LA Times

http://www.latimes.com/wires/20010607/tCB00V2499.html

Thursday, June 7, 2001

Man Kills Four at Japanese School

Associated Press Writer

    TOKYO--A man armed with a knife forced his way into a school in
western Japan on Friday and stabbed at least 26 people, killing at least
four children, fire department officials said.
    Tetsuo Higashimoto said two children were killed immediately, and
another two died at hospitals shortly after. Police official Toshihiko
Ajisaka said 23 children and three teachers were injured in the attack.
    Police officials said the stabbings occurred shortly after classes
began at the elementary school in Osaka, in western Japan. They said the
attacker, a 37 -year-old man, was arrested at the scene, but was also
injured and taken to a local hospital.
    The attacker was identified by police as Mamoru Takuma.
    The school's principal, Hisao Yoshiuchi, said details of the attack
were sketchy. He said there might have been more than one attacker, but
had no further information.
    "We haven't confirmed how many were injured yet," he said.
    National broadcaster NHK reported that the attack occurred during a
recess. It said most of the victims appeared to have suffered minor
injuries.
    It was not immediately clear what motivated the attack. Nearly 700
children attend the school where the attack occurred.
    The mass stabbing is the latest in a recent surge of crimes in Japan.

    A 7 -year-old boy playing in a schoolyard in western Japan was
fatally stabbed by a teen-age assailant in December 1999. In August last
year, a teen-ager was arrested for stabbing to death three members of a
neighbor's family.
   

Copyright 2001 Los Angeles Times

they sure need to ban those deadly knifes it suure worked for guns like england and astreula
(yeah i know i cant spell)

Dammit!!! BAN ALL KNIVES AND POINTED STICKS NOW!!!!!!!

The death toll seems to have jumped up a bit. I keep forgeting that it is tomorrow over there.


http://news.iwon.com/home/news/news_article/0,11746,133804|top|06-08-2001::01:36|reuters,00.html

It was a 6" kitchen knife.  [url]http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/aponline/20010608/aponline024850_000.htm[/url]

I think we should just ban these cheep 6" Saturday night special kitchen knives.

Yeah, and if someone had been CCW licensed he would have been anchored in his tracks.

Preaching to the choir, preaching to the choir . . .

Katana's and swords should be banned also. Someone does not need one of these to protect thier family and you dont hunt with them.


Six

Just goes to show how well guncontrol works.

You can't control a madmans action, however a .45 230 gr. JHP would have ended it.

Choir sing with me.....

Kuiper

Looks like Japan should seek the help of HCI's sister organization, "The coalition to ban steak knives". I'm sure this article will be buried somewhere near the back of my local paper.

What was it that the anti-gun weenies are always saying? "You don't hear about mass knifings" and "You can run away from a person with a knife." This guy had a higher casualty ratio than those last 2 incidents in San Diego combined.

Death from the attack is now eight children.  Another AP story said that youth crime and crime in general in Japan is at an all-time high.

Knives over 2" outside the home are already illegal in Japan. I suggest a world wide day of knife burning.

"Knives over 2" outside the home are already illegal in Japan."

Well, that law certainly worked, didn't it...?

[frag]

Think that 23 children and 3 teachers could rush him and kick his ass!

Knife register time!

Actually they probably have to serial number first, and then ban or regulate them.  I believe that "assualt knives" are banned in Canada.  It is unfortunate the Japanese actually believe all of the hype that their society is the best, etc with gas attacks and knife. The Japanese society is probably safer than that of the U.S., but how do you defend yourself against random acts of violence?  The $64,000 question.

Umm...in Japan swords ARE banned.  Private citizens aren't supposed to have them.

Makes you feel safer already, don't it?

