Sweden’s Mass Shooting Aftermath Makes U.S. Headlines; Here’s Why

After a crazed killer opened fireplace on the Risbergska College in Örebro’s Västhaga district about 125 miles west from Stockholm on Tuesday, the U.S. media is paying very shut consideration to what’s taking place in Sweden.

The reason being easy: Sweden’s authorities, in keeping with Firstpost, “introduced on Friday (February 7) that it could transfer to amend the nation’s gun legal guidelines, imposing stricter restrictions on semi-automatic weapons.”

The Firstpost headline says all of it: “Mass capturing: Sweden to do in every week what US couldn’t in years– restrict entry to semi-automatic weapons.”

Sweden will not be the US, and a have a look at the Swedish Structure exhibits one essential factor is lacking, any semblance of a Second Modification proper to maintain and bear arms that can’t be infringed.

Nonetheless, that’s not stopping widespread media consideration to the announcement from Stockholm Friday.

The New York Instances headlined its Friday protection thusly: “Sweden Strikes to Tighten Gun Legal guidelines After Mass Taking pictures.”

The Instances report was fast to incorporate this: “The proposal has not been formalized, however it’ll seemingly strengthen the fundamental necessities for buying a gun license, instructing the police to take into consideration age, weapons information and expertise in addition to the particular person’s prison historical past. It should additionally seemingly name for broader checks on the applicant’s medical historical past.”

This sounds much like the sorts of gun controls Democrats and different anti-gunners wish to impose within the U.S., particularly licensing of gun homeowners to incorporate proof of firearms information, and an in depth background test to incorporate presumably invasion-of-privacy medical historical past scrutiny.

MSN is reporting the incident claimed 11 lives, together with that of the suspected killer, recognized in European press stories as Rickard Andersson, 35. He lived locally of Örebro, he was unemployed and had apparently “misplaced contact with household lately.” MSN’s headline: “Sweden to tighten gun management legal guidelines after mass capturing in Örebro.“

There’s something else within the MSN report. Police stated the suspect “was discovered with three weapons that had been registered to his title. (Emphasis added). Mendacity subsequent to him had been giant quantities of unused ammunition in addition to gun licenses for 4 firearms.”

MSN additionally reported that SVT (Sweden’s equal of NPR), stated the police reported “an computerized firearm because the weapon used.”

Firstpost is reporting that the proposed gun management measures, “agreed upon by the ruling coalition and the Sweden Democrats will particularly curtail civilian entry to semi-automatic firearms, such because the AR-15, which authorities say is able to inflicting vital harm in a brief span of time.”

If that sounds acquainted, it’s virtually similar to the rhetoric of U.S.-based gun prohibition lobbying teams. Look ahead to them to start out referring to the Swedish tragedy and lift questions why the Congress can not take the identical swift motion.

U.S. gun rights advocates will rapidly clarify why. Such an effort would instantly hit a nasty pace bump often called the Invoice of Rights, and particularly the Second Modification.

Firstpost was cautious to incorporate in its protection, “The US accounts for 46 per cent of the world’s civilian-owned firearms, in keeping with knowledge from the Switzerland-based Small Arms Survey. The nation additionally ranks highest amongst developed nations in firearm-related homicides.”

One other report, from The Guardian—a U.Ok.-based publication—says this in regards to the Swedish authorities’s motion: “The federal government stated on Friday it needed to reimpose restrictions that existed earlier than 2023 and develop a technique to grab military-style weapons.”

Over time, numerous American political figures, together with presidential candidates Hillary Rodham Clinton and Kamala Harris, have intimated they wish to deal with gun management in such a method, maybe like the federal government of New Zealand did following a terror assault in that island nation. There was a compulsory “buy-back” (as if the federal government owned personal residents’ firearms initially), which U.S. gun rights advocates similar to Alan Gottlieb, founder and govt vp of the Second Modification Basis, have known as “compensated confiscation.”

The Guardian additionally reported, “Swedish hunters, of whom there are a whole lot of 1000’s, are capable of apply for licences for semi-automatic weapons. In August 2023, the environmental safety company lifted a ban on military-style fashions, that means weapons such because the AR-15 had been permitted for searching.”

Within the U.S., tens of 1000’s of licensed hunters use fashionable semiautomatic rifles for searching, particularly for predators similar to coyotes or bobcats, and small to medium-sized recreation. The AR platform is now tailored to stronger rifle calibers than simply the .223 Remington/5.56mm NATO. These days one finds such rifles chambered for numerous 6mm and .30 calibers together with the .308 Winchester.

Whereas no motive has been reported, and the investigation continues, this capturing as soon as once more undermines the competition by the gun prohibition foyer that such crimes occur “solely in America.”

One similarity between the assault in Sweden and probably the most infamous of U.S. mass shootings was reported by Yahoo Information.

“Investigators have stated the alleged shooter in Örebro was beforehand unknown to the police,” Yahoo stated. “They imagine he acted alone and that the capturing was not an act of terrorism, however the motive for the crime stays unclear.”

In accordance with The Impartial, the capturing victims included seven girls and 4 males. The killer is believed to have taken his personal life, one other similarity to U.S. mass shootings.