pic: svt.se
Swedish Radio reported today that Swedish Customs (tullverket) has broken all records in confiscating pepper spray and tear gas at the border. Last year, customs seized 226 illegal products. This year, so far, they’ve seized 615 products – an increase of nearly 200%.
Jonas Karlsson, an expert with the National Coordination office at Customs, attributed the increase to rising anxiety and feelings of insecurity. “When people want to be able to defend themselves, they don’t usually choose a firearm but turn instead to tear gas or pepper spray.”
However, both tear gas and pepper spray are illegal to have without a license in Sweden. Both of them are considered weapons (read about the law here).
Not so in a couple of our neighbouring countries. Most of the goods are smuggled in from Denmark, where pepper spray is allowed in the home, and from Germany, where they’re both available without a license.
Customs believes that the number of canisters coming into the country is much higher than what they catch. “Our dogs aren’t trained for pepper spray” explained Karlsson. “We’ve also been told to prioritize firearms and narcotics.”
There are pepper-like sprays available for the nervous at heart, so called “defense sprays.” Using them, however, can still have serious legal consequences (see lawline.se). It might be better to sit tight and wait until the end of this government’s term of office – Minister for Home Affairs Mikael Damberg claimed today that he was certain that gang violence will have decreased by that time (Svd.se/Damberg).