Editorials Archive
June 25, 2001

The Right To Bear Kitchen Knives

The news out of Japan can’t be good for gun ownership opponents. Beyond the
obvious point that no one wants innocent people to be murdered, advocates
for gun control must also face the reality that a killing spree can happen
without the use of a gun.

Earlier this month, a 37-year-old man dashed into an Osaka, Japan, suburb
elementary school with a kitchen knife. With the 6-inch blade, the man
killed eight children and wounded 15 other children and two teachers.

With only a kitchen knife, the man murdered or injured more than half the
number of people killed or injured by the two teen-age maniacs at Columbine
High School in Colorado two years ago. In other words, a second man in the
Japanese school equally bent on destruction would have brought about more
carnage without guns than the two boys wielding automatic weapons did in
Colorado.

Of all the tragic examples gun control advocates use to argue for more laws
affecting firearm ownership, the nightmare in Japan clearly shows that the
weapon doesn’t kill; the person holding the weapon does.

Despite a law against gun ownership in Japan, people are getting killed.

Clearly Japan’s approach to stamping out violence by eliminating gun
ownership is not a model we should follow. Not only because such a measure
would contradict our Constitution, but also because it doesn’t address the
real reason why people are killed.

People with a mind set for murder are to blame. Laws should not be created
to treat the symptom, but rather the disease. Existing laws need to be
enforced. Existing penalties must be imposed. Stiffer punishments must be
carried out.

The man who stabbed the Japanese children is a perfect example of how a
liberal and lenient judicial system bears part of the blame. He should not
have been free to carry out the massacre. While working as a janitor at an
Osaka elementary school he was accused of drugging water used to make tea at
the school. A judge found him mentally incompetent and he was admitted to a
mental hospital. A few weeks later he was released. His second chance,
unfortunately, meant eight innocent children had no chance.

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