Unloaded rifle on TV triggers controversy

[WhiteFeather]

Note how there is no criminal intent to hurt anyone, no criminals involved, no real crime occured except a strict gun control law that stated purpose for enactment was to stop criminals but the Law is the Law BS reminds me of that movie "Judge Dredd" where the police were judge, jury, prosecutor and executioner http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0113492/quotes

http://www.asahi.com/english/Herald-...907020073.html

Unloaded rifle on TV triggers controversy

OTSU, Shiga Prefecture--Given this nation's strict gun control law, were police overreacting when they swooped on a TV broadcaster that had allowed a celebrity to handle a hunting rifle during a live broadcast?

The Shiga prefectural police insist they were perfectly within their rights, but TV networks are outraged, citing the fact the weapon was not loaded.

The incident stems from a show aired Jan. 17 by Biwako Broadcasting Co. Almost four months later, police mounted a search of the premises and confiscated a dozen items, including a script and a DVD of the show.

Critics accuse the police of being overzealous and question their motives, but law enforcement officials remain unrepentant.

Shiga prefectural police regard the incident, in which a hunter with a gun permit allowed TV personality Noburo Harada, 57, to momentarily handle the rifle during the show, as a serious breach of a law concerning the storage and management of firearms.

So much so, in fact, that on June 12, the prefectural police referred the case to prosecutors. As a result, the hunter, aged 49, along with a 60-year-old TV producer and a 37-year-old director of the show, could face charges of violating the swords and firearms control law.

Police did not pursue a case against Harada even though he briefly handled the weapon. Police argued that he did not actually "possess" the rifle because the hunter handed it to him in an unscripted moment during the broadcast.

Police justified their search on grounds that they needed to determine if the law concerning the storage and management of firearms had been broken.

The show, called "Tokimeki Shiga'S," is broadcast one Saturday a month. In the show, Harada visits various locations in the prefecture as a travel guide.

The program in question was set in Yogo, where Harada and other cast members were served a pot of wild boar meat. The hunter who had killed the boar appeared in the scene. He offered the unloaded weapon to Harada and asked,"Do you want to hold it?"

Harada held the rifle and commented, "It's heavy, isn't it?" adding, "Not everybody has a chance to hold it, right?"

He held the firearm for six seconds and then gave it back.

Biwako Broadcasting says the scene in which the hunter handed over the rifle was not in the script and was improvised.

The TV crew decided to display the rifle on the show after the hunter told the director he had no problem with the idea at a preliminary meeting.

The prefectural police began their investigation after a complaint by a viewer.

The intervention by the police flabbergasted Harada and employees of other TV stations.

"I never could have imagined anything like this," Harada, a former member of the male comedy duo Anonenone, told reporters after he was questioned by police on June 2. "I was stunned."

Akihiko Ito, head of the TV station's programming department, said the station would cooperate with police, but defended Harada's actions.

"We consulted our lawyers, and it is hard to believe that touching a rifle for about six seconds is equivalent to possessing it," he said.

A spokesperson with a TV station based in Osaka sharply criticized police.

"They should have at least asked (Biwako Broadcasting) to cooperate voluntarily," a spokesperson said. "From a common sense standpoint, we cannot even comprehend what the police were thinking."

An employee at another TV station was also critical.

"If we, for example, were to produce a program about a knife shop and an actor picked up a large knife, would the police investigate us, too?" the employee asked. "Such an overreaction would be intimidating toward people trying to do their jobs. This would ultimately undermine viewer interest in programming."

But police say they don't understand what all the fuss is about. They say the media has, by focusing on the celebrity angle, blurred the facts in the case.

A senior official with the Shiga prefectural police said the real issue is not that Harada briefly held the rifle, but whether bringing the rifle to the live broadcast was appropriate in terms of "storage and management."

An explanation for the police tactics may lie in the revised gun control law, which took effect in January.

