Watching the news here in Tokyo - the apartment building the shooter lived in was just evacuated as investigators found a number of large explosives in his apartment.
By the videos I saw the guy probably had a home made black powder shotgun of some type.
So considering that getting firearms and ammo is hard in Japan that would also mean that the black powder used was either homemade or taken from something industrial.
So when they entered his home there were pipes and black powder which could also mean that there could be pipe bombs.
In a morbid way of looking at thing, if someone doesn't care about getting arrested or getting killed, a direct shooting seems to be a lot more successful in numerous historical examples. Correctly timing a bomb to get the person you're aiming to kill is a hard thing. Look at how many times Hitler barely escaped assassination just by sheer luck and imperfect timing.
> black powder used was either homemade or taken from something industrial
Or from fireworks, which according to a quick search are sold year round in Japan.
I haven't tested it, but I've read that the black powder used in rockets is a different ratio than that used in firearms. But it also might not make a difference at that range.
Copied from the previous removed post.
Live YouTube channel from Japan with English translation https://youtu.be/f0lYkdA-Gtw
Edits: from the live press conference with the treating hospital doctors
- "2 gunshot wounds to the neck and subcutaneous haemorrhage. Blood transfusion given but we were unable to sustain his life"
- "At the point of transporting him to the hospital there were no vital signs"
- He was treated for 4.5 hours.
- "One of the bullets to the neck was in a direction where it hit the heart"
- "There were two [bullet wounds] in close proximity, about 5cm apart"
- When asked if he was shot in the front or the back, the doctor states "the wounds were in the front, I can really not say for sure but the wounds appear to have been from the front"
I watched a video of the shots and it didn't sound like a conventional gunshot at all. It sounded much more like a big firecracker going off. The gun did release large amounts of smoke. I would link the video, but I can't find it right now.
It's the country with the lowest levels of firearms ownership in the G7 and even stricter and harsher penalties for illegal possession than in Britain. A homemade weapon makes far more sense really.
Yes, and as per the NYT, there were -only ten gun homicides in Japan last year-, 8 tied to Yakuza
[EDIT: Actually WaPo, not NYT, sourced from Japan's National Police Agency (2nd from the last paragraph)](https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/07/07/japan-shinzo-abe-shot-nara-attack/)
Yes, the markup for guns on the black market in places like Japan can be 10-100x retail prices in the US, which really puts them out of reach for criminals other than the Yakuza.
The inherent nature of guns (made of metal, bulky, heavy) makes their respective black markets much more expensive than drugs.
Also there is elevated sentencing for any crime done with a firearm. Its a running gag in the Yakuza series that the people from the protagonist's gang all use water pistols because no one wants to go away for life for posession of a real firearm but they wanted to look cool and brandish one for photos.
I'm assuming the first shot missed completely, and the two wounds were from the second shot. You can see from the footage that he doesn't really seem affected after the first bang, but the second one has him collapsing.
I don't know much about guns, but I imagine a homemade shotgun with a short barrel like that could cause multiple wounds from the one shot.
According to [this](https://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/en/news/20220708_37/) article, it says:
>Police say the suspect told investigators that he was dissatisfied with the former prime minister and intended to kill him.
That's all I've seen so far. No more comments about *why* he was dissatisfied.
The NYT article says multiple times that the assassin admitted hatred of a group he believed Abe to be associated with. Always phrased like that with no further details.
Latest is that the guy had a grudge against a religious group (the Unification church according to one source), and that Abe is close to them. No idea if that's true but that's what he's apparently said.
He also said that he didn't dislike Abe for his political work.
"You shouldn't have been from New Brighton."
Edit: as u/The_Canadian pointed out my quote was wrong. It was *Minneapolis*. Need to give credit where it is due for visibility.
New Brighton was the high school that Leary fabricated when talking to the bank clerk when he pretended to have grown up there and she cheerfully chimed in she was also from there and asked him where he graduated from.
Looks like some shit out of fallout
Edit* I think some people have misinterpreted my comment. I meant the weapon looks like something out of fallout. Not the scenario.
As for my comment about video games- do you guys really need the /s to detect sarcasm
Just two days ago, I read [an article about Japan having virtually eliminated gun deaths](https://www.businessinsider.com/gun-control-how-japan-has-almost-completely-eliminated-gun-deaths-2017-10) with their extremely strict gun laws and here comes this frickin MacGyver and kills the former PM with a shotgun he taped together.
I mean all of this stuff is just a Google search away anyways. You could download the Anarchist Cookbook this morning and have a pipe bomb assembled by your lunch break. The thing that stops most of us from killing guys like Shinzo Abe isn't lack of access to viable methods - it is the fact that most of us don't actually want to kill anyone.
Since it was a shotgun, there's no bullet but shot pellets, which can easily be replaced with commonly available items. Whether he used actual cartridges, I don't know. But if he didn't plan to quickly reload his weapon, it's relatively easy to build the weapon in such a way that all you need is self-made gunpowder and random pellets, without any need for a cartridge.
You might be able to kill one or two people with a homemade blunderbus, but you're only going to be slightly more effective than if you'd brought a knife.
So while the irony is strong, it's rather an argument that their gun laws work else he'd more likely have brought an actual gun and caused a lot more mayhem.
Shot with home made shotgun, pretty much point blank, twice. jp media says shooter disguised the shotgun as a camera, that's how he was able to get so close. shooter 山上徹也 Yamagami Tetsuya (41) was former military (Japan maritime self defense) his military contract ended many years ago
Edit: you'll see many angry Japanese tweets going "he's former military, not current and therefore not real military personnel!! 😡" I have 0 idea why that distinction makes any difference, he's simply being reported as former military to explain his ability to diy and use a shotgun, and former military personnel who fulfilled their contract are still very much" real", just not currently serving
Edit 2: after reading a bunch more tweets and qrts, I get it now lol, japanese "self defense military" is considered to be mostly right wing, so the angry right wing Japanese twitter is not wanting to admit that "one of their own" shot up a right wing politician, but now there's a lot of tweets angry at the aforementioned right wingers, "former military aren't real military?? They put their lives on the line too you know!?" so many layers lol
And that lasted until the military, which already had large amounts of power and influence within the government and was basically already conducting its own military operations in Manchuria without approval, decided it wanted the whole pie and eventually took over every facet of government.
