Two feared dead and 17 wounded in a mass stabbing attack in Kawasaki, Japan.

Rescue workers at the scene of the attack. AFP/Reuters.

Two people are feared dead and 17 were wounded in a mass stabbing attack in Kawasaki Japan. AFP. The two victims were described as showing no vital signs, which is commonly used in Japan as shorthand for people who have died but have not been pronounced dead by a doctor. One of the two feared dead was a female child while the other was an adult male. 17 other people were wounded, many of which were also children. A suspect was detained at the site but he stabbed himself in the neck before he was captured. He was armed with two knives. No motive has been released. Japan has very low crime rates and rarely has mass attacks like this, but has seen several mass stabbings in recent years. 

My Comment:

This information is very preliminary and may change after this post has been written. Very little has been written about the incident other than the AFP report. NBC News and BBC had posted some stories but they were very threadbare. It's very possible that more information will come out soon. I've seen some reports that three people died but I don't know if that is legit or not. 

This was a pretty horrifying attack. Mass stabbings always seem more horrible to me than mass shootings or bombings as the attack is much more personal. And the fact that the attacker targeted children makes it all the more horrible. 

It seems like Japan's police response time was pretty bad here. You would have thought that cops would have been on scene fairly quickly and would have taken the suspect down. Japanese police do carry guns but also use unarmed and armed techniques to subdue criminals. I think this was a case of the cops just not getting there in time to stop the attacker. Indeed, it sounds like as soon as they showed up the attacker stopped and stabbed himself so a quicker response time might have saved some people.

To be fair, it's not like Japan has a lot of experience with these kind of attacks. They are a calm society with very little crime. Mass attacks like this aren't unheard of but they are extremely rare. Very few people in Japan are violent and they have very few people that have political or religious beliefs that encourage violence. 

This attack also is proof that gun control isn't going to end mass violence. Japan doesn't have anything like a right to bear arms and gun ownership is extremely limited. But they have had several mass stabbings where multiple people have been injured or killed. As long as people have the desire to kill and injure large numbers of people, they will find a way. 

Mass stabbings do seem like a fairly effective way to injure and kill a large number of people, especially when they can't fight back. Targeting children is even more effective as they have no way to fight back and are not good at escaping. As long as nobody is armed a lot of people can be hurt or killed.