Iceland's First Police Gun-related Death - My View...

Monday December 2nd, 2013, marks the day that the first person was shot and killed by Icelandic police. This blogpost discusses the incident and its effect on the Icelandic nation. Iceland's gun-related crime statistics are also looked at, in relation to the USA and the UK.

Death at the Hands of Police Marksmen... 
In the early hours of yesterday morning, police were called to a residential address in Reykjavík. Neighbours had reported that a man was holed up in an apartment. Oh and he had at least one gun. Some time later, following some exchanges of fire, the man was fatally wounded.

He became the first person to be shot and killed at the hands of the Icelandic police force. This fact, I suspect, will be almost unbelievable to anyone who did not grow up in this country.

More can be read here http://www.icelandreview.com/ and here http://www.independent.co.uk/

Shock-horror!
On hearing this news this morning, I was very surprised. Gun-related violence of any sort is extremely rare up here. Yet I was not shocked. Most of the population, though, is genuinely taken-aback and upset by this event. It is, I feel, truly a watershed moment for this nation.

There has been much discussion on social media. But the lack of details so far published by the police has not given much for us to chew on. Any unusual death in Iceland (murder, suicide, car crash etc.) is usually treated very carefully by the media, out of respect for victim's families. This is a very small community so a single death can touch many.

A Little Comparison...
I come from England, which is a world away in terms of crime of all kinds. Or is it...? One thing common to both lands is that the regular police do not carry firearms. I like this approach. I have always been disturbed by firearms. No, I'll re-phrase that. I have always been disturbed by being around police or security guards brandishing firearms. And with good reason, me thinks.

Gun-related deaths, whilst not exactly a daily occurrence in the UK, are not generally very surprising. I grew up during the era of "The Troubles" in Northern Ireland. And some high-profile incidents, such as the Michael Ryan Hungerford massacre and the Dunblane School Shooting live long in people's minds.

Iceland vs UK vs USA...
Yet gun crime in Britain and Iceland is nothing compared to the USA. Following today's Reykjavík shooting, this very poignant article from NPR was written, detailing the vast differences in the approach of Iceland and America. It also gives some very interesting comparative figures. I checked out the corresponding figures for the UK, which raised my eyebrows.

For 2009:
Gun-related deaths: Iceland 4; UK 150; USA 31,347
Annual gun-related deaths per 100,000 people: Iceland 1.25; UK 0.24; USA 10.22
Firearms ownership per 100 people: Iceland 30.3; UK 6.7; USA 101.5

It should be noted that 2009 is the most recent year available for Iceland's figures. This was in fact an unusually bad year for the country. Most years there is a maximum of 1 gun-related death, meaning that Iceland's average annual gun-related deaths per 100,000 people is around 0.3. 

These figures reveal the huge chasm that exists between America and the two countries that I know best. The USA's gun-homicide figures seem almost unimaginable to me.

The gun ownership numbers for Iceland and USA are discussed well in the NPR piece. Iceland has a much higher ownership per 100 people than the UK, but there are similar strict limits and controls. Iceland has a stronger hunting culture, meaning far more people own weapons, proportionally.

The Future...
It is maybe this simple fact that leads to Iceland's potential for further unhappy gun-related incidents. There are many firearms in public ownership. Sure, they are well controlled and the owners are required to attend training seminars. Yet, the potential is there...

I am not, though, for one moment suggesting that there is potential for a US-style homicide rate to develop up here. 30 gun-related deaths per year would be devastating for this society. By comparison, there were only 9 deaths on Iceland's roads in 2012...

No Time to Panic...?
In this last week, there have been other worrying stories, such as http://grapevine.is/Hate-Crime-At-Mosque-Site and http://www.icenews.is/iceland-hooked-on-anti-depressants/  discussing Iceland's new top ranking for those taking anti-depressants. Iceland's population is changing. Thousand's of immigrants are now living here, which is leading to inevitable tensions. Drug taking has increased in recent years and violent crime, of course, follows in its wake.

While I believe this is no time for panic, I do feel that in ten years time, incidents similar to today's will not cause nearly as much shock and soul-searching for the Icelandic people. But this land will still be one of the least dangerous places on this earth. Unless there is a really huge volcanic eruption...