There is a cultural thing. Japan, like the US, has gun nuts. But the ones in Japan don't have access to real guns. So there's much business in non-functional replica guns. An anime for that market, Gunsmith Cats, came out around 1995. It's set in a gun store in Chicago. So the production team from Japan visited Chicago and and went to a real Chicago gun store to see what one looked like. There's video.[1]
That's interesting, because gun stores in Chicago basically aren't a thing. They're all in the suburbs. "Illinois Gun Works", in the video, is in Elmwood Park.
Not only that Chicago has some of the strictest gun laws in the US. When that video was made you couldn’t _possess_ a handgun in Chicago unless you owned it prior to 1982.
That law has since been struck down as unconstitutional but the recently passed statewide assault weapons ban was patterned on the Chicago ban, also in effect at the time that video was made that is still in effect.
[1] https://youtu.be/o8dBJ2mxxFk?t=683