Can laws eradicate gun violence?

[SecularMotion]

Thousands of people fall victim to gun violence every year. From the mass killing in Norway by Anders Behring Breivik, to the countless school shootings in America, guns in the wrong hands have had devastating consequences for communities worldwide.

So is there anything that we, our politicians and our police can do?

Jake Adelstein, the first guest on this episode of South2North, is an American investigative crime reporter and author based in Japan. His book Tokyo Vice details his time investigating the Japanese mafia and will be turned into a movie next year. He still lives under police protection in Japan.

Adelstein explains how, after World War II, the US disarmed Japan and made gun legislation incredibly strict in order to stabilise the new democracy: “Gun laws in Japan are incredibly strict. It is a crime to fire a gun. It is a crime to own a bullet. It is a crime to own a bullet and a gun that match, that’s an aggravated felony that will get you life in prison. Every aspect of owning and using a gun, other than hunters who have gone through rigorous inspections, who are professional shooters ... You just can’t have a gun in Japan.”

http://www.aljazeera.com/programmes/south2north/2013/06/201366122635588649.html

[tblue]

1. That's the wrong question.

Can a law save a life? Laws haven't eradicated smoking, but they've reduced the number of people smoking. A law can't eradicate anything. It can only make regulate it or make it legal or illegal. .

[Warpy]

2. Of course not. Raging assholes don't read law books.

What laws can do is slow it down considerably by making it much more expensive:

Liability insurance should be required on all guns, a nominal fee on 2 shot hunting rifles in rural areas, exorbitant on Big Ugly Guns with large magazines and no purposes except making the owner feel powerful and hunting other humans.

Tax on ammo. You want less of something, like crossfire, tax the ammo. Tax lead, cordite and black powder, too, so reloaders don't get to dodge the tax.

Nothing will stop it. This will likely slow it down considerably.

[Paladin]

3. The gun militant's "100% solution" tactic got discredited, years ago.

Clearly, there is no way to eradicate all gun-related violence---not with all the guns already available, and not with the ongoing strength of the gun interests. Well-crafted laws can significantly reduce incidents of gun-related deaths and injuries, and that should be our goal. Don't ever fall for the other side's "Hey, there are lots of gun control laws in place, but people keep getting shot---so why don't we just give up and let the Law of the Jungle apply?" deflection technique.

[jimmy the one]

4. lots of shoguns in japan

No of course gun laws cannot eradicate all gun violence, absurd notion, american gun laws were only ever expected, by gun control advocates, to have a marginal benefit in reducing gun crime, like 10 to 15% reduction, that's all.
But I think the article intended, from the japanese perspective of gunbans, how does japan stack up in relative guncrime against US & other guncountries - comparatively did japan nearly 'eradicate' gun violence?

I think the article fell far short of expectations (tho it may only be intro to the video); I delved in expecting to see a statistical comparison between US & Japanese guncrime but not a stat was found (I can't get videos up with my antiquated dial up modem, surely more info in the vid). But the short article devoted near half to some gunnut richard feldman of firearm owners assoc (owns 150 guns) & his thoughts & beliefs on why guns are needed all over da places -'The problem is never the gun per se.' Entrenched in 2ndAmendment mythology is he, but why is he there?

author jake: “Gun laws in Japan are incredibly strict. It is a crime to fire a gun. It is a crime to own a bullet. It is a crime to own a bullet and a gun that match, that’s an aggravated felony that will get you life.. Every aspect of owning and using a gun, other than hunters who have gone through rigorous inspections, who are professional shooters .. You just can’t have a gun in Japan.”

Well it's not totally disallowed, perhaps some pull is needed tho:
The estimated total number of guns held by civilians in Japan is 710,000
The rate of private gun ownership in Japan is 0.61 firearms per 100 people
The number of licensed gun owners in Japan is reported to be 320,000
In Japan, the number of rifles in civilian possession is reported to be 40,539
In Japan, the number of shotguns in civilian possession is reported to be 325,136
There are reportedly 776 handguns in civilian possession in Japan
In a comparison of the rate of private gun ownership in 178 countries, Japan ranked at No. 164 http://www.gunpolicy.org/firearms/region/japan

So we see Japan is a shogun land, er, shotgun land I meant to say, freudian...
Jake wrote of basically hunters allowed guns, so I surmise mostly bird/fowl hunting.

[SecularMotion]

5. The article is just a quick summary of the video

The video is less than 30 minutes long. It starts with an interview of Jake Adelstein in Japan who speaks about the strict gun legislation put in place after WWII and the results. Each police department in japan has a unit solely dedicated to enforcement of gun laws. The second part is an interview with gun lobbyist Richard Feldman who basically reads off a list of NRA talking points. The video finishes with Antony Altbeker who speaks on the efforts to reduce gun violence in South Africa and the Pistorius case.