Packing heat › Japan Today: Japan News and Discussion

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PHOTO BY MARTIN HENG

Monday 15th June, 04:58 AM JST

A boy packs something extra in his bag at a school sports day in Tokyo’s Denenchofu area.

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Latest 15 of 82 Total Comments Show All

gogogo at 09:55 PM JST - 15th June

Show this page to your friends, ask them if they see anything wrong with it and they'll say this is disgusting. JT you should be ashamed of yourself, and the editor of the site doesn't see anything wrong with it.

Comments I got were, "WTF", "that's crazy", "thats wrong", "are you serious", "that is just wrong"...

I didn't tell them anything about the page, just to visit it.
Fadamor at 09:55 PM JST - 15th June

Just had that happen in the high school here on Friday. Kid brought a handgun to school and the police were called in expecting another Columbine. Turns out the "handgun" was a BB gun and was broken to the point it couldn't even shoot BBs. So why did the kid bring it to school? God only knows. :-/
dzimmerm at 10:24 PM JST - 15th June

A little research on the web shows that the toy gun is most likely a "Tokyo Marui Smith and Wesson PC356 Fullauto Electric Blowback" as that toy has a distinctive pattern on the side just like the one the boy has.
pawatan at 11:03 PM JST - 15th June

Show this page to your friends, ask them if they see anything wrong with it and they'll say this is disgusting. JT you should be ashamed of yourself, and the editor of the site doesn't see anything wrong with it.

You don't actually live in Japan, do you?

What is the "shame" in showing a kid with a gun with a jokey title of 'packing heat' when he's obviously NOT packing heat?

I think this was a great choice of a photo of the day for JT - it's been fun watching some people trip all over their righteous indignation.
LoveUSA at 11:08 PM JST - 15th June

This picture is better than the every day porn.
usaexpat at 11:59 PM JST - 15th June

I assume it's an air gun or a toy gun. Nice of JT to stir up a conversation by including absolutely no context. Is it a toy? does he compete in marksmanship events for track and field? Who the hell knows but almost everyone took the bait to make this a debate on gun laws. Well done.
nandakandamanda at 12:49 AM JST - 16th June

Boys are generally interested in weapons, especially those weapons at the advancing edge of evolution. They are naturally fascinated, regardless of the presence or absence of restraining laws. Of course there are exceptions to the above generalizations, and naturally there are girls who experience just those same attractions. A good study in human nature...
Rigs83 at 12:58 AM JST - 16th June

I know that it's an airsoft gun but it looks exactly like a real one and in America the cops shoot to kill for just the motion of reaching for a gun so it was kind shocking to see for the first few second until you thought it out.
Taka313 at 01:44 AM JST - 16th June

Toy or not, I think the gun in the picture is too life-like to be appropriate for school grounds, especially during undokai when the chance of an unsuspecting person freaking out and causing a savage mass panic is higher.

Taka
jeffrey at 05:30 AM JST - 16th June

Posting this picture with the jokey caption is the epitome of the double standard employed by JT. Making jokes about a Japanese kid with a (probably) unhealthy fascination with replica handguns is fine. Someone pointing this out to JT or slagging off on a stupid comment from another poster is not.
gogogo at 12:51 PM JST - 16th June

pawatan: 15 years in Japan, sure it's a toy but it certainly doesn't look like one and promoting bring a gun (of any kind) to school is not cool.

The fact JT joked the kid brought a gun to school is even worse with all the problems kids have a school, bring any sort of weapon to school is not cool.
alohajapan at 06:29 PM JST - 16th June

When I was a kid my brother and I had our own BB guns and then later had our own rifles for hunting. We used to play with toy guns all the time, but our father would have beat us to a bloody pulp if we acted stupid with the play guns or any other weapons. Kids here have no idea how dangerous any lethal weapons are and that is why they act foolishly like this.
BurakuminDes at 12:28 AM JST - 17th June

When I was a kid my brother and I had our own BB guns and then later had our own rifles for hunting. We used to play with toy guns all the time, but our father would have beat us to a bloody pulp if we acted stupid with the play guns or any other weapons. Kids here have no idea how dangerous any lethal weapons are and that is why they act foolishly like this.

I agree Aloha. When my brother and I were 12 and 13, dad gave us both Double Barrelled Shotties. We used to shoot at anything that moved! Rabbits, cats, dogs, foxes, pigeons...were all blown away. It was not until I almost blew my brothers head off in a game of hide-and-seek that dad instilled in us the need to respect the gun.

At the end of the day, guns don't kill people. People kill people. If this young kid respects his weapon, then there will be no problems.
KingSaint at 03:46 PM JST - 17th June

Oh, Japan. I teach english at a high school in Gifu, and there was a box-cutter just laying on a kids desk when I showed up to class. It wasn't like that kid was going to do anything, I just noted to the JTE that if the kid brought the cutter to a class in America the kid would have been expelled, not ifs, ands, or buts. I love it, but then again if a kid had one of those I would complain to my kyoto-sensei and ask him to let me bring one too.
jhk at 04:19 PM JST - 21st June

There is nothing worse than a bunch of people in fear of the wrong things. I don't recall very many gun related incidents in Japan, so an article like this (much like swineflu) would only serve to disproportionately waste time and resources. And bring out more inane regulations.

In Canada, there are rules that a bicyclist can't lift their butts off of their seats when riding.

Maybe we should make it a rule that everyone has to wear masks.

Lets just focus on the big picture, because the only people benefitting from this, are the advertisers on this forum.