One of the things I find amusing about American Conservatives is how quickly immigration laws must be reformed when immigrants commit crimes; but how quiet they are on gun laws when well-rooted American citizens shoot up schools, churches, and country music festivals.
The end result is that the United States has more mass shootings, and gun violence in general, than virtually anywhere else in the world.
Japan has none. Here’s why.
If the video doesn’t load automatically, you can watch it here.
One of the cases often made against gun control in America is that Chicago has some of the strictest laws, but high rates of gun violence. This reminds me of the chicken and the egg situation.
Which one came first? The terrible gun violence? Or the laws to curb the issue? But does it even matter? Is the intelligent response to a failing system, no system at all?
Jamaica, for instance, has a serious problem with gun violence in volatile communities. But like Japan and Britain, we have strict gun laws.
In Jamaica, you must learn how to shoot before you can own a gun. You must have a spotless record. You must successfully pass a test. And you must have a very good reason to own one.
Hunters and business owners make up the bulk of legal gun owners in Jamaica. Non-citizens are not allowed to own or carry guns (though I think they made an exception for the FBI and CIA agents who make frequent appearances on the island).
Does this help to stem the influx of illegal guns from Haiti and Miami? No. Is the answer simply to make no attempts at gun control at all? No. Will we be banning migrants from Miami and Haiti as a result? Or blame other countries and their nationals for our problems? No.
The police force (or at least, the good ones) focuses a good bit of its effort on finding and seizing illegal weapons on the island. There is no one-size fits all solution for a problem like this, and blaming others is never the answer.
