Despite high gun ownership, Scandinavia remains largely free of firearm violence

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• Amna Nawaz:

  Today's day care center massacre in Thailand points again to just how rare these mass shootings are outside of the United States, where, this year alone, there have been more than 500.

  Survivors of Norway's deadliest ever massacre in 2011 are urging the U.S. to tighten gun laws to try to end school shootings. Across the border from Norway, in Sweden, sporadic gang-fueled gun crime just helped to install a far right anti-immigrant party into power.

  Both countries have relatively high levels of gun ownership, but low levels of gun-related homicides.

  Special correspondent Malcolm Brabant went to Scandinavia to see if there are lessons America can learn.

• Malcolm Brabant:

  At long lost, Norway has a national memorial for the worst attack on its soil since World War II.

  At this summer's inauguration, friends honored the 69 young victims massacred 11 years ago on the island of Utoya by right-wing extremist Anders Breivik.

• Person:

  Elisabeth Tronnes Lie.

• Malcolm Brabant:

  Elisabeth Tronnes Lie was 16 years old when she was murdered. Her sister, Cathrine, then 17, was one of 110 wounded.

  On the anniversary of the shooting, Cathrine posted this image revealing the exit wound of the round that nearly claimed her life.

  The everlasting torment of their mother, Marit, is plain to see. Painting provides an outlet for grief and anger, from having just two daughters, Cathrine and Victoria, instead of three.

  Marit Tronnes Lie, Mother of Shooting Victim: This is a painting of my daughters, sisters, those two I have left. They are comforting each other. And that gives me comfort that they have each other, now that there is (INAUDIBLE)

• Malcolm Brabant:

  What do you think every time you hear that there's been a massacre in America?

• Marit Tronnes Lie:

  I can feel the pain. I really feel it.

  I can't understand why every American should own a gun and be able to buy a gun. Why?

• Malcolm Brabant:

  Here's a comparison between America and Norway in 2020, which was the worst ever year for gun-related deaths in the United States. In America that year, there were 19,384 gun homicides, in Norway, just two, yes, two.

  America's population is 60 times that of Norway. So, if you were to transfer Norway's figures to the United States, there would have been just 120 deaths, instead of nearly 20,000.

  Bjorn Ihler, Utoya Survivor and Peace Activist: Having stood on the wrong end of the gun of a mass shooter is not an experience anyone should ever have.

• Malcolm Brabant:

  After surviving Utoya, Bjorn Ihler, now 31, has devoted his life to promoting peace and countering extremism. He hasn't stepped foot on the island since 2014, when he went back with me to the place where the shooter fired at him and missed.

• Bjorn Ihler:

  Breivik pointed his gun at me and he hired. And, for a moment there, I knew I was dead, basically. I collapsed in the water. I guess he just assumed he had hit me or something like that, because he continued just shooting people around me.

• Malcolm Brabant:

  When he's not trying to de-radicalize right-wing or Islamic extremists, Ihler lives in the Nordic woods. Tranquillity soothes his trauma.

• Bjorn Ihler:

  Many of my friends were killed in the attack. And my entire country was changed forever by it.

• Malcolm Brabant:

  Espen Farstad represents Norway's hunters association. He's happy that post-Utoya legislation outlawed automatic, semiautomatic and high-caliber pistols and rifles.

  Espen Farstad, Norwegian Association of Hunters and Anglers: We are very safe. We have 1.3 million guns, civil guns, in the Norwegian society. That means one for every four Norwegians in the region. But we hardly see any crimes.

• Malcolm Brabant:

  Norway has some of the world's toughest gun laws. Shotguns and hunting rifles can be purchased following stringent background checks and extensive training. Firearms are seen here primarily as tools for hunting.

  Farstad believes Americans should emulate Norwegians and tackle what he calls the paranoia of guns for self-defense.

• Espen Farstad:

  They are playing with their own kids lives. And I don't think they take it seriously enough. And I think it's sad to say that a heavy organization like the National Rifle Association keep on working like they do for their weapon interests, without seeing the big problems they are causing in the society.

• Malcolm Brabant:

  But it's impossible for America to be as safe as Norway, unless the constitutional right to bear arms is modified.

  Bjorn Ihler believes the founding fathers' intentions, written in an era of single-shot muskets, have been misinterpreted.

