Conservative Americans claim gun laws don’t work after Copenhagen shooting
American gun activists have seized on the deadly mass shooting in Denmark overnight to allege that stricter gun laws don’t work.
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Conservative Americans have seized on the deadly mass shooting in Denmark overnight as an example of how stricter gun laws allegedly do not work.
A gunman killed three people and wounded several others in a shooting at a busy Copenhagen shopping centre on Sunday as panicked shoppers ran for their lives.
Reacting to the news, US Congresswoman Lauren Boebert – a Republican and a gun rights activist who describes herself as the “mum who said HELL NO you’re not taking our guns” – said this was evidence that America had taken the right approach to firearms control.
“There was just a mass shooting in Denmark, a country with some of the strictest gun laws in Europe,” she wrote on