TAMUNING, GUAM – Their well-equipped arsenals offer everything from tiny revolvers for ladies to Berettas, Glocks, semiautomatic pistols and M16 military assault rifles. If kids can see over the counter, they’re welcome too.
Forget the white sandy beaches, coral reefs and laid-back island culture. For many Japanese tourists, the biggest thrill on Guam is the chance to shoot a gun at one of its ubiquitous ranges, dozens of which are tucked between upscale shopping centers.
The U.S. territory of Guam — a tropical island often described as a cheaper version of Hawaii — has long been the perfect place to put guns in the hands of tourists, especially from Japan, where gun ownership is tightly restricted and handguns are banned.
Despite the Sandy Hook Elementary School atrocity in Connecticut, on Guam the gun tourism business is as brisk as ever.
“It was such a feeling of power,” Keigo Takizawa, a 30-year-old actor, said after blasting a paper target with a shotgun, a .44 magnum and a Smith & Wesson revolver at the Western Frontier Village gun club, a cowboy-themed indoor shooting range and gift shop on Guam’s main shopping street run by a Japanese native.
“But,” Takizawa said, “I still don’t think anyone should be allowed to have one of their own.”
Many Japanese view America’s gun culture as both frightening and fascinating. Back home, the only people with handguns are in the military, the police or yakuza syndicates.
Because firearms are so hard to find, gun-related crime is extremely rare in Japan, a nation of about 130 million people. They were used in only seven murders in 2011. In the U.S., there are more than 11,000 gun-related killings annually.
The Japanese are proud of their low crime rate and generally support tough gun-control policies. But Guam, halfway between Tokyo and Honolulu, is America. The island’s gun ranges are to the Japanese what Amsterdam’s cannabis cafes are to backpackers the world over.
“I think it’s human nature to be curious about something that is forbidden,” said Tetsuo Yamamoto, who emigrated to the United States 30 years ago and runs the Western Frontier Village range. “Most of our customers are from Japan and have never had the opportunity to shoot a gun. It’s very exotic for them, and it’s very exhilarating.”
Natsue Matsumoto, a 38-year-old tourist from Osaka who was visiting a range for the second time in three days, said: “When most Japanese people think of American culture, one of the first things they think of is guns. American movies and video games are full of guns and that’s appealing — in a frightening sort of way.
“But I think Japan has it right,” she said. “If you don’t have a gun, you can’t kill someone with it.”
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