• Bjorn Ihler:

  I do think there needs to be a change in the culture surrounding guns. The militarization disarmament really should be a natural conclusion at this point, especially considering the way in which firearms have changed, and we now have a much higher degree of high-capacity weapons.

• Malcolm Brabant:

  Target practice with a customized AR-15, the weapon of choice for many American mass murderers. In Sweden, it's only available for purchase by sports shooters like champion markswoman Pia Clerte.

  Across the border from Norway, Sweden also enforces restrictive gun controls. To be granted a Swedish gun license, applicants must be of good character and law-abiding. Hunting and sports guns can only be obtained after six months' assessment at a certified club. And then gun owners are monitored by the police every 24 hours.

  Pia Clerte, Markswoman and Gun Advocate: There is a registry check if you have done any crimes or suspected any crimes or anything like that. And it can be things like driving too fast or being too drunk in a restaurant, for instance, or in a bar. Those kinds of things would make the police check if you have a gun.

• Malcolm Brabant:

  Such misdemeanors could result in both guns and license being forfeited.

  Pia Clerte believes Sweden's gun laws are tough enough.

• Pia Clerte:

  In terms of the legal gun owners with a license in Sweden, I would say that is one of the most law-abiding groups as a whole in the Swedish society, whereas, on the other side, you have people who obviously don't care about killing other people, so they are not going to care about having an illegal gun.

• Malcolm Brabant:

  Clerte is referring to the gang wars, which, in recent years, have exploded across Swedish inner cities.

  In this video posted on social media, young gangsters show off their Kalashnikov. The rounds hit an empty restaurant in Stockholm, and no one was hurt in this snapshot of Sweden's dark underbelly.

  Most experts are convinced that the battlegrounds of former Yugoslavia are the source of most illegal weapons. Once smugglers enter the frontier-free European Union, reaching Sweden is easy.

  Professor Magnus Ranstorp talk from Sweden's Defense College is an expert on the illegal arms trade.

• Magnus Ranstorp, Sweden's Defense College:

  For example, in Malmo, you can buy automatic weapons for about 10,000, 15,000 Swedish krona, which is about 1,000 bucks. You usually get thrown in couple of hand grenades for free.

• Malcolm Brabant:

  Apart from the gang problem, is Sweden a safe country?

• Magnus Ranstorp:

  Most people are worried about their family members getting shot, unless they are in socially vulnerable areas, unless they are somehow wrapped up in gang conflict.

• Malcolm Brabant:

  That perception was undermined by this hit in a busy mall in Malmo, Southern Sweden, on August 19, in which a well-known gang leader was killed.

  A 39-year-old woman totally unconnected to the feud was caught in the spray of bullets. With national elections fast approaching, gun crime and the involvement of teenagers is now a hot issue. The alleged shooter arrested near the scene was just 15 years old.

• Person:

  As this is like a spiral of violence, you have to cool the conflict down.

• Malcolm Brabant:

  Karen Sandberg (ph) heads the Swedish government's inner city crime prevention unit. She acknowledges that Sweden was slow to react to gun violence. It's now applying more robust policing and tougher jail terms.

• Karen Sandberg, Crime Prevention Unit:

  If you are a violent group, you will get in the focus of the attention from the police. So that creates internal pressure within the group to calm down the conflict.

• Malcolm Brabant:

  But sweets rejected the former center-left government's like touch on gun crime. With murder rates heading to record highs, in last month's general election, voters turned to a right-wing coalition, which promised to get tough on gang crime.

  There are fears the violence may spread to Norway, a nation desperate for peace after Utoya. After hiding in this kitchen, fleeing through the woods to a beach and being rescued by a vote, Utoya survivor Torbjorn Vereide is in a prime position to shape Norway's future.

  Now a member of Parliament and carrying a torch for his murdered friends, Vereide has this advice for America:

• Torbjorn Vereide, Norwegian Parliament Member:

  I respect that some people value their right to own and carry guns. But I think that the value of life, the value of the children, the value of the adults that are getting killed everyone — every day now is more important, and that we have to decide which principle is the most important one.

• Malcolm Brabant:

  It took just one mass shooting for Norway to tighten up gun control. There's bewilderment here that America won't follow suit.

  For the "PBS NewsHour," I'm Malcolm Brabant in Norway.

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