Sweden to tighten gun laws after mass shooting at school

OREBRO, Sweden — Sweden’s right-wing government said on Friday it would seek to tighten gun laws in the wake of the country’s deadliest mass shooting at an adult education center where the attacker appeared to have used several of his own licensed rifles.

Ten people were shot dead at the Campus Risbergska school in Orebro on Tuesday, before the man believed to be the perpetrator — identified by a Reuters source and Swedish media as Rickard Andersson, a 35-year-old Swedish recluse — turned a weapon on himself. Police confirmed on Friday that the suspected shooter was a 35-year-old man, and said they had completed the identification of all the victims, although they did not release any names.

Seven women and four men between 28 and 68 years of age died in Tuesday’s attack, including the suspect, police said in a statement.

Among the victims were several Christians who fled persecution in Syria. Police say they have found no evidence of an ideological motive so far.

Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson said the event had sparked fear and a sense of vulnerability among many people with immigrant backgrounds in Sweden, calling for everyone to “unite and stand behind all that we hold dear together”.

“My thoughts are with the relatives who have now received the call that is the worst one can get. To you, I want to say: you are not alone. We stand beside you,” he said in a social media post on Friday evening.

The government has agreed with its far-right backers in parliament to tighten up the vetting process for people applying for gun licences and to clamp down on some semi-automatic weapons.

It said the AR-15, an assault rifle based on a military design that has been used in many mass shootings in the United States, was the kind of gun it wanted banned.

“In light of the horrible shooting in Orebro earlier this week we believe that the right balance is to roll back the regulation and prohibit that kind of weapon,” Justice Minister Gunnar Strommer told Reuters.