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Notes -
Recent events in Japan call this into question -- one successful assassination at the highest level using a homemade shotgun, and just now a pretty close brush with some sort of IED. Almost certainly much crappier than the actual dynamite and shitty revolvers favoured around the fin de siecle.
These people in Japan are (probably?) not anarchists per se, but I think it points in the direction that it's simply that the will is no longer there in the West.
I think it's more the sort of "general weapons level"--I assume many European nations used to (and some still do) have meaningful gun ownership (you used to be able to just buy a handgun in Britain, for example--the Pistol Act, which introduced a relatively-mild form of hangun control via requiring more paperwork from retailers, was enacted only after like the first Boer War, I think). Japan, meanwhile, confiscated swords before the Meiji era and the modern Japanese state limits you to shotguns and air rifles that have further regulations regarding ownership thereof. There was also that time in like the 60's when a left-wing politician was ran through with a freaking short sword during a public appearance.
More like much better VIP security, the rich and powerful do not longer believe they are "god chosen" an no common peon can harm them.
Times when empress was just walking the street without any security and precautions are gone.
You can still minecraft you town mayor or council, but it is not so glamorous, so fewer people bother.
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Call what into question?
I'm saying that the Golden Age, specifically, saw more high-profile assassinations because of new weapons. Japan doesn't really have an equivalent scenario.
The link between the improved weapons and the anarchist assassinations -- McKinley could just as well have been shot with a duelling pistol. (or a homemade shotgun)
Bombs of course have been an available method of expressing discontent at least since 5 November, 1605 -- it's just a matter of how many people are willing to take up the gauntlet.
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