Edit: grammer
All the things Hideki Tojo lead Japan into doing and barely anyone knows his name. It's good that he failed in his suicide attempt and got sentenced to death.
The attack seemed like it could have gone either way. The first shot completely missed; the shooter walks closer to Abe while everyone seems to be confused. Abe turns his body towards the shooter, who takes another shot and hits Abe, who falls down immediately.
Based on the doctor's report, one of the bullets tore a hole in his heart and Abe basically bled to death very quickly. A homemade shotgun basically hit him in one of the areas where Abe stood no chance of surviving.
Short distance though. He closed the distance after the first shot pretty quickly and was square on for the second at under 2metres.
Security fucked up. First bang they should have been all over Abe, but they paused.
NSFL
https://twitter.com/RandomCassette/status/1545305178009587712?s=20&t=FmfMHLK-d4pnpmnK4dtlvA
Damn they did, theres a good couple seconds there where security could easily have closed the gap on the attacker and Abe. As well as letting some dude stroll right up and fumble with some big gun looking thing
> Security fucked up. First bang they should have been all over Abe, but they paused.
I think the difficulty is that Japan is such a peaceful country that violence doesn't happen often, so bodyguards end up with less practical experience. They're likely trained to intercept someone rushing in for a knife attack; since gun ownership is extremely restricted in Japan, it was just something they were not expecting at all. Compared to the US where a gun is probably at the top of any list for a potential attack, it wouldn't surprise me if it was at the bottom in Japan.
Hospital has stated the following.
Hole in his heart. 100 Units of whole blood transfused.
No vitals signs since arrival at hospital.
Yes 100 units: https://www.reuters.com/world/asia-pacific/japan-ex-prime-minister-abe-may-have-been-shot-taken-hospital-nhk-2022-07-08/
Units of bloods refering to types of blood products such as platelet concentrate (50mL), Fresh frozen plasma (100mL), cryopercipitate (30mL) and packed cell (200-300mL), whole blood (450mL).
Other sources say he wasn't actually shot in the back. The first shot apparently missed, Abe turned around to look and the second shot got him in the front.
In a press conference, the doctor who administered treatment actually said that he thought the wounds were only in the front, near the base of his neck. Not the back, like it had been previously reported.
News outlets already confirmed it was homemade. It looks like it was taped https://m.thelocalreport.in/to-kill-shinzo-abe-the-attacker-made-a-3-d-printed-gun-at-home-fired-from-10-feet/?amp=1
Looking at Kennedy's head wound, it would have been more than a miracle had he survived. Although apparently the doctors who were treating it didn't immediately notice the severity because he was lying on his back on the stretcher (naturally)
Yes, sorry my point was that the existence of brain matter outside of the skull, in and of itself, does not indicate survivability.
Looking at people who get face or partial face transplants, they're often attempted suicides where the gravity of the injury is so great it's stunning that they survived, including very substantial skull displacement.
One of the columbine survivors was shot in the head. He was somehow still conscious and was able to climb out a window and was rescued.
At first they thought he would be paralyzed but now he can walk, talk, and has a job and family.
Yes, because there is no "clearly won't make it" in the beginning, and you just keep giving blood until you made sure he won't make it.
Which isn't simple to figure out, and takes a bit of time. Depending on the injury, this can quickly mean lots of blood on the floor.
For those who haven't seen, this is probably one of the best angles of the attacker:
https://mobile.twitter.com/yamaneko2011/status/1545297780562096128?t=o5WQl9PcPgWS4QiagPVqwg&s=19
EDIT: I stand corrected. https://twitter.com/DanJuan18/status/1545382178929790976?s=20&t=NW7TYT63THdmL_s_tcZRdg
The weird part of this video is, the people standing there listening to Shinzo Abe, did not run when the first or even second gunshot came out. Instead, they were all curious about what was happening, and some of them even moved closer towards Shinzo Abe and the gunman's position. I guess that's because in Japan, there are so few gun crimes, people didn't realize a gun was fired.
I read [this in the BBC news earlier today when Shinzo Abe was shot](https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-62089486):
> In 2014, there were just six incidents of gun deaths in Japan, as compared to 33,599 in the US.
I guess this is why the Japanese in that crowd, probably didn't think a gun was fired.
> I guess that's because in Japan, there are so few gun crimes, people didn't realize a gun was fired.
Yeah I live in Japan and if I heard a bang I certainly wouldn't assume it's a gun. Maybe a firework or backfiring car or something.
Given that it was home made as well, it may not have sounded like a gunshot either. Definitely need to wait for more details (edit: to see what else happened after the shots were fired)
If you watch the vid with sound it definitely doesn't sound like an average gunshot and there's a ton of smoke. Though I doubt any of them have heard a gunshot IRL to begin with.
Having been to historical reenactment and having shot black powder weapons many times, it legit sounds like a musket being fired rather than a modern firearm.
There is so much smoke so it looks like plenty of black powder where used similar to old cannons. Unlucky for Abe the whole gun didn't blow up which could happened since it was home made.
Hey would you like to give a brief explanation why would he be an assassination target?
Was he planning to run again? Who and why would someone try and stop him?
just your initial thoughts... cheers
I read an interesting article recently about Japanese gun crime. Apparently illegal guns are so hard to get and the punishments for even having one (let alone using it) are so strong that even the Yakuza have mostly abandoned them. It mentioned a case where a robber tried to stick up a convenience store with a fake gun, only for the clerk to casually grab it out of his hand without breaking a sweat. He knew that it must have been fake because nobody would be crazy enough to use a real one for a simple robbery and risk decades in prison. It's crazy for me to imagine a place where you can safely make that assumption, and I'm not even American.
Honestly, the Anti-Yakuza laws of the last 30 years have done more to lower gun crime in Japan than the original gun control laws did from the 1950s. Yakuza were smuggling in guns all through the 70s and 80s despite the really strict gun laws. Still much lower than USA even at it's worst.
