The recent mass shootings in the United States have spurred the White House to pursue what many in the nation consider taboo: strict gun controls.

But momentum is growing even among some die-hard advocates of the Second Amendment — the right to bear arms — including those who grew up using firearms to hunt, for sport or to protect their farms and homes. Many of them feel certain types of weapons, particularly military-style ones, are only designed for mass carnage.

In Japan, on the other hand, legal gun ownership is tightly controlled and allowed only for specific types of hunting or target shooting.