Great comment from the Instapundit article - "This tragedy could have been prevented. There’s simply no reason for assault knives to be in the hands of ordinary citizens."

Maybe the Brits will be allowed to keep rocks and sharp sticks when all this is over.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080608/ap_on_re_as/japan_stabbing

"A witness told NHK the suspect dropped the knife after police threatened to shoot him."

to clarify, he dropped his knife as soon as someone pointed a gun at him.

These mass stabbings let the air out of gun-grabbers arguments that guns are uniquely dangerous and therefore must be kept out of the hands of non-police/military.

Eight children killed, wow knifes must now be considered weapons of mass destruction.

Don't forget bayonet lugs!

I place no more value on British lives or Japanese lives than they place on their own. Since that is none, I must assume they know their own worth better than I, and I will not value their lives either.

They got what they wanted. What could be more fair?

Straightarrow said: "They got what they wanted. What could be more fair?"

You Sir could be more fair. Those Japanese that were killed by a madman did not "get what they wanted" and you are out of touch with reality for suggesting so.

In places where guns are banned, and knives are banned, people are still killed by other violent people among them. The people on those places support disarmament schemes out of ignorance, not out of a "willingness to die."

Really, Sir. I am wholly disapponted with your absurd statement, and somewhat disgusted by it.

Too bad Carl. Be as disgusted as you like. I am thoroughly disgusted with people too stupid or too weak to demand and take their human right to defend themselves. Whether or not you like it, that is tantamount to choosing to die.

That kind of ignorance is self-inflicted and I have no patience with it. The truly mentally disabled or impaired who have not the skills or capacity to reason their way out of ignorance have my sympathy, but I'll not waste it on the functionally adept who choose it and thus choose to die when confronted by a madman. They did choose to die. They just didn't give a damn about themselves or their children enough to choose to exercise responsibility for themselves or their children.

As for the children, I do care and regret and wish it weren't so, because their ignorance is understandable, but a society's and a parents' ignorance is not. Nor is it redeemable.

Wasn't anything absurd about what I said. Or have you never heard the caveat "Be careful what you wish for."

That they didn't recognize they chose to die at the whim of madmen does not change their choice. There is no longer an excuse to remain that rigidly ignorant, and that's granting your argument on their behalf more value than is warranted.