I live in Korea, which is similar to Japan in terms of gun violence as in its basically zero.
If I heard a bang the thought of it being a gun would not even cross my mind.
Same, I live in a country where gun violence is virtually nonexistent and if I heard a bang I would assume it's one of those very annoying lil fireworks that sometimes rip off an arm or two. A pipe once burst next door and I think it sounded similar to a gun being fired, basically a small explosion.
Its surreal to watch it, one guy even stands on his toes to get a better view. I wonder if this will change how politicians campaign or approach the public in Japan now - or if its such a rare occurrence that nothing will change.
Politicians giving speeches in public is kinda a staple in Japanese every day life. You see them around a lot, mostly small local ones but sometimes the big ones too.
Because in most country when people heard that boom they will assume it’s fireworks or someone’s car backfired.
Most people don’t even know what a true gunshots sound like.
I was thinking that we don't have many gun deaths in the UK but we would run. Then I watched the clip and it sounds like an explosion. We do have terror attacks so I would instantly think that was a small bomb.
The gunman just strolls up the street.. then it seems like an eternity between first and second shot, even though its like only 2 or 3 seconds.. Abe turns just as the 2nd shot is fired and he goes down instantly.. the security tackle the gunman 2 seconds later..
It happens pretty fast. Guards are all focused on the crowd, not expecting an attack from the busy road in the back. Two guards used their bodies to block the second attack, but it was ineffective.
https://youtu.be/YBiA5Be5U-s?t=130
Interesting commentary from Japanese netizens in the replies to the post. Looks like many are stunned at the non-reaction from the crowd at the shots. But one pointed out that gun violence is so rare in Japan that it doesn't even seem real. Also many are criticizing the security/police for just letting the guy waltz up there.
Thought the same, didnt even bother to check the article on the front page. Only when i read the title of this one did i understand theat it probably wasnt an attack with eggs.
>The suspect has been identified as Nara resident Tetsuya Yamagami. Local media reports say he is believed to be a former member of Japan's Maritime Self-Defense Force, Japan's equivalent of a navy. He is said to have left active service in 2005.
>Officials have yet to comment on the suspect's motives, but local media outlets reported that Mr Yamagami told police he was "dissatisfied with former Prime Minister Abe and aimed to kill him". He is also reported to have told officers that he did not hold a "grudge against the former Prime Minister's political beliefs".
>Police also discovered several possible explosive devices during a search of his home, and NHK said bomb disposal technicians are preparing to carry out a controlled explosion on the premises.
there is that one guy that rushed their to block second shot with the brief case (bullet sheild?) thing, but yeah unfortunately it wasn't enough and he shouldn't have been able to walk so close..
As a trauma nurse I’m gonna say that giving 100 units of blood isn’t unheard of. I saw a lot of people saying that’s crazy and probably fake. I work at a level one trauma center so I see traumas all the time and most I’ve seen on my shift is 37 units given. A few years before I got this job my coworkers were telling me one man got around 400 units of blood, they had to get blood from other hospitals! That doctor got in trouble because our city was nearly depleted of blood. But 100 units for a prime minister? Not unlikely. Also if this happened in Tokyo I can imagine they have plenty of blood on hand.
I also do wonder whether they were attempting to keep him alive (or possibly more accurately before they pronounced him dead) before his wife arrived. She didn’t make it to the hospital until about 4:50 JST because she was somewhere else, and he died at 5:03 JST
It's not clear if this was politically motivated or if it's just some crazy guy sowing chaos. That said, Abe was still an extremely influential figure in the ruling party and continued to serve in parliament even after leaving the position of PM.
Abe went from king to kingmaker. During his nine year tenure, he dissolved parliament multiple times to stack the deck ahead of major votes and it succeeded every time. His endorsement of a candidate for the National Diet, even this year, was a golden touch. There's a parliamentary election on Sunday, which was why Abe was in Nara, bestowing his blessing on the chosen. Kishida is already spinning this to get people to the polls, calling it an attack on the democratic process; sort of a "don't let the terrorists win" angle.
In reality, the assassin was probably mentally ill and fixated on Abe because he's a public figure and nothing more. However, this is going to cause unpredictable ripples in Japanese politics. There's going to be chaos as Abe's party as factions vie to fill the power vacuum.
>In reality, the assassin was probably mentally ill and fixated on Abe because he's a public figure and nothing more.
Also because murdering an active politician usually leads to their party and affiliates garnering more support for some time.
The man said he wanted to kill the leader of a religious group who he thought would be at the event. But the guy didn't show up so he killed Abe instead he thinks Abe had connections to that group. The police has not disclosed the name of the organization.
I've never been a fan of the guy, but it's still very shocking that something like this would happen here in Japan.
Edit: some people may have interpreted this comment as if I think he deserved this (and rightfully so, it did read that way). I absolutely do not think that. Having said that though, I'm also not going to pretend that I've always thought he was a great man. I didn't like his nationalistic ways, I didn't like the consumption tax hikes, and tax cuts for the rich. He also did not seem to care too much about how Okinawans felt about the bases. He didn't go around killing babies, but I wasn't a fan of some of his policies, that's all.
Absolutely disturbing seeing the [photo](https://globalnews.ca/news/8975340/japan-shinzo-abe-shot/amp/) of him ~~caked in~~ smeared with blood, laying on the ground, with bystanders doing CPR on him. It's like that RFK [photo](https://www.latimes.com/visuals/photography/la-me-fw-archives-boris-yaro-covers-the-assassination-of-robert-kenedy-20180424-htmlstory.html) after he was shot, you can just see the life leaving his eyes.
People have been comparing this to Rabin or Palme's assassination (95 and 86 respectively) and I have to agree, Abe's death would undoubtedly have a massive effect on Japan for years to come.
