Halloween, Guns, and the Death of International Student Yoshihiro Hattori
In 1992, Yoshihiro Hattori visited the U.S. as an exchange student from Japan, the BBC reports. It was October in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, and Yoshihiro was off to a Halloween party with a friend, dressed as John Travolta from Saturday Night Fever. The two got lost but eventually found a house with Halloween decorations and thought it must be the party. The house numbers were similar: 10311 versus 10131.
They knocked, a woman came to the door, saw them, and slammed the door. Moments later, a man opened the door. He was holding a gun.
Yoshihiro sang out: “We’re here for the party! We’re here for the party!”
The man shouted “Freeze!” Yoshihiro continued towards him. The man fired at Yoshihiro, hit him in the chest, and slammed the door.
Yoshihiro died. The man who shot him was acquitted of all criminal charges. He later lost a civil suit brought by Yoshihiro’s parents.
Yoshihiro’s family–both his biological one in Japan and his host family in the states–launched a gun control campaign in the wake of his death. That campaign, the U.S. Ambassador to Japan said, had a “very definite impact” on the passage of the Brady Handgun Violence Prevention Act in 1993. The families remain active in the fight against gun control to this day.
-KitJ