In the last five years, about 40 percent of the shootings in the Stockholm region have been carried out with a weapon that occurred during another shooting, the Police Authority states in the report Illegal use of weapons in the Stockholm police region.

Reuse of weapons in murder is not as common. But the police state that more weapons must be seized if shootings are to be stopped. The weapons are often reused within the same criminal network and were not infrequently smuggled in decades ago.

- An individual weapon can be responsible for a number of shots and this means that each weapon you pick can be quite important, says Sven Granath.

Decrease compared to last year

If you look further back in time, weapon seizures have increased significantly since 2010 when 398 weapons were seized (see fact box for the entire compilation). In 2019, 962 weapons were seized, which is a decrease compared to 2018 when the figure landed at 1,180.

- One can speculate that the fewer weapons seizures in 2019 have unfortunately had the lagging effect that the shootings have increased this year, says Sven Granath and continues:

- It may also be due to the fact that there were slightly fewer shootings in 2018, but it is negative that there was a decline.

Backlog in statistics

According to recent figures from NFC that SVT Nyheter has read, a total of 453 weapons have been seized by 30 June this year. However, it is important to take the figure with a pinch of salt as there is a lag in the statistics.

- I think we will see a lot of weapons seizures during the second half of 2020 and 2021 because we have had a lot of shootings, but also because we prioritized the work against the weapons and make many seizures that will be seen afterwards, says Sven Granath.

It sounds like the weapon fittings are still too low despite Rimfrost?

- I do not know what to expect either because not all regions have received increased resources. And as I said, the figure 2020 we must bring a pinch of salt. But it is important that the fittings are as high as possible, if you want to reduce the shootings in the short term, you have to make a lot of weapon fittings.