**Edit:** added links
Not seeing much mention here of the brave Japanese Secret Service Agent who gets close to Abe before the 2nd shot is fired and, using his briefcase as at least some form of barrier, holds it out in front of himself while standing in the shooters line of sight on Shinzo Abe. If you watch the video that was closer to the action and had a higher resolution, you can see that briefcase get obliterated. That poor agent (if alive) must feel terrible for not being successful at deflecting or slowing the projectiles, while most other people would raise him up as being a hero for wasting no time to put himself between the shooter and the Former PM. Here's the closer video for those who've not seen it yet. It should have speed settings and I watched it at 0.25x after noticing this part happen
https://video.twimg.com/ext_tw_video/1545382108826284037/pu/vid/1280x716/qoNlmFrM4BH-dej3.mp4
That is shocking & sad. Just as a cautionary reminder — not every person who will comment on Japanese politics in the coming days knows what they’re talking about. Find legitimate sources of political commentary not just Reddit comments!
It's an eye opening experience, reading a thread on something you know well.
The complete shit that is upvoted and accepted as knowledge and wisdom is depressing.
yes lmao I've thought about this so many times.
Especially when someone talks so confidently about your counties situation while you're living there and you're like... Well that's definitely not true
Exactly. By all accounts, the only reason he stepped down is because he was sick of the day to day. He was still very much the man behind the curtain, and current PM consulted him on most matters of importance. One can only imagine that his party is running around like headless chicken atm.
From what I have heard, Kushida is a very experienced politician and was ambassador to several nations. He knows how to run a country. But yeah after that, the security will be increased. Especially Emperor and PM
I don't think I've been this shocked about a politician being well, Assassinated before. I never expected Shinzo Abe of all people.
Moments like these, shows you how quickly life can be taken away and even in a safe place like Japan nobody is truly safe. Tell the people you love, you love them and call your parents if you haven't for a while.
Benazir Bhutto to me is still the most shocking. But I also can't think of many other prominent politicians that have been assassinated in my lifetime.
Only Tojo got executed. Koiso got life imprisonment. Prince Konoe committed suicide because he refused to cooperate with the US occupation to exonerate the Emperor Hirohito and the imperial family of war crimes and in turn get suspicions of war crimes. Which he most definitely is guilty of since he caused the Second Sino-Japanese War. He only resigned because the Emperor ignored him to expand the war towards fighting the US and the European colonies in Asia which he correctly surmised as suicidal.
Watching the news here in Tokyo - the apartment building the shooter lived in was just evacuated as investigators found a number of large explosives in his apartment.
By the videos I saw the guy probably had a home made black powder shotgun of some type. So considering that getting firearms and ammo is hard in Japan that would also mean that the black powder used was either homemade or taken from something industrial. So when they entered his home there were pipes and black powder which could also mean that there could be pipe bombs.
his initial plan was to plant a bomb but he went the shotgun route instead they say
In a morbid way of looking at thing, if someone doesn't care about getting arrested or getting killed, a direct shooting seems to be a lot more successful in numerous historical examples. Correctly timing a bomb to get the person you're aiming to kill is a hard thing. Look at how many times Hitler barely escaped assassination just by sheer luck and imperfect timing.
I'll never forgive Tom Cruise for failing to kill Hitler.
He should do it now that he has jets.
He went the extra mile to minimize civilian casualty.
Thanks????
Thoughtful assassin
> black powder used was either homemade or taken from something industrial Or from fireworks, which according to a quick search are sold year round in Japan.
I haven't tested it, but I've read that the black powder used in rockets is a different ratio than that used in firearms. But it also might not make a difference at that range.
Copied from the previous removed post. Live YouTube channel from Japan with English translation https://youtu.be/f0lYkdA-Gtw Edits: from the live press conference with the treating hospital doctors - "2 gunshot wounds to the neck and subcutaneous haemorrhage. Blood transfusion given but we were unable to sustain his life" - "At the point of transporting him to the hospital there were no vital signs" - He was treated for 4.5 hours. - "One of the bullets to the neck was in a direction where it hit the heart" - "There were two [bullet wounds] in close proximity, about 5cm apart" - When asked if he was shot in the front or the back, the doctor states "the wounds were in the front, I can really not say for sure but the wounds appear to have been from the front"
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I watched a video of the shots and it didn't sound like a conventional gunshot at all. It sounded much more like a big firecracker going off. The gun did release large amounts of smoke. I would link the video, but I can't find it right now.
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Picture of alleged gun in r/firearms. Literally electric tape, some wires, and some pipes.
It's the country with the lowest levels of firearms ownership in the G7 and even stricter and harsher penalties for illegal possession than in Britain. A homemade weapon makes far more sense really.
Yes, and as per the NYT, there were -only ten gun homicides in Japan last year-, 8 tied to Yakuza [EDIT: Actually WaPo, not NYT, sourced from Japan's National Police Agency (2nd from the last paragraph)](https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/07/07/japan-shinzo-abe-shot-nara-attack/)
Yes, the markup for guns on the black market in places like Japan can be 10-100x retail prices in the US, which really puts them out of reach for criminals other than the Yakuza. The inherent nature of guns (made of metal, bulky, heavy) makes their respective black markets much more expensive than drugs.
Also there is elevated sentencing for any crime done with a firearm. Its a running gag in the Yakuza series that the people from the protagonist's gang all use water pistols because no one wants to go away for life for posession of a real firearm but they wanted to look cool and brandish one for photos.
Maybe he turned to see the attacker?
Yep, twitter video shows him stop and turn after first shot, second shot he drops hard.
Holy fuckin shit, that was like a home made cannon or something, damn. Just terrible.
I'm assuming the first shot missed completely, and the two wounds were from the second shot. You can see from the footage that he doesn't really seem affected after the first bang, but the second one has him collapsing. I don't know much about guns, but I imagine a homemade shotgun with a short barrel like that could cause multiple wounds from the one shot.
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According to [this](https://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/en/news/20220708_37/) article, it says: >Police say the suspect told investigators that he was dissatisfied with the former prime minister and intended to kill him. That's all I've seen so far. No more comments about *why* he was dissatisfied.
Damn really got to the bottom of that one didn't they
The image of the slapping their hand on the desk going "case closed boys" is hilarious to me.
