Shooting sports at the Olympics are big deal for many firearm enthusiasts and sharpshooters, the Summer Olympics are set to take place in Tokyo, Japan this year and many are concerned that the country’s strict gun laws may impact some of the games.
The gun laws in Japan are extremely strict, so strict that Olympic coaches can not even touch the firearms used by athletes. This is a major issue, the high-performance pistols and rifles used in the event are finicky and if a failure is to occur on the range the coach will be unable to help fix the issue.
One workaround that coaches have figured out is fixing the firearm while the athlete holds it. Technical officials will be able to handle firearms at the competition for the purposes of inspecting ammunition and the firearm itself.
The National Rifle Association of Japan has been hard at work trying to get the rules relaxed for the competition but NRA Japan president Kiichiro Matsumaru said in a statement “We were involved in negotiations with the police and government so that teams coming here wouldn’t have any complaints… if they come here and feel it’s inconvenient, they might complain afterwards.”
The trouble in Tokyo does not stop at the egregious gun laws, the country much like the United States is facing an ammunition shortage.
Japan has imposed a limit of 800 rounds of ammunition per competitor, for an Olympic athlete training to get the gold this is hardly enough. Some have floated the idea of shipping in ammunition but with the wide array of gun laws, this may present an issue. The athletes may have to buy ammo from the range, this might not be the ammo they typically use and that may give them an unfair disadvantage at the event.