The law was tightened after a 37-year-old man in Sasebo, Nagasaki Prefecture, shot and killed two people and wounded six in December 2007. The man, known for erratic behavior, committed suicide after the shooting.

The incident called into question whether existing regulations regarding gun permits and firearm storage were adequate.

"I believe the hunter who handed the rifle to the actor and the TV crew lacked an awareness of the firearm's potential danger," another police official said.

According to the National Police Agency, police can file a case against anybody if he or she, with criminal intent to kill or injure people, possesses a weapon for even a second.

A case can be built based not on the length of time of possession, but on the purpose of possession, the presence of criminal intent and whether the suspect tricked or maneuvered the gun owner.

The Shiga prefectural police justify the raid on the grounds that they had to find out how it was possible to bring a gun to the show.

By transporting the gun to the show, the hunter may have violated the rules under which he was granted a gun permit, police asserted.

They defended questioning Harada and the crew as crucial to ferreting out the real issue--did those involved in the program improperly store and manage the weapon?

Takaaki Hattori, professor of media law at Rikkyo University in Tokyo, says that police went too far.

"The way the police conducted their investigation is not convincing. I sense they were trying to use the media to sell the public on the revised gun control law," he said. "They should have been more cautious about the exercise of power by public authorities."

But he also said the broadcaster could have been more prudent.

"The TV station should consider whether it was absolutely necessary to use a gun in making the show. The gun owner may have been primarily responsible, but the broadcaster is also to blame for lacking awareness of the law."

Takaaki Matsumiya, professor of criminal law at Ritsumeikan University School of Law in Kyoto, disagrees that the TV station or the hunter were in any way culpable and lays the blame on the authorities.

Citing a precedent set by the Tokyo High Court in June 1967, he said: "The high court decided that the act of touching a handgun for dozens of seconds by a man brokering the sale of a handgun during the transfer did not constitute 'possession,'" he said. "There have been no precedents to alter that interpretation. Harada did not 'possess' it (during the show)."

Matsumiya also defended the hunter who brought the rifle to the set.

"When the precedent concludes that a person 'has no legitimate reason' for bearing and carrying a firearm, it assumes that he or she was going to do harm or ran a risk of doing harm," he said. "It is obvious that was not the case under these circumstances."(IHT/Asahi: July 2,2009)

[TaePo]

Egads, this why the BS common sense laws should not be passed. They will be abused.

I think we use the term constructive possession to abuse this rule here in the States.

[wa3ra]

Shiga has been trashed by the Social Democrats over the last few years. The fishing and hunting around the lake (Biwa, IIRC) was superb; good luck even getting to hunt or fish anymore. The closest comparison I can think of is California now versus California before the PETA freaks.

[GunLawyer001]

Chuck Schumer has a new poster to tape over his bed, the Chief of Police of Shiga Prefecture. Right next to a picture of a bunch of TV cameras focused on him.

[FormerUser123]

The law was tightened after a 37-year-old man in Sasebo, Nagasaki Prefecture, shot and killed two people and wounded six in December 2007. The man, known for erratic behavior, committed suicide after the shooting.

The incident called into question whether existing regulations regarding gun permits and firearm storage were adequate.

How the hell are stricter gun storage laws going to prevent a mentally unstable person from hurting someone?

Perhaps the point of these laws is to be so ridiculous that the criminals actually hurt their brains trying to unravle the twisted, disjointed logic that goes into them.

[sabre]

so many countries have bizarre gun laws written by people who have no clue what they are dealing with. California, Mass, UK, Australia, Canada, S Korea .... Japan looks to be no exception.

there must be some specific line in their laws "Under no circumstances must any one who does not have a valid firearm license every touch an evil, violent, baby killing, genocidal, plague on humanity firearm."

never mind that firearms have liberated millions of people.

Strict firearms laws ... Step #2 toward a totalitarian government

Criminals won't even stop to think about the firearm laws in fact if they do it will be " I sure am glad guns are illegal here no worry of any home owner shooting back... lets hit this place"

Sabre~!