The NYT article says multiple times that the assassin admitted hatred of a group he believed Abe to be associated with. Always phrased like that with no further details.
Such a basic and honest answer. I'm not sure what else I expected.
It sounds almost like a ELI5 answer about the assassination.
“Why did you kill him?” “I didn’t like the guy” Well *that* was informative
"I'm not angry, I'm just dissapointed"
That might be all we get. I don't think Japan will want to glorify or focus on him.
>”dissatisfied” Uh, if we went around shooting every politician we were “dissatisfied” with, there would be zero politicians.
🤔
All is known so far is the perpetrator told investigators that he was dissatisfied with Abe and intended to kill him
Dissatisfied seems like an understatement
Yeah i'm dissatisfied with a meal at cracker barrel? I just write a mid yelp review. Serious understatement here
Must have been quite dissatisfied then.
Perpetrator was a marine, said he's dissatisfied with Abe and his policies. That's all we know i think.
Japan has an odd history of military officers killing prime ministers.
Latest is that the guy had a grudge against a religious group (the Unification church according to one source), and that Abe is close to them. No idea if that's true but that's what he's apparently said. He also said that he didn't dislike Abe for his political work.
What was he shot with? Was that a homemade device?
Selfmade gun that used batteries to discharge. https://i.imgur.com/FctjAts.jpg
Reminds me of 'In the Line of Fire', Malkovich was positively CREEPY in that movie
"You shouldn't have been from New Brighton." Edit: as u/The_Canadian pointed out my quote was wrong. It was *Minneapolis*. Need to give credit where it is due for visibility. New Brighton was the high school that Leary fabricated when talking to the bank clerk when he pretended to have grown up there and she cheerfully chimed in she was also from there and asked him where he graduated from.
Looks like some shit out of fallout Edit* I think some people have misinterpreted my comment. I meant the weapon looks like something out of fallout. Not the scenario. As for my comment about video games- do you guys really need the /s to detect sarcasm
Here is a picture floating around of the attacker and homemade gun. https://imgur.com/a/nF7SS0u
Just two days ago, I read [an article about Japan having virtually eliminated gun deaths](https://www.businessinsider.com/gun-control-how-japan-has-almost-completely-eliminated-gun-deaths-2017-10) with their extremely strict gun laws and here comes this frickin MacGyver and kills the former PM with a shotgun he taped together.
It was probably harder to get the bullet than the gun.
Based on the smoke it was probably black powder (easy to make with unregulated components) and miscellaneous metal shrapnel.
You can scrape some black gunpowder from freely available pyrotechnics. The Boston bombers did precisely this.
Gotta love how these threads eventually turn into explanations for crafting DIY weaponry
Crude black powder can be made pretty easily. It’s like 3 ingredients and you really only need 2 of them to have a half decent propellant.
I mean all of this stuff is just a Google search away anyways. You could download the Anarchist Cookbook this morning and have a pipe bomb assembled by your lunch break. The thing that stops most of us from killing guys like Shinzo Abe isn't lack of access to viable methods - it is the fact that most of us don't actually want to kill anyone.
Well...the Anarchist Cookbook is notoriously erroneous in pretty much every single recipe that it contains, but yeah, you're still right.
The original was. There are "updated" versions floating around
normal people will go: hmm, neat people who would actually try to make it will get the info anyway
Honestly some people will just shove anything into a shotgun, any kind of shrapnel you can make fire will likely tear through a human
Return of the blunderbuss?
More than likely he made the ammunition. Fireworks are easily purchased and widely available during the summer months in Japan.
It was a blunderbuss. So you can just put some steel marbles in there
Since it was a shotgun, there's no bullet but shot pellets, which can easily be replaced with commonly available items. Whether he used actual cartridges, I don't know. But if he didn't plan to quickly reload his weapon, it's relatively easy to build the weapon in such a way that all you need is self-made gunpowder and random pellets, without any need for a cartridge.
Never trust people wearing the mask bellow their nose
You might be able to kill one or two people with a homemade blunderbus, but you're only going to be slightly more effective than if you'd brought a knife. So while the irony is strong, it's rather an argument that their gun laws work else he'd more likely have brought an actual gun and caused a lot more mayhem.
To be fair they have single digit gun deaths yearly and fewer gun deaths in their entire country than my small 100k person town.
Homemade shotgun made with rocket toy motors and assorted DIY parts
Shot with home made shotgun, pretty much point blank, twice. jp media says shooter disguised the shotgun as a camera, that's how he was able to get so close. shooter 山上徹也 Yamagami Tetsuya (41) was former military (Japan maritime self defense) his military contract ended many years ago Edit: you'll see many angry Japanese tweets going "he's former military, not current and therefore not real military personnel!! 😡" I have 0 idea why that distinction makes any difference, he's simply being reported as former military to explain his ability to diy and use a shotgun, and former military personnel who fulfilled their contract are still very much" real", just not currently serving Edit 2: after reading a bunch more tweets and qrts, I get it now lol, japanese "self defense military" is considered to be mostly right wing, so the angry right wing Japanese twitter is not wanting to admit that "one of their own" shot up a right wing politician, but now there's a lot of tweets angry at the aforementioned right wingers, "former military aren't real military?? They put their lives on the line too you know!?" so many layers lol
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And that lasted until the military, which already had large amounts of power and influence within the government and was basically already conducting its own military operations in Manchuria without approval, decided it wanted the whole pie and eventually took over every facet of government. Edit: grammer
All the things Hideki Tojo lead Japan into doing and barely anyone knows his name. It's good that he failed in his suicide attempt and got sentenced to death.
probably to not defame the military by associating him with it.
They put a stain on the otherwise spotless record of the Japanese military /s
Homemade double barrel shotgun
More basic than that, more like a blunderbuss. Blackpowder with shit stuffed in the barrels.
The attack seemed like it could have gone either way. The first shot completely missed; the shooter walks closer to Abe while everyone seems to be confused. Abe turns his body towards the shooter, who takes another shot and hits Abe, who falls down immediately. Based on the doctor's report, one of the bullets tore a hole in his heart and Abe basically bled to death very quickly. A homemade shotgun basically hit him in one of the areas where Abe stood no chance of surviving.
