Shinzo Abe assassination

[Isgrimnur]

HR

Japan’s former Prime Minister Shinzō Abe has been shot at and collapsed during a campaign speech in the city of Nara.

Japan’s public broadcaster NHK reported that Abe appeared to be bleeding from the chest after being shot from behind with a shotgun on Friday morning. Quoting police sources, NHK reported that Abe was likely hit from behind by shotgun fire.

NHK reports Abe was flown to Nara Medical University Hospital in Kashihara City. Media reports are not immediately clear on how serious Abe’s injuries are.

[dbt1949]

Seems kinda late now that he's not in office anymore.

[malchior]

There is now reporting that he died of his injuries.

He was still in office as a regular MP. He resigned/stepped back as PM due to illness. He had recently recovered.

[hepcat]

MTG (Marjorie Taylor Greene, not Magic the Gathering) will most likely tweet that this proves gun control doesn't work. Just wait for it.

[malchior]

MTG (Marjorie Taylor Greene, not Magic the Gathering) will most likely tweet that this proves gun control doesn't work. Just wait for it.

I have been half hunting for it but the fact that every American article spends at least two or three paragraphs focused on Japan's gun control policy indicates the GOP narrative is burrowed deeply into the 4th estate psyche. International articles just talk about a homemade gun.

[Carpet_pissr]

Apparently assassination via shotgun blast from behind? Wow, that seems …unusual?

Not trying to be macabre or callous, just a bit shocked at the apparent method.

[malchior]

Apparently assassination via shotgun blast from behind? Wow, that seems …unusual?

Not trying to be macabre or callous, just a bit shocked at the apparent method.

It makes some sense. Shotguns are one of the few legal armaments there so it was probably the only ammo he could steal/procure. Also, making an improvised shotgun is a matter of pipes, tape/solder, and a trigger mechanism. The real question is what the fuck the security detail was doing. He got within 10 meters of Abe and it was a wide open street junction. The video I saw ups the wtf value significantly.

[hepcat]

From what I've heard on radio news, he's an ex soldier with a supposedly personal grudge against Shinzo (not political, according to him) who actually made the gun. As for security, apparently such things are so rare in Japan that the security was just following standard protocol.

[malchior]

I'll see if i can find the video again. One way to describe it is if Abe was standing in the middle of an area as wide open as Times Square with a light crowd in front of him and almost no one behind him. And then a man openly carrying a shotgun sized halfway between a Remington and a sawed off walked up between 8-10M from Abe. It is crazy this scheme worked.

Video below shows the actual shooting from a distance. I didn't notice the amount of smoke as well. Maybe the ammo was improvised too.

Spoiler:

[Kraken]

Shocking because (1) Japan just doesn't do gun violence, and (2) I thought Abe had retired, or was at least irrelevant. But I guess this wasn't a political assassination. Bizarre.

[dbt1949]

I have a short barrelled shotgun. Black powder. It would be illegal if it fired modern ammo.
It would do the job if you didn't mind getting caught. Very concealable. It would make that much smoke. I wonder if he used such a thing?

[LawBeefaroni]

I have a short barrelled shotgun. Black powder. It would be illegal if it fired modern ammo.
It would do the job if you didn't mind getting caught. Very concealable. It would make that much smoke. I wonder if he used such a thing?

It was two short pipes taped to a 2x4.

[malchior]

I have a short barrelled shotgun. Black powder. It would be illegal if it fired modern ammo.
It would do the job if you didn't mind getting caught. Very concealable. It would make that much smoke. I wonder if he used such a thing?

All the reports are it was homemade - made up of common pipes. I assume he was concealing it in the bag. The crazy part to me is approaching with it out in the open without any eyes on him or any challenge.

[Octavious]

Don't think they will be so lax on security now. It's a really shitty plan that somehow worked.

[malchior]

I mean if you've got the stomach for it to watch closely...it really was such a shitty plan. He gets relatively close and fires. The first shot didn't seem to do anything but freeze everyone in place figuring out what happened. He approached several meters closer and fired again. If someone was facing away from the crowd, he would have been easily spotted, and you'd imagine they would have been able to protect him considering the weapon was only effective at a few meters range.

[Blackhawk]

Zip guns have always been a thing, and they're notoriously unreliable. The fact that he was able to fire it twice (that the first shot didn't destroy it or take his hand off) is surprising.

[Alefroth]

Here's what we know about the homemade gun.

[malchior]

[Isgrimnur]

[Hamlet3145]

And just to make things even weirder, Hideo Kojima (Metal Gear & Death Stranding creator) was falsely linked to the shooting:

https://www.videogameschronicle.com/new ... ssination/