I don't think the problem is so much the guns as the culture of violence.

[hatrack]

102. Not sure about the "culture of violence" argument . . .

Consider Japan. There is much is Japanese culture that is truly amazing and admirable - social cohesion, honesty, the degree of public safety (even in large, crowded cities), and a wonderful aesthetic sense in design, architecture and fine arts.

There is also a strata of grotesque ultraviolence that runs on a parallel track with tea ceremony, ikebana and exquisite, ancient gardens. You see it in manga and anime (multiple-penis rape monsters from outer space are commonplace), in movies (the movie "Audition" is a good example, if you can stomach it - I couldn't) and in live theater.

There's a long tradition of Grand Guignol-style violence in Japan, much of it specifically degrading to women - violent rape fantasies are par for the course.

Example - I was on the train between Sendai and Tokyo one Saturday, and a Japanese guy got on and sat down next to me. Perfectly ordinary guy, suit and tie, briefcase. From the briefcase he pulled a bondage/spanking/enema magazine the size of a small phone book, and began to leaf through its many, many pages. Truly amazing stuff, right there on the train in broad daylight, next to a total stranger.

Combine this tradition with the pressure-cooker that is life in a highly structured society, broadcast it through all the means available - TV, movies, anime, manga, websites, print - and don't you think that would produce a "culture of violence"?

Maybe, but it's not one where mass shootings take place, because the guns simply aren't available. There are occasional mass stabbing or poisoning attacks, but they don't happen very often, whatever the pressures of life in modern Japan.