Common Sense? CBS Urges U.S. Adopt Japan’s Occupation-Era Gun Control

June 6th, 2022 1:15 PM

On Monday’s CBS Mornings, the network continued their series globetrotting for gun control laws. This time they left Europe and jetted over to Japan where senior foreign correspondent (and friend to the Iranian regime) Elizabeth Palmer touted their oppressive system where a citizen could wait a year or longer to get a gun license as authorities prod their lives and a gun shop owners need to get permission to buy ammo. All imposed on them during the post-WWII occupation.

So much for “common sense” gun laws.

“As the U.S. gun-control debate intensifies, some Americans are looking overseas for ideas on how to prevent mass shootings. Japan has one of the lowest rates of gun violence in the world,” co-host Nate Burleson announced at the top of the segment. “Seems like it's about time we adopt some of those laws,” he pushed at the end.

Hanging out with Japanese YouTuber Raphael at a skeet shooting range, Palmer praised the “mandatory training” citizen had to go through, in addition to a “written exam, a physical and a mental health evaluation, and even then the police can go and ask your family and friends whether you've got any violent tendencies.”

"It took me a year," Raphael told her. She also noted, “the police had even interviewed his wife.”

 

 

She also touted how Japanese citizens were only allowed to buy firearms from three categories and the ridiculous fact that gun store owners needed permission to restock ammunition:

He's proud of the buck he shot in northern Japan with a rifle, one of only three types of guns a civilian can own. Air guns are also allowed, he said, as shotguns, but that's it.

I've heard that there's very strict control on ammunition, as well. I see you have some rounds here in the cabinet.

"Yes," he tells me. "When a gun owner runs out he needs police authorization to buy more."

“Does he think the law goes too far? Not a bit. Like most Japanese, he supports it as the price for almost zero gun violence,” she boasted.

Palmer was absolutely giddy to note that the reason Japan had such strict gun control laws was because of the United States. “And how's this for ironic? Japan owes its strict gun laws to America,” she mocked. “When the U.S. occupied Japan after World War II it disarmed the country.”

She even threw in a soundbite from an old documentary where the narrator proclaimed: “To the scrap heap went the guns.” Palmer conveniently omitted the part where the U.S. also banned Japan from having a military.

“Americans shaped the legislation that took firearms out of the hands of civilians, and to this day, that means getting hurt or killed by a gun in Japan is an extremely long shot,” she jabbed as she wrapped up the report.

Palmer is essentially praising the American confiscation of firearms for there to be a smoother occupation and pacification of a citizenry, the exact opposite of what the founders intended. And given the fact that the Democratic Roosevelt administration put Japanese-American citizens in internment camps, perhaps looking to that era for guidance is ill-advised.

This push for occupation-era gun control measures was made possible because of lucrative sponsorships from Dr. Scholl’s and Apple. Their contact information is linked.

The transcript is below, click "expand" to read:

CBS Mornings
June 6, 2022
7:41:04 a.m. Eastern

NATE BURLESON: As the U.S. gun-control debate intensifies, some Americans are looking overseas for ideas on how to prevent mass shootings. Japan has one of the lowest rates of gun violence in the world. Take a look at the stark comparison. The U.S. has more than four firearm homicides per 100,000 people compared to almost zero in Japan. Elizabeth Palmer reports on the surprising origin of gun restrictions placed on Japanese citizens.

[Cuts to video]

ELIZABETH PALMER: Raphael, a well-known Japanese YouTuber, is also ex-military. But before taking up skeet shooting with instructor Takashi Maeda, he had to get a gun license which in Japan is an ordeal.

There's mandatory training. You have to pass a written exam, a physical and a mental health evaluation, and even then the police can go and ask your family and friends whether you've got any violent tendencies.

From the time you began the process until you got your license, how long did it take?

"It took me a year," he said, and told me the police had even interviewed his wife.

Japanese police do carry handguns, but they're the own ones who can have them, and they are rarely drawn. The Ozawa gun shop in Tokyo is open afternoons only. Katsumi Fakuda, the owner, offered to show me around. Is that you?

KATSUMI FAKUDA: Yes.

PALMER: Wow.

He's proud of the buck he shot in northern Japan with a rifle, one of only three types of guns a civilian can own. Air guns are also allowed, he said, as shotguns, but that's it.

I've heard that there's very strict control on ammunition, as well. I see you have some rounds here in the cabinet.

"Yes," he tells me. "When a gun owner runs out he needs police authorization to buy more."

Does he think the law goes too far? Not a bit. Like most Japanese, he supports it as the price for almost zero gun violence. And how's this for ironic? Japan owes its strict gun laws to America.

NARRATOR: The machines themselves had to be destroyed.

PALMER: When the U.S. occupied Japan after World War II it disarmed the country.

NARRATOR: To the scrap heap went the guns.

PALMER: Americans shaped the legislation that took firearms out of the hands of civilians and to this day that means getting hurt or killed by a gun in Japan is an extremely long shot. For CBS Mornings, Elizabeth Palmer, Tokyo.

[Cuts back to live]

BURLESON: Seems like it's about time we adopt some of those laws.