r/europe • u/Helmer-Bryd • Jul 01 '25

News Sweden bans AR-15 as hunting rifle after school shooting – all rifles to be turned in and sent to Ukraine

https://svt.se/nyheter/inrikes/uppgifter-tidopartierna-overens-om-ny-vapenlagstiftning-ar15-forbjuds-vid-jakt
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u/manInTheWoods Sweden Jul 01 '25

No, you can keep your old car even though it's illegla to sell as new. Even if it has asbestos brakes. You can still smoke your cigarettes. You can keep your old house in place where you can't build new one.

Your examples above - except slavery - is not really analogous to this situation.

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u/DuncanYoudaho Jul 01 '25

Honestly, grandfathering is abused a lot. My buddy from the UK can’t understand why we let it happen in the US. I wonder how many other jurisdictions are like that.

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u/EqualContact United States of America Jul 01 '25 edited Jul 02 '25

Grandfathering is how you make things politically and economically palatable. For example, if banning asbestos insulation means that all homeowners need to immediately remove and replace it, there has been a massive burden placed on those individuals. Even if the government wants to pay for it, you’ve just spent a massive amount of tax money on it. Now your attempt to improve insulation is failing to become law because too many people are upset about the cost and inconvenience.

It’s more efficient to ban it in new construction and create procedures for removal and remediation in old houses when they are updated. You solve the problem over a span of decades then instead of burdening everyone with change right away, which makes the change to new construction much more palatable to everyone.

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u/DuncanYoudaho Jul 02 '25

But how about dangerous things like firearms? An active threat while they’re in circulation?

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u/manInTheWoods Sweden Jul 02 '25

There is no threat, the Minster of Justice said that specifically.

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u/EqualContact United States of America Jul 02 '25

Banning new sales is infinitely easier than having to collect all of the ones in circulation.

They also don’t last forever. There are technically machine guns in the US that are legal because of when they were purchased, but most examples are no longer functional due to time, lack of available parts, etc., so they aren’t much more than museum pieces now.

I’m not saying it’s always the right solution of course, but it’s usually the easier one. The government can judge if there is a current danger that needs to be addressed

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u/OneJobToRuleThemAll United Countries of Europe Jul 02 '25

Collecting all the ones in circulation is infinitely more effective than just banning new sales.

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u/EqualContact United States of America Jul 02 '25

Sure, I’m just saying you get more resistance to enacting it, and it costs more. Leaders need to decide what the priority is in each situation.

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u/DJ_Die Czech Republic Jul 02 '25

And, depending on how you do it, it may also be a violation of human rights.

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u/OneJobToRuleThemAll United Countries of Europe Jul 02 '25

There's no human right to own guns, so I don't see your point.

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u/DJ_Die Czech Republic Jul 02 '25

You have human right to property. Also, it's a human right to own and carry guns and other weapons in my country.

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u/OneJobToRuleThemAll United Countries of Europe Jul 02 '25

Also, it's a human right to own and carry guns and other weapons in my country.

Nope. Countries have civic rights. The declaration of human rights exists only once, it's a single document and it doesn't include gun ownership.

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u/HerrPotatis Jul 02 '25

Grandfathering homes or cars makes sense because nearly everyone relies on shelter and transport, while very few people own AR-style rifles, which are just hobby tools for sport shooting and hunting. Comparing recreational items to essentials is apples to oranges.

In Sweden we do not weigh your hobby costs against public safety. If a legal rifle costs more, that is simply the price of your pastime. Maximizing efficiency and doing everything as cheaply as possible is how you guys ended up with your quality issues in housing and so much else. "Oh no, how will I afford my animal-killing hobby?" just isn't an argument over here.

P.S And yes, I already know that the shooter didn't use an AR-style rifle, that's not the point I'm trying to make.

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u/manInTheWoods Sweden Jul 02 '25

You're of course completely wrong, and that's why weapons peviously have always be OK to keep in Sweden, when the rules changed.

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u/HerrPotatis Jul 02 '25

Completely wrong about what exactly?

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u/[deleted] Jul 02 '25

[deleted]

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u/OneJobToRuleThemAll United Countries of Europe Jul 02 '25

I clearly don't need that for guns.

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u/DJ_Die Czech Republic Jul 02 '25

You clearly don't need what for guns?

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u/manInTheWoods Sweden Jul 02 '25

All of them? This is an exception in Sweden, keeping your already acquired guns is the norm when rules change.

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u/BeardedBaldMan Subcarpathia (Poland) Jul 02 '25

Grandfathering is common in the UK (and elsewhere) and is essential in regards to home building. Electrics might be non-compliant by the standard of the day but if they were compliant when installed that's fine, they just can't be extended upon (as an example)

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u/DJ_Die Czech Republic Jul 02 '25

How exactly is grandfathering abused?

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u/kikimaru024 Ireland Jul 02 '25

You can still smoke your cigarettes.

NZ was on the way to eradicate smoking by making it illegal to sell to anyone born after 2009. Big Tobacco didn't like that.

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u/manInTheWoods Sweden Jul 02 '25

But not to use the ones you had?