Starting guns are used in, for example, competition races and are so-called shotguns.

Gas guns can be used to shoot, for example, tear gas.

Actually, it should not be possible to fire sharp shots with them, but with relatively simple means they can be converted into weapons to kill with.

Sonny Björk has worked as a forensic technician with a focus on weapons for over 30 years, now he is retired but continues to be a consultant in the field.

For the past two years, he has been involved in at least three murder investigations where the weapon was a rebuilt starting or gas weapon.

Among both the Swedish Customs and the Police's seizures, this type of weapon accounts for approximately 30 percent of all firearm seizures.

It is a small and handy weapon and at short distances, as is often the case, they are functional and they are very good at killing people, he says.

Rebuilt in Sweden

He shows how it is possible to transform the otherwise harmless pistols by either replacing the entire barrel or drilling it up so that the obstacle for sharp bullets disappears.

It is not particularly difficult, but if it is to be done well, industrial machines are required and Sonny Björk believes that it is done by professionals in Sweden.

The work that is put into doing this indicates that it is done more or less industrially, he says.

It is illegal to bring launch and gas weapons into Sweden without a permit.

But despite this, they can easily be ordered online from, for example, Germany or Poland, where they are not subject to a permit.

Then they are sent by post and the probability that the customs will find them is small.

On average, 90,000 packages arrive in Sweden daily and only a few per thousand are checked. 

Arms smuggling new crime

A change in the law from 1 December 2020 made arms smuggling an own crime and start-up and gas weapons are also included in that category. On the other hand, the district court and the court of appeal have made different assessments in a current case where three gas weapons were smuggled in. The district court convicted the accused of aggravated arms smuggling, while the Court of Appeal changed the sentence to only arms smuggling because the weapons were not converted into sharp weapons. The case is now up in the Supreme Court for a decision.