[sniper]

LA Times

http://www.latimes.com/wires/20010608/tCB00V2648.html

Friday, June 8, 2001
Man Kills 8 Students at Japan School

Associated Press Writer

    OSAKA, Japan-- In Japan's worst mass-killing since a deadly nerve gas
attack on Tokyo's subways six years ago, a man brandishing a knife burst
into an elementary school on Friday and slashed nearly two dozen people,
killing at least eight children.
    The 37 -year-old attacker was subdued by two male teachers and
arrested immediately after the stabbings in this western city. Police said
he once worked as a janitor at an elementary school in a nearby city, and
has an arrest record.
    Two of the children died at the scene and the other six died at the
hospital, said fire department spokesman Tetsuo Higashimoto. Fifteen
others -13 children and two teachers -were injured, and eight remained in
serious condition late Friday, said Masatsugu Yoneda, another Fire
Department official.
    Officials had earlier said 21 people were injured, but revised that
down to 15, apparently because not all children taken to hospitals were
actually slashed.
    Children described the attack as 10 minutes of sheer terror.
    An unidentified schoolgirl, talking to Japanese reporters, said that
during the attack, one of the students managed to somehow get onto the
school's public address system.
    "There was a shriek," the girl said. "Then I heard a cry for help."
    Other students said they saw teachers and hallways spattered with
blood.
    The slashing was the deadliest mass assault in Japan since a doomsday
cult attacked the Tokyo subways in 1995, killing 12 people and sickening
thousands.
    After Friday's attack, other schools in the area sent children home.
The dead children -six girls and two boys -were first- or second-grade
students, ranging in age from 6 to 8.
    "We are filled with anger over this unfortunate situation," said
Kaoru Nakatani, head of Osaka Education University, which operates the
elementary school.
    Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi called the attack "heartbreaking."
    Police said the attacker, identified as Mamoru Takuma, carried a 6
-inch kitchen knife. He was arrested at the scene, but was taken to a
hospital -reportedly with self-inflicted injuries. He was turned over to
police about an hour later.
    It was not immediately clear what motivated the crime, though
national broadcaster NHK and other Japanese media reported the attacker
may have carried out the assault after taking a high dose of tranquilizers
given to him as medication.
    An Osaka police official said Takuma had told police that he wanted
to be put to death and that he had previously tried to commit suicide. The
official spoke on condition of anonymity.

PART 2
============
Takuma was arrested in March 1999 and accused of spiking the tea of
four teachers with tranquilizers at the school where he worked, but he was
never prosecuted because he suffered from psychological problems, said
Nobuharu Sugita, a police official in Itami, near Osaka.
    Media reports in the confused hours after the school attack depicted
a terrifying scene, with ambulances and police cars lining the campus and
hundreds of children in their school uniforms sitting in rows on the
playground as other students were treated on stretchers nearby. Nearly 700
children attend the school.
    Police said the attacker climbed into a first-grade classroom from a
verandah and began slashing children in the back of the room, and then
moved into a hallway.
    Several children were slashed in their sides and arms as he moved
into other classrooms, police said. As the attacker tussled with two
teachers, school officials called police and rushed the children out to
the playground. Ambulances sped onto the campus and rescue workers and
police rushed to care for the injured.
    The attack comes as Japan grapples with a surge in violent crime. The
country's strict gun laws mean most of the attacks -like Friday's -are
committed with knives.
    Masanori Yoshida, 56, who lives nearby, said the attack was a shock
in such a quiet, residential neighborhood.
    "This just isn't that kind of place," he said.
    In the minutes after the attack, a cashier at a nearby grocery said a
group of terrified, bloodied children ran into the store.
    "I saw one of them, a boy, with blood all over his body," said Ikiyo
Iriye, 23. "He had been stabbed in the back."
    School and juvenile violence have been rising in recent years,
punctuated by a series of sensational crimes -a shock for a country that
has long enjoyed lower crime rates than other developed nations.
    "This kind of thing should never happen," said Education Minister
Atsuko Toyama. "Schools should be places where children can feel safe and
secure."

Copyright 2001 Los Angeles Times