM SMOTHERS, from his latest stage act with brother DICK SMOTHERS.
posted
It's because Japanese people have smaller penises. They become less violent than their North American counterparts. This leeds to shattered self-confidence in some because their wife will bang the American next door, and makes him kill school-children as an outlet.
If anyone thought I was being serious then he/she is in serious need of treatment Watch South Park, it'll all become clear. Oh, by the way I have no comment on the actual situation, I just watched that episode of South Park a while ago, and I felt like posting
-------------------- Me- Hi Jen! What's up! Jen- You again??!?! Listen kid, I'm not interested in you. Stop bothering me, I'm a lot older than you and I have a boyfriend. How did you find my ICQ number anyways? Me- Oh, so just cuz you're a movie star now, and you're new album made millions, you think you're too good for me? Jen- Yes!!! Get it thorough your head! I am a person, I am not Jennifer Lopez the hottest woman on earth that everyone wants to sleep with, I'm a person, leave me alone!!! Me- Fine! Be that way! Me- Jen.... Where'd you go.... I love you... please come back.... please....
"Ah, You American, American have big penis, big big penis!"
-------------------- "George Washington said, 'I cannot tell a lie.' Richard Nixon said, 'I cannot tell the truth.' Bill Clinton said, 'I cannot tell the difference.'"
-- comedian TOM SMOTHERS, from his latest stage act with brother DICK SMOTHERS.
posted
Oh. My. God. How completely irrelevant and derogatory.
Regarding the incident: I find the situation horrifying...but not altogether out of place, which is probably the most frightening aspect. It appears he was mentally ill, and thank God he only had a knife and not some sort of projectile weapon. (I say "only," but I am not attempting to undermine the seriousness of the attack.)
-------------------- "A celibate clergy is an especially good idea because it tends to suppress any hereditary propensity toward fanaticism."
posted
My opinions on guns are probably to the right of many, but how morally bankrupt do you have to be to take every single instance of violent tragedy and turn it into an excuse for some polemical rant about Second Amendment issues?
Registered: Mar 1999
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posted
I suppose I should clarify, because I am not calling First or anyone else morally bankrupt, because I do not believe anyone here is.
My concern is that, on this and other issues, we, and by we I mean the body politic in general, become so attached to our ideas and causes and slogans that we often forget that there are real people on the other end.
posted
It's true. I don't exempt myself from that. There was a time (when I was about 4), when I could awe myself by the mere existence of the four people in my house.
My parents and my sister would be off doing something, and I would think, "there are four different people here, each one of them doing different things, thinking different things, being ALIVE. Seeing, hearing, feeling, touching, experiencing things in their own little bubble of existence. And in the house next door, three more people. In the US, hundreds of millions. In the world, billions! Each of us going about our daily lives... How many of them are wondering the same thing I am? How many are hurt? How many are being loved? How many are happy? How many are sad?" It was an awesome feeling.
I can't do that so well anymore. It's becoming difficult to attach a person with the result of a tragedy.
I used to feel so much pain when I heard about an earthquake, or a tornado, or a hurricane, where hundreds of people died. For the same reasons I could feel awed by the company of four people. Thousands of sparks of life dissappearing in an instant. I would wonder, how many were going to do something special that day? How many were just going to do something normal? How many were young? How many were old? How many people close to them will they never speak to or hear or see or touch or love ever again?
It breaks your heart to think like that. Which is probably why I don't do it anymore.
[ June 08, 2001: Message edited by: Daniel ]
-------------------- "A celibate clergy is an especially good idea because it tends to suppress any hereditary propensity toward fanaticism."
posted
While I agree with Simon in principle, I can't resist this chance for a dig or two:
a)If if hadn't been little kids, there'd have been far fewer (if any) deaths. One stab wound from a charging psycho usually won't kill an adult, but a seven or eight year-old is a different story altogether.
b)The guy was stopped, and will be presumably committed to rehabilitation of some nature. There wasn't a stand-off, nor a hostage-taking, and the police weren't needed to stop the guy.
c)In Japan last year, there were a grand total of nine fatal stabbings last year. 9 out of 130 million people. Those are pretty good numbers. But the gun lobby tells us that when strict gun controls are imposed, deranged individuals will switch to knives and produce similar body counts. So if Japan dropped its stiff gun controls, we'd see 9 deaths from deranged shooters a year instead? Somehow I think that Japan's gun laws are saving more lives than that.
-------------------- "I was surprised by the matter-of-factness of Kafka's narration, and the subtle humor present as a result." (Sizer 2005)
posted
What The_Tom just pointed out for our American friends...
TOTALLY EFFEACTIVE gun control can be done! So none of that "impossible" non-sense!
Next time another shoot-out happened, stop the "bitching and complaining", and think about how it could very well been prevented by BANNING GUNS!
And for those "Government gonna walked all over us if we don't have guns" people, did the Japanese government walked all over their people?
How about "personal freedom" crowd? Well, if you value one "RIGHT" (*NOT freedom, because laws defined in such a way so people can own gun, therefore people have guns, not because it is one of those freedoms people are born with*) above the people that would being saved from shoot-out, then man, your priority should be straighten out.
For those "gonna have to defend myself" dudes, think about what made you have to defend yourself with a gun in the first place. Maybe it's because the "everyone should have one" constitution in the first place? Now, if you're a Japanese citizen, do you think you need a gun to protect yourself?
Constitutions are very much the same at every countries in the world, because constitutions by definition should define a person's FREEDOMS that he was born with. And just how many constitution in the world have that "everyone should own a gun" part? Plus constitution are suppose to be "amended" through the passage of time, now are we still affraid that King George gonna kick our asses? Or are we still in "wild wild west" where every single corners are unexplored frontier fill with hostale Indians?
[ June 09, 2001: Message edited by: BlueElectron ]
-------------------- "George Washington said, 'I cannot tell a lie.' Richard Nixon said, 'I cannot tell the truth.' Bill Clinton said, 'I cannot tell the difference.'"
-- comedian TOM SMOTHERS, from his latest stage act with brother DICK SMOTHERS.
posted
Well, if the children in neighboring classrooms had been armed this never would have happened.
-------------------- Great is the guilt of an unnecessary war. ~ohn Adams
Once again the Bush Administration is worse than I had imagined, even though I thought I had already taken account of the fact that the Bush administration is invariably worse than I can imagine. ~Brad DeLong
You're just babbling incoherently. ~C. Montgomery Burns
Registered: Mar 1999
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posted
Rather than assume that banning guns will eliminate the concept of violence in society, perhaps we should look at why people living in our society want to engage in acts as violent as killing.
Registered: Mar 1999
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posted
Perhaps if we want our society to be as non-violent as the Japanese tend to be, we should take a look at the place things like HONOR, RESPECT and SELF-DISCIPLINE have in their culture, rather than weapons.
It's not the weapons. The Japanese were frightfully GOOD with weapons, a half-century ago. There's no reason to believe that there's been that drastic a change in that aspect of their culture.
-------------------- "The best defense is not a good offense. The best defense is a terrifyingly accurate and devastatingly powerful offense, with multiply-overlapping kill zones and time-on-target artillery strikes." -- Laurence, Archangel of the Sword
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