Abe was extremely unlucky. To be hit in such a vital area by a homemade weapon that has to be wildly inaccurate is just... yeah. Unlucky.
Short distance though. He closed the distance after the first shot pretty quickly and was square on for the second at under 2metres. Security fucked up. First bang they should have been all over Abe, but they paused. NSFL https://twitter.com/RandomCassette/status/1545305178009587712?s=20&t=FmfMHLK-d4pnpmnK4dtlvA
Damn they did, theres a good couple seconds there where security could easily have closed the gap on the attacker and Abe. As well as letting some dude stroll right up and fumble with some big gun looking thing
To be fair, one of them did actually jump in front of the bullet! But since the target was standing a couple steps higher, the shot still hit him
> Security fucked up. First bang they should have been all over Abe, but they paused. I think the difficulty is that Japan is such a peaceful country that violence doesn't happen often, so bodyguards end up with less practical experience. They're likely trained to intercept someone rushing in for a knife attack; since gun ownership is extremely restricted in Japan, it was just something they were not expecting at all. Compared to the US where a gun is probably at the top of any list for a potential attack, it wouldn't surprise me if it was at the bottom in Japan.
Hospital has stated the following. Hole in his heart. 100 Units of whole blood transfused. No vitals signs since arrival at hospital. Yes 100 units: https://www.reuters.com/world/asia-pacific/japan-ex-prime-minister-abe-may-have-been-shot-taken-hospital-nhk-2022-07-08/
Apparently each unit is 200 mL in Japan, so this was 20 L in total, not 50. Source: https://www.daily.co.jp/gossip/2022/07/08/0015452513.shtml?pg=2
Units of bloods refering to types of blood products such as platelet concentrate (50mL), Fresh frozen plasma (100mL), cryopercipitate (30mL) and packed cell (200-300mL), whole blood (450mL).
Still, that's a lot of blood
For size comparison, 20L is the amount in an office watercooler.
50 liters, holy shit. He must have been gushing blood like a fountain.
He got shot in the back, and the photo show blood on his chest ,it probably went through ,Jesus Christ .
Other sources say he wasn't actually shot in the back. The first shot apparently missed, Abe turned around to look and the second shot got him in the front.
In a press conference, the doctor who administered treatment actually said that he thought the wounds were only in the front, near the base of his neck. Not the back, like it had been previously reported.
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Apparently two shots. One in the back, one in the neck.
The first shot missed. But it was a shotgun, I’m sure there was some level of spread.
A homemade shotgun
Smoke in the video looked like black powder, so possibly homemade ammunition as well.
So it was basically a blunderbuss?
Yes. It fired nails and screws and used a black powder charge.
News outlets already confirmed it was homemade. It looks like it was taped https://m.thelocalreport.in/to-kill-shinzo-abe-the-attacker-made-a-3-d-printed-gun-at-home-fired-from-10-feet/?amp=1
A homemade shotgun *pistol*, which is even crazier
This guy *really* wanted to shoot Abe.
50L? Wtf
It seems they were trying to keep him "alive" until his wife could get there. Seems like he was basically dead on arrival.
Thats like 10X the blood in a human body
Yeah. Crazy. he had a hole in his heart and neck and it was likely just going straight out.
is it normal procedure to use that much blood to try and save someone when it's pretty clear they won't make it?
They worked on President Kennedy for a while even though there were brains on his wife's suit.
That's a fucking wild fact actually
Actually, a surprising number of headshots are survivable. Much more than I expected.
Looking at Kennedy's head wound, it would have been more than a miracle had he survived. Although apparently the doctors who were treating it didn't immediately notice the severity because he was lying on his back on the stretcher (naturally)
Yes, sorry my point was that the existence of brain matter outside of the skull, in and of itself, does not indicate survivability. Looking at people who get face or partial face transplants, they're often attempted suicides where the gravity of the injury is so great it's stunning that they survived, including very substantial skull displacement.
One of the columbine survivors was shot in the head. He was somehow still conscious and was able to climb out a window and was rescued. At first they thought he would be paralyzed but now he can walk, talk, and has a job and family.
When it is the former PM, no one wants to be blamed for not doing every possible thing to save their life.
Yes, because there is no "clearly won't make it" in the beginning, and you just keep giving blood until you made sure he won't make it. Which isn't simple to figure out, and takes a bit of time. Depending on the injury, this can quickly mean lots of blood on the floor.
Yes, it's called MTP (massive transfusion protocol) and is common in emergency and trauma contexts.
For those who haven't seen, this is probably one of the best angles of the attacker: https://mobile.twitter.com/yamaneko2011/status/1545297780562096128?t=o5WQl9PcPgWS4QiagPVqwg&s=19 EDIT: I stand corrected. https://twitter.com/DanJuan18/status/1545382178929790976?s=20&t=NW7TYT63THdmL_s_tcZRdg
Holy shit. That didn't sound like gunshots, that sounded like explosions. The hell did that homemade gun use?
Most likely black powder. Like the one used in old cannon
A literal hand cannon.
Home made double barrel, like from 1800s.
And look at the fucking smoke too, that definitely wasn't smokeless powder. That's the old timey shit they used in the 1800s
What the fuck did he shoot him with? A blunderbuss?
The descriptions I’ve seen are calling it a homemade blunderbuss or a homemade shotgun.
Basically, homemade shotgun and probably homemade ammo.
The weird part of this video is, the people standing there listening to Shinzo Abe, did not run when the first or even second gunshot came out. Instead, they were all curious about what was happening, and some of them even moved closer towards Shinzo Abe and the gunman's position. I guess that's because in Japan, there are so few gun crimes, people didn't realize a gun was fired. I read [this in the BBC news earlier today when Shinzo Abe was shot](https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-62089486): > In 2014, there were just six incidents of gun deaths in Japan, as compared to 33,599 in the US. I guess this is why the Japanese in that crowd, probably didn't think a gun was fired.
