[cuchulainn]

There's also a comments page at the link

from Japan Today

http://www.japantoday.com/e/?content=news&cat=1&id=279506Clinton discusses gun control with parents of boy slain in U.S.

Thursday, November 20, 2003 at 04:07 JST
NAGOYA — Former U.S President Bill Clinton on Wednesday met with the parents of a Japanese high school exchange student who was shot dead in Louisiana in 1992, their first reunion since they met 10 years ago at the White House.

Clinton, who has actively sought stricter gun controls since the incident, chatted with the boy's parents, Masaichi and Mieko Hattori. Clinton visited the Hattoris after delivering a lecture at Aichi Gakuin University in Nisshin, Aichi Prefecture.

The couple's 16-year-old son, Yoshihiro, was shot dead in October 1992 by the owner of a house in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, when he went to the wrong house on his way to a Halloween party.

The Hattoris, who were photographed with the former president, gave him a book and a video documenting their campaign to control gun use in the U.S.

"I hope the Democratic Party win next year's presidential election and that gun control will make progress," Masaichi told Clinton.

Clinton, who noticed that the Hattoris were wearing badges symbolizing the gun control movement, expressed his gratitude for their continuing efforts.

Clinton first met the couple in November 1993 at the White House when they handed him a petition signed by some 1.7 million people in Japan and the United States seeking gun controls in America.

Shortly afterward, the Brady Bill was passed in U.S. Congress, requiring background checks and a five-day waiting period for gun purchases.

Mieko told reporters that meeting Clinton again has encouraged her and her husband to pursue their gun-control efforts further. (Kyodo News)

[geekWithA.45]

Clinton first met the couple in November 1993 at the White House when they handed him a petition signed by some 1.7 million people in Japan and the United States seeking gun controls in America.


Urgh.

OK, for starters, the right of petition and redress of American government applies only to Americans.

Foriegn signatures on a petition to American government concerning domestic policy are completely without merit or meaning.

In short, we don't give a hoot about what the Japanese citizens, who seem to be quite happy with their police state, and twice yearly police house searches have to say or think about what goes on in CONUS.

Second: Civil and Human Rights simply aren't subject to popular opinion. That's why they're amendments to our Highest law, and placed beyond the boundaries of normal political discourse.

Harumph.

[Nightfall]

...their campaign to control gun use in the U.S.
Clinton first met the couple in November 1993 at the White House when they handed him a petition signed by some 1.7 million people in Japan and the United States seeking gun controls in America.
And what was the reason they weren't laughed out of White House for trying to push Japanese political crap into law in the US? Seriously, why in the hell would a petition about US domestic laws signed by a large number of foreigners even be accepted?! :fire:

Huh? Oh. Clinton. Nevermind... anyway, I got an idea. You all keep your police state, and we'll keep on giving freedom a chance. It's gotten (mostly) rave reviews over here.

[Hkmp5sd]

Looks like they forgot to mention that the shooting was ruled justified, borderline IMO, but still a legal shooting.

[Cosmoline]

I would like to sign a petition that the Japanese should encourage civilian firearm ownership. If the kid had understood something about firearms, he never would have charged a home owner with a .44 Magnum pointed at him!

[ny32182]

10 bucks says the homeowner owned the gun legally in the first place. So the Brady bill would have done, what, exactly, to stop said kid from being shot?

[El Tejon]

Cos, no way! Count me out! The Japanese should never be armed, ever.

Keep them helpless and ignorant of weaponry of any kind.

tt, of course, it's not about preventing incidents such as the Disco Dojo. If it were about preventing shootings based on misunderstanding, then they would be pushing education. They are not, they are pushing disarming the peasantry--Guns for Buddha!:uhoh:

[Destructo6]

Wasn't this kid the one who was shot after entering an unlocked garage door, then continued to advance into the house after being confronted by the homeowner (who he should have recognized as not being the folks he intended to visit)?

