Fatal shootings in Sweden have climbed to a new all-time high in 2022, topping the country’s previous record set in 2020, which was also a European record, when 47 people were murdered with firearms, according to official police statistics.
Citing figures from the Swedish National Council for Crime Prevention, Swedish Justice Minister Gunnar Strömmer has announced that the number of individuals shot dead in 2022 climbed to 60, representing a 253% increase from 2012 when the number of fatal shootings stood at 17, the national public broadcaster Sveriges Television AB (SVT) reports.
While speaking at a press conference, Strömmer said: “The background is painful and tangible. Deadly violence with firearms has increased, and unfortunately, there will be a new bloody record this year.”
“No decent society can accept that someone is shot dead every week in the streets,” the justice minister continued, adding that the figures are only the tip of the iceberg as violence and organized crime are rife in parts of society.
By comparison, among other Nordic countries, four murders were carried out with firearms in Norway, four in Denmark, and two in Finland.
“It’s extremely high and it’s a very big increase that we’ve seen compared to the last few years. This increase is also driven by the fact that a higher proportion of those who are shot now die. Fewer are injured, more die,” Manne Gerell, an associate professor of criminology at Malmö University, said.
Sweden broke its previous record in late September when its 48th deadly shooting took place in Kristianstad, Skåne. At the time, Sweden’s police chief Anders Thornberg, while speaking to Sweden’s national news agency TT Nyhetsbyrån, said: “It looks like we’re going to break the record this year. That means—if it continues at the same rate—there will be around 60 deadly shootings.”
Sweden, once considered the most peaceful society in Europe, is the only European country where fatal shootings have risen considerably since 2000, according to a report from the National Council on Crime Prevention (Brå).
In a 2021 report which analyzed deadly violence, Germany’s BILD newspaper called Sweden the “most dangerous country in Europe.”
The report reads:
In the EU, an average of eight people per 1 million are victims of fatal violence. In Sweden, the number in 2020 was 12 people per 1 million inhabitants. When it comes to the victims of firearms, the difference between Europe and Sweden is even greater. In the EU, an average of 1.6 people per million die from gunshot wounds—in Sweden the figure is three, almost four times as many.
The difference becomes even greater if you only look at the age group of 20 to 29-year-olds. In most EU countries, the figure is between zero and four firearm victims per million inhabitants. Sweden, on the other hand, has 18 deaths per million inhabitants. In second place is the Netherlands, which also has “only” six deaths in the 20 to 29 age group per million inhabitants.
As The European Conservative previously reported:
Regarding the demographic profile of shooters, statistics from 2021 revealed that the average age of suspects involved in fatal shootings is 23 years old, while 85% of suspects were either born outside of Sweden or have a migration background.
Gothenburg police chief Erik Nord last year found himself in hot water after he penned an editorial for Goteborgs Posten where he linked the rise in deadly firearm violence to the torrent of mass migration Sweden has witnessed over the past several decades.
Nord, in the editorial, wrote:
It is no longer a secret today that much of the problem of gang and network crime with the shootings and explosions have been linked to migration to Sweden in recent decades. When, like me, you have the opportunity to follow matters at the individual level, you see that virtually everyone who shoots or is shot in gang conflicts originates from the Balkans, the Middle East, or North or East Africa.
