Attack on former Japan PM stuns nation known for gun control

An employee distributes extra editions of the Yomiuri Shimbun newspaper reporting on Japan’s former prime Mminister Shinzo Abe being shot (Eugene Hoshiko/AP)

News that former prime minister Shinzo Abe had been shot in broad daylight shocked not only Japan but the entire world, which has come to associate the relatively low-crime nation with strict gun control.

Japan, with a population of 125 million, had just 10 gun-related criminal cases last year, resulting in one death and four injuries, according to police.