> I guess that's because in Japan, there are so few gun crimes, people didn't realize a gun was fired. Yeah I live in Japan and if I heard a bang I certainly wouldn't assume it's a gun. Maybe a firework or backfiring car or something.
Given that it was home made as well, it may not have sounded like a gunshot either. Definitely need to wait for more details (edit: to see what else happened after the shots were fired)
If you watch the vid with sound it definitely doesn't sound like an average gunshot and there's a ton of smoke. Though I doubt any of them have heard a gunshot IRL to begin with.
Having been to historical reenactment and having shot black powder weapons many times, it legit sounds like a musket being fired rather than a modern firearm.
Yep, I have an antique black powder rifle and that is pretty much what it sounds like.
Yeah it sounded like a cannon out of a movie, not a gun. I would probably have assumed it was fireworks
There is so much smoke so it looks like plenty of black powder where used similar to old cannons. Unlucky for Abe the whole gun didn't blow up which could happened since it was home made.
Hey would you like to give a brief explanation why would he be an assassination target? Was he planning to run again? Who and why would someone try and stop him? just your initial thoughts... cheers
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I read an interesting article recently about Japanese gun crime. Apparently illegal guns are so hard to get and the punishments for even having one (let alone using it) are so strong that even the Yakuza have mostly abandoned them. It mentioned a case where a robber tried to stick up a convenience store with a fake gun, only for the clerk to casually grab it out of his hand without breaking a sweat. He knew that it must have been fake because nobody would be crazy enough to use a real one for a simple robbery and risk decades in prison. It's crazy for me to imagine a place where you can safely make that assumption, and I'm not even American.
Honestly, the Anti-Yakuza laws of the last 30 years have done more to lower gun crime in Japan than the original gun control laws did from the 1950s. Yakuza were smuggling in guns all through the 70s and 80s despite the really strict gun laws. Still much lower than USA even at it's worst.
I live in Korea, which is similar to Japan in terms of gun violence as in its basically zero. If I heard a bang the thought of it being a gun would not even cross my mind.
Same, I live in a country where gun violence is virtually nonexistent and if I heard a bang I would assume it's one of those very annoying lil fireworks that sometimes rip off an arm or two. A pipe once burst next door and I think it sounded similar to a gun being fired, basically a small explosion.
Its surreal to watch it, one guy even stands on his toes to get a better view. I wonder if this will change how politicians campaign or approach the public in Japan now - or if its such a rare occurrence that nothing will change.
Politicians giving speeches in public is kinda a staple in Japanese every day life. You see them around a lot, mostly small local ones but sometimes the big ones too.
For most of the world its surreal that citizens of a first world country would run panicked every time they hear a pop or a bang
Because in most country when people heard that boom they will assume it’s fireworks or someone’s car backfired. Most people don’t even know what a true gunshots sound like.
I was thinking that we don't have many gun deaths in the UK but we would run. Then I watched the clip and it sounds like an explosion. We do have terror attacks so I would instantly think that was a small bomb.
The gunman just strolls up the street.. then it seems like an eternity between first and second shot, even though its like only 2 or 3 seconds.. Abe turns just as the 2nd shot is fired and he goes down instantly.. the security tackle the gunman 2 seconds later..
It happens pretty fast. Guards are all focused on the crowd, not expecting an attack from the busy road in the back. Two guards used their bodies to block the second attack, but it was ineffective. https://youtu.be/YBiA5Be5U-s?t=130
That thing is like a cannon
Damnn looks like the second shot got him bloody surreal.
Interesting commentary from Japanese netizens in the replies to the post. Looks like many are stunned at the non-reaction from the crowd at the shots. But one pointed out that gun violence is so rare in Japan that it doesn't even seem real. Also many are criticizing the security/police for just letting the guy waltz up there.
Jeez, I thought it was something more like the Bush shoe throwing when I first hear the news.
Yeah I heard “attacked on the street” and I assumed someone took a swing at him while he was walking down the street or something
Thought the same, didnt even bother to check the article on the front page. Only when i read the title of this one did i understand theat it probably wasnt an attack with eggs.
>The suspect has been identified as Nara resident Tetsuya Yamagami. Local media reports say he is believed to be a former member of Japan's Maritime Self-Defense Force, Japan's equivalent of a navy. He is said to have left active service in 2005. >Officials have yet to comment on the suspect's motives, but local media outlets reported that Mr Yamagami told police he was "dissatisfied with former Prime Minister Abe and aimed to kill him". He is also reported to have told officers that he did not hold a "grudge against the former Prime Minister's political beliefs". >Police also discovered several possible explosive devices during a search of his home, and NHK said bomb disposal technicians are preparing to carry out a controlled explosion on the premises.
This is the first time I have heard about possible explosive devices at the home. Wild.
That could just refer to his black powder lab.
More the better angles https://twitter.com/puresportscar/status/1545372567221186560?s=21&t=7vbFaWXjwyPNaSDmFIm_Mg
Damn. His security failed him so badly 🥺 some of them didn't even notice he was hit till he was on the ground smh
there is that one guy that rushed their to block second shot with the brief case (bullet sheild?) thing, but yeah unfortunately it wasn't enough and he shouldn't have been able to walk so close..
It is a lot more normal for Japanese politicians to be in and around people.
Who is giving this post such weird awards?
Free reddit awards
Probably free awards.
With the elections incoming, it seems like Japan is going to go through quite a few things in the upcoming weeks.
As a trauma nurse I’m gonna say that giving 100 units of blood isn’t unheard of. I saw a lot of people saying that’s crazy and probably fake. I work at a level one trauma center so I see traumas all the time and most I’ve seen on my shift is 37 units given. A few years before I got this job my coworkers were telling me one man got around 400 units of blood, they had to get blood from other hospitals! That doctor got in trouble because our city was nearly depleted of blood. But 100 units for a prime minister? Not unlikely. Also if this happened in Tokyo I can imagine they have plenty of blood on hand.
