After the mass shooting in Örebro, the government and the Sweden Democrats have agreed on changes to the weapons legislation. Among other things, they want to restrict access to semi-automatic weapons of military type.
"There are certain types of weapons that are so dangerous that they should only be allowed for civilian purposes in exceptional cases. The AR-15 is an example of a weapon that is compatible with large military weapon magazines and can cause great harm in a short time," the government states in a press release.
The police have confirmed that the suspected perpetrator in Örebro had a weapons license and four weapons in his possession. Three of them were found near his dead body.
The police have not disclosed what type of weapon it is. According to information to SVD, the suspect had a semi-automatic weapon, but not of the AR-15 type.
Proposal last spring
An investigation proposed last spring that semi-automatic weapons of military type, such as the AR-10 and AR-15, should be banned for hunting.
"In order to reduce the spread of these weapons in society and to limit certain disadvantages for legal weapon owners, the ban should come into force as soon as possible," the investigator wrote in his report.
The investigation also states:
"It cannot be ruled out that violent individuals abuse the opportunity to take a hunting license, in order to legally and relatively easily gain access to semi-automatic rifles that can be easily equipped with large magazines."
The investigator warns that particularly lone perpetrators are very difficult to detect before they commit their crimes: "There is therefore a real risk that such individuals pass the suitability test for weapon ownership."
Tighter scrutiny
Semi-automatic weapons of military type were allowed for hunting in the summer of 2023 after the Swedish Environmental Protection Agency changed its regulations. Even earlier, certain semi-automatic weapons were allowed, but not of military type. The investigation proposed that one should return to the rules that applied before the change in 2023.
The government is also giving a task to the police and the National Board of Health and Welfare to strengthen the work of testing individuals' suitability for a weapons license. This primarily concerns the testing of whether there are medical reasons to say no.
Today, doctors who encounter a patient who is unsuitable for owning a weapon must report it to the police. Approximately 2,000 such reports are made per year.
The government wants to see a mapping of how the reporting obligation is fulfilled.
It is essential to ensure that reports from healthcare are made to the extent that the legislation stipulates and that the reports are handled by the police in a purposeful manner, according to the government's press release.