[gun-fucious]

http://goldsea.com/Features2/Twodeaths/twodeaths3.html

On October 17, 1992, Yoshihiro Hattori and Webb Haymaker were on their way to a Halloween party for Japanese exchange students in a quiet neighborhood in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Arriving at the home that they thought was the site of the party, they rang the doorbell and waited. Because the front lawn of the modest brick ranchstyle home was festively arrayed with Halloween decorations, they assumed that they had found the right place. When no one appeared to answer the door, they started back for the car in disappointment.

___ However, as they were leaving, the carport door opened and a woman appeared. It was dark, about 8:30 p.m. on a fall evening. Bonnie Peairs would later tell police that she was startled by the two youths, whom she said approached quickly. She slammed the door shut, locked it and told her husband Rodney to "get the gun!"
____ Rodney Peairs told police that he was in the den watching television and talking to his father on the telephone in the moments before the fateful incident. He left the den and was on his way to the kitchen when the doorbell rang. He told his son, Greg, to find out who was at the door. His wife, however, was already doing that. Moments later Peairs heard her slam the carport door shut and shout for him to get the gun.

____ Peairs, a 30-year-old meat cutter at a local grocery store, did as his wife commanded. He went to their bedroom and retrieved a large firearm from the top shelf of his closet. It was a .44-magnum handgun, a stainless stell Smith & Wesson wiht an eight-inch barrel and Leupold scope. Peairs then went to the carport door, opened it and stood in the doorway as he sought out the source of the disturbance. At first he was nothing. Then he caught a glimpse of "movement" in the area behind his truck parked in the driveway.

____ Moments later Yoshi, who was decked out like John Travolta in Saturday Night Fever for the Halloween party, began walking toward Peairs. He tried to tell him in his broken English that they had arrived for the Halloween party. His companion, Webb Haymaker, saw the gun in Peairs's hand and tried to call Yoshi back. But the Japanese youngster kept moving forward, certain that they had found the party.

____ In his confusion and apprehension, Peairs badly misjudged the situation. Instead of a friendly young man inquiring about a Halloween party, he saw a threatening intruder who meant to harm him and his family. He told police that the stranger was waving his hands and saying something he could not understand and he moved briskly toward the carport door.

____ Peairs ordered Yoshi to "freeze" and then fired a single shot when he continued toward him. Peairs thought he struck the intruder in the shoulder but didn't venture outside to determine the extent of the damage. He slammed the door and locked it and told his wife to call 911.

____ Yoshi was struck in the upper left chest, not the shoulder. Webb screamed for help. A neighbor who heard the gunshot arrived shortly thereafter and helped Webb try to resuscitate his friend. Their efforts were in vain. According to the pathology report, the projectile had pierced the upper and lower lobes of his left lung and exited through the area of the seventh rib. Yoshi aspirated blood and other bodily fluids and minutes later died from loss of blood.

____ After the shooting the Peairs family huddled together in the kitchen, ignoring the tumult outside their carport door. They would wait for the arrival of police and emergency medical workers before venturing outside. Badly shaken and in tears, Rodney Peairs told his family to pray with him. One of his children later told police that her mother asked Peairs, "Why did you shoot him?"

The slaying made national headlines in both the U.S. and Japan. The Japanese were outraged. In their country very few homeowners are allowed to own a firearm and fatal shootings are usually associated with organized crime. Yoshi's death reinforced their belief that America's streets are rife with guns, violence and a growing lawlessness.

____ That sentiment was bolstered by the shooting of another Japanese exchange student, 25-year-old Masakazu Kuriyama, in August. Kuriyama was discovered near a transit station in Concord, California, with bullet wounds in the head. He died a day later. At presstime, police had no motive in the slaying and had not ruled out the possibility that it was a hate crime.

____ Japanese television networks provided intensive coverage of the Hattori incident, which became known as "the freeze case". Many Japanese and Americans feared the slaying would exacerbate already strained relations between the two countries. In early July, nearly nine months after the shooting, President Clinton apologized to Yoshi's parents, Masaichi and Mieko, in a 10-minute phone call to their Nagoya home.

