Shinzo Abe death: Japan, with a population of 125 million, had just 10 gun-related criminal cases last year, resulting in one death and four injuries, according to police. Eight of those cases were gang-related.
News that former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe had been assassinated in broad daylight Friday shocked not only Japan but the entire world, which has come to associate the relatively low-crime nation with strict gun control.
The assassination of former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe shocked a world that has come to associate Japan with relatively low crime and strict gun control. The suspect apparently circumvented the nation’s tight gun regulations by building his own weapon. Police say the 15-inch (40-centimeter) device was obviously homemade. One expert compared it to a muzzle-loading gun. Authorities confiscated similar weapons when they raided the suspect’s nearby one-room apartment. Abe was shot in the back while campaigning in the city of Nara for candidates for his governing party. He died at a hospital, two days ahead of parliamentary elections.
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