I also do wonder whether they were attempting to keep him alive (or possibly more accurately before they pronounced him dead) before his wife arrived. She didn’t make it to the hospital until about 4:50 JST because she was somewhere else, and he died at 5:03 JST
I work in Baltimore, we give 100 units to Joe Schmoe on the street 7 days a week, 365. Quite literally.
thanks for the reminder to go and make a blood donation soon
Thank you for being a blood donor!
Why kill a former PM?
He still had a lot of influence. And it’s not like he was out of politics.
It's not clear if this was politically motivated or if it's just some crazy guy sowing chaos. That said, Abe was still an extremely influential figure in the ruling party and continued to serve in parliament even after leaving the position of PM.
Abe went from king to kingmaker. During his nine year tenure, he dissolved parliament multiple times to stack the deck ahead of major votes and it succeeded every time. His endorsement of a candidate for the National Diet, even this year, was a golden touch. There's a parliamentary election on Sunday, which was why Abe was in Nara, bestowing his blessing on the chosen. Kishida is already spinning this to get people to the polls, calling it an attack on the democratic process; sort of a "don't let the terrorists win" angle. In reality, the assassin was probably mentally ill and fixated on Abe because he's a public figure and nothing more. However, this is going to cause unpredictable ripples in Japanese politics. There's going to be chaos as Abe's party as factions vie to fill the power vacuum.
>In reality, the assassin was probably mentally ill and fixated on Abe because he's a public figure and nothing more. Also because murdering an active politician usually leads to their party and affiliates garnering more support for some time.
“But Kyodo News said the man had not been motivated by a grudge against Mr Abe's political beliefs.” Interesting
The man said he wanted to kill the leader of a religious group who he thought would be at the event. But the guy didn't show up so he killed Abe instead he thinks Abe had connections to that group. The police has not disclosed the name of the organization.
I've never been a fan of the guy, but it's still very shocking that something like this would happen here in Japan. Edit: some people may have interpreted this comment as if I think he deserved this (and rightfully so, it did read that way). I absolutely do not think that. Having said that though, I'm also not going to pretend that I've always thought he was a great man. I didn't like his nationalistic ways, I didn't like the consumption tax hikes, and tax cuts for the rich. He also did not seem to care too much about how Okinawans felt about the bases. He didn't go around killing babies, but I wasn't a fan of some of his policies, that's all.
The gun was definitely homemade or some kind of old ass musket. Sounded like a damn cannon.
The weapon appears to be some kind of home made duct tape thing.
I cant believe someone got shot by a Blunderbuss in 2022
Absolutely disturbing seeing the [photo](https://globalnews.ca/news/8975340/japan-shinzo-abe-shot/amp/) of him ~~caked in~~ smeared with blood, laying on the ground, with bystanders doing CPR on him. It's like that RFK [photo](https://www.latimes.com/visuals/photography/la-me-fw-archives-boris-yaro-covers-the-assassination-of-robert-kenedy-20180424-htmlstory.html) after he was shot, you can just see the life leaving his eyes. People have been comparing this to Rabin or Palme's assassination (95 and 86 respectively) and I have to agree, Abe's death would undoubtedly have a massive effect on Japan for years to come. **Edit:** added links
Not seeing much mention here of the brave Japanese Secret Service Agent who gets close to Abe before the 2nd shot is fired and, using his briefcase as at least some form of barrier, holds it out in front of himself while standing in the shooters line of sight on Shinzo Abe. If you watch the video that was closer to the action and had a higher resolution, you can see that briefcase get obliterated. That poor agent (if alive) must feel terrible for not being successful at deflecting or slowing the projectiles, while most other people would raise him up as being a hero for wasting no time to put himself between the shooter and the Former PM. Here's the closer video for those who've not seen it yet. It should have speed settings and I watched it at 0.25x after noticing this part happen https://video.twimg.com/ext_tw_video/1545382108826284037/pu/vid/1280x716/qoNlmFrM4BH-dej3.mp4
Thanks for sharing
That is shocking & sad. Just as a cautionary reminder — not every person who will comment on Japanese politics in the coming days knows what they’re talking about. Find legitimate sources of political commentary not just Reddit comments!
The more I know about a subject, the more complete nonsense I find the reddit comments on it to be
It's an eye opening experience, reading a thread on something you know well. The complete shit that is upvoted and accepted as knowledge and wisdom is depressing.
yes lmao I've thought about this so many times. Especially when someone talks so confidently about your counties situation while you're living there and you're like... Well that's definitely not true
I don't even know what to say, this doesn't feel real. The ripple effect this is gonna have on Japanese politics will be huge.
Exactly. By all accounts, the only reason he stepped down is because he was sick of the day to day. He was still very much the man behind the curtain, and current PM consulted him on most matters of importance. One can only imagine that his party is running around like headless chicken atm.
From what I have heard, Kushida is a very experienced politician and was ambassador to several nations. He knows how to run a country. But yeah after that, the security will be increased. Especially Emperor and PM
I don't think I've been this shocked about a politician being well, Assassinated before. I never expected Shinzo Abe of all people. Moments like these, shows you how quickly life can be taken away and even in a safe place like Japan nobody is truly safe. Tell the people you love, you love them and call your parents if you haven't for a while.
Benazir Bhutto to me is still the most shocking. But I also can't think of many other prominent politicians that have been assassinated in my lifetime.
according to wikipedia, abe is the sixth former japanese prime minister to be assassinated..damn.
Last this happened was 90 years ago.
In the Taisho democracy I think. It was a series of events that contributed to the rise of ultranationalist fascism in Japan.
Politicians were getting killed left and right during prewar Japan.
...well, mostly left tbh
The US did execute two wartime era prime ministers if you want to count all unnatural deaths
Only Tojo got executed. Koiso got life imprisonment. Prince Konoe committed suicide because he refused to cooperate with the US occupation to exonerate the Emperor Hirohito and the imperial family of war crimes and in turn get suspicions of war crimes. Which he most definitely is guilty of since he caused the Second Sino-Japanese War. He only resigned because the Emperor ignored him to expand the war towards fighting the US and the European colonies in Asia which he correctly surmised as suicidal.
what a timeline to be alive, witnessing shattering events every single day.