Tougher penalties for gun crimes in Sweden after new year

All Swedish parliamentary parties support the government’s proposal to increase the penalties for various forms of weapons offenses, violations of the permit requirement for explosives, weapons smuggling and smuggling of explosives as of January 1.

In brief, the changes mean that the laws will be tightened as follows:

•  The sentencing scales for serious crimes will be changed from a minimum of two years’ imprisonment and a maximum of five years’ imprisonment to a minimum of four years’ imprisonment and a maximum of seven years’ imprisonment.
• The penalty scale for especially serious crimes will be changed from imprisonment of a minimum of four years and a maximum of seven years to imprisonment of a minimum of six years and a maximum of ten years.
• The maximum penalties for ordinary crimes will be increased from three to five years imprisonment.

According to the Legal Affairs Committee, the main aim is to “highlight the seriousness of these crimes, which are often committed by criminal networks”.

276 MPs voted for the amendments – and 21 against. 52 members were absent.

In recent years, Sweden has been singled out as a European horror story when it comes to shootings and gang crime. Violence in Swedish cities has long been at levels usually associated with poor and dysfunctional developing countries in the third world.