Sweden may have the answer to America’s gun problem
By Tom Heberlein <time class=”c-byline__item” datetime=”2016-08-08T12:00:02″ data-ui=”timestamp”>Aug 8, 2016, 8:00am EDT</time>
gun violence is low in Sweden. The country ranks 10th out of 178 countries in the world for per capita gun ownership but in 2014 had only 21 homicides by firearms. In contrast, the US is first in per capita ownership and had more than 8,000 gun homicides in 2014. Controlling for population, US firearms homicides are 700 percent higher than Sweden’s.
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<p id=”wBQY12″>My employer, the Swedish Hunters Association, had filled out all the paperwork (including paying the tax), so there was no problem getting my guns into the country. But I couldn’t take them to my apartment, as I would have in the United States.</p>
Instead, like all guns in Sweden, they had to be stored in a locked safe, so colleagues took them directly to the wildlife research lab that has a walk-in vault to store firearms.
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Here’s how the Swedish system works: Only responsible people are trusted with firearms. Sweden licenses guns in much the same way we license cars and drivers. You can have up to six guns but can get more with special permission.
To apply for a firearm permit you must first take a year-long hunter training program and pass a written and shooting test. You can also apply for a gun permit if you’ve been a member of an established shooting club for six months.
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In addition to undergoing training, Sweden’s gun owners must store their firearms safely. Guns must be locked away in a vault, not stored beneath your car seat or in the nightstand where your kids can find them.
Responsibility in Sweden goes further yet: Convicted of a felony? No guns for you. Beat your wife? No guns. Under a restraining order? No guns. Drive drunk? No guns.
(The gun law does not spell out specific actions that cause a citizen to be “unfit” to have a gun permit. It does say that the police must have a “reasonable cause” to suspend a permit, and these kinds of things might signal that a gun owner is “unfit.”)
Even so, being responsible is not such a tough job. Sweden denies permits to only about 1,000 people a year (out of 600,000 permit holders), and they can appeal their rejection to the courts.
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<p id=”lBEajt”>And despite these restrictions, Sweden has a strong hunting culture. The heavily forested country is about the size of California but with one-fourth the people. Its moose population per acre is the world’s largest, and moose hunting is front-page news. The king himself hunts moose, and small towns shut down for the season opener much like Wisconsin towns do for the state’s deer season.</p>
<p id=”QyACNJ”>Sweden has nearly 300,000 hunters, which means it has a readily armed population should it need defense. And make no mistake: Guns are part of Sweden’s culture, history, and national defense — even though it has enjoyed more than 200 years of peace.</p>
Many of my Swedish colleagues served in the military and are proficient with firearms. They can practice at shooting ranges all over Stockholm. When hiking in a city park, it’s common to hear the measured shots of target practice nearby.
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SO GUNS ARENT THE PROBLEM, ANDY. SWEDES HAVE GUNS. BUT NOT THE DANGEROUS SWEDES. MENTALLY ILL PEOPLE ARE THE PROBLEM. My cousin was murdered by her husband, who then shot himself as police were about to arrest him. My uncle found his daughter’s body with the back of her head blown off. I had guns pointed at me by gangbangers (two black, one Mexican) three times before I was 20 yrs old. It’s more personal to me than you. So yeah, I want a solution to this increasing problem. More gun laws won’t mean anything. The gangbangers who pointed guns at me got their guns illegally, as they were all under the legal age to possess handguns.
Is heroin still illegal in the UK? And is it still readily available in your big cities? Will passing more laws solve THAT problem?
Grow a brain, Andy. Or at least change the fing record. Your message is old, tired, and you have no wisdom for me. You are a neophyte.
The real problem is mental illness. It’s everywhere, just look at Andy’s and Kiwi’s remarks for clear proof of this. But now we have crazy, fatherless kids in mass numbers training for killing sprees on Call of Duty and other games that desensitize the act of murder. Imagine halfwits like Andy and Kiwi, who obviously have rage disorders, playing COD all day and then finding out that their bus pass has inadvertently expired. If an AR 15 is available to them, I’m fing scared. But a semiauto pistol and several clips of ammo is equally lethal, if not more lethal because of how easily concealed it is. And while Biden calls 9mm “large caliber,” smaller caliber, like .22 rounds, are even more deadly because they bounce around inside the body cavity and do more damage than a large bullet, which goes right through a person’s body.
The “gun lobby” is not as powerful as you think. The NRA filed for bankruptcy in 2021. Its donations to political candidates has been relatively small compared to other corporate donors. But the NRA could be helpful here. In the late 70s, the NRA helped police get Saturday Night Specials off the street. These were cheap, readily-available pistols that were accessible to anyone with $50 in their hands. That cooperation worked. The NRA could easily shift its focus to support red-flag laws that allow law enforcement to grab guns from people who pose a mental health risk, which ALL of these mass shooters (and Andy and Kiwi) have consistently exhibited.
I’m guessing Andy and Kiwi are both fatherless as well, another common trait among mass shooters and many sufferers of mental illness.
This reply was modified 2 years, 5 months ago by callmepuds.
The last year of his presidency saw development of a covid vaccine in the US in record time because he removed every possible barrier from delaying the process. Not exactly a disaster. He brokered multiple peace agreements between Israel and Arab countries (which the libtard media tried to ignore), and more were set to follow in his second term. Far from a disaster. Our economy was in record territory. We were the largest oil producer on the planet. And for entire time year, he was fighting a purely political impeachment, a biased media and lying leadership in the CIA and FBI.
And now the truth is coming out. There will be a reckoning in 6.5 months. The disaster is what will happen to the lunatic left this November. Their war on testicles and energy is coming to a grinding halt.
Assuming that’s true, I would gladly put up with all of those shortcomings because of his policies and achievements. I don’t need you to accept that, or change your opinion. Your hate is costing you, personally, but some people feel they need to hate, or they just can’t help themselves.