____ After Yoshi's funeral, the Hattoris had released a statement that expressed their anger and frustration. "The thing we must really despise, more than the criminal, is the American law that permits people to own guns."

____ Peairs was charged with manslaughter and, if convicted, faced a maximum of 40 years in prison. His lawyers argued that he was justified in shooting Hattori because he feared for his family's safety. Under Louisiana's "shoot the burglar" law, a person is allowed to use deadly force to protect his home from an intruder. The fact that Yoshi was a foreigner, indeed a Japanese national, certainly did not harm Peairs' chances of acquittal.

____ Prosecutors argued that Peairs could have avoided the deadly confrontation by merely stepping back inside his home. It sounds so simple. Lock the door and call the police. Peairs certainly made the wrong choice, but was it a criminal lapse of judgment? The prosecution would find out how difficult that would be to prove.

The trial lasted seven days and created a stir in the normally sedate Louisiana town. The Japanese were keenly interested in the outcome and sent dozens of journalists to Baton Rouge to follow the case. During the trial Yoshi's companion Webb Haymaker testified that he and his friend had arrived at the wrong house because two digits had been transposed on the address they were given. Webb's testimony actually bolstered the defense argument that Peairs was merely protecting his family by shooting at the strangers in his carport. Webb told the jury that Yoshi had waved his arms at Peairs and that, in the darkness, his camera could have looked like a gun.

____ For his part, Peairs gave tearful testimony that his wife had been terrified by the boys. He told the jurors that Yoshi had moved in a threatening manner, leaving him with no choice but to shoot him to protect his family. Judging by their verdict, the jurors believed him. Peairs was, after all, a minister's son who had worked in the same grocery store since he was in junior high school. He was a longtime Baton Rouge resident. Yoshi was merely a visitor from the other side of the world.

____ The jury deliberated three hours and fifteen minutes before returning the verdict. As it was being announced, Peairs stood up, his attorney holding him by the arm. When the not-guilty verdict was read by the forewoman, spectators cheered loudly enough to prompt the bailiff to quiet them. Peairs slumped in his chair and began weeping in joy.

____ Yoshi's father, an engineer for an auto-parts manufacturer in Nagoya, was taking a walk when the verdict was announced. Most likely, he had not expected such a swift verdict. When told of the jury's decision, Hattori said through an interpreter that he was "appalled" and found the decision "unbelievable."

____ Hattori was not the only one who expressed incredulity at the verdict.
____ "This trial did not make a lick o sense to me," says Richard Haymaker, Webb's father. The Haymakers were hosting Yoshi through a student exchange program sponsored by the American Field Services.

____ They described him as the "ideal" exchange student, one of three that they have hosted at their home in an upper-middle-class neighborhood of Baton Rouge. Yoshi called them "mom" and "dad" and occasionally cooked supper for the family. And he had no problem adapting to his new environment. "He was totally open to this country," said Haymaker.

____ Haymaker argues that America's love affair with firearms and its "frontier mentality" led Peairs to grab the gun, aim and shoot it before asking a single question. "He went into firing position in a quiet, suburban neighborhood assuming that he would terrorize anything out there that moved," says Haymaker. "He never imagined that there would be something out there that wouldn't be terrorized."



http://www.tcp-ip.or.jp/~hatmi/introducton%20of%20YoSHI.html

http://www.tcp-ip.or.jp/~hatmi/katina%20flyer.html

[Travis McGee]

Clinton is a traitor to the USA, who is "running" for the position of the first "president" of the UN. He's scum, only worse.
http://matthewbracken.web.aplus.net/snakelogo.jpg

[Standing Wolf]

Civil and Human Rights simply aren't subject to popular opinion. That's why they're amendments to our Highest law, and placed beyond the boundaries of normal political discourse.

You've been reading too many civics texts again. That's only the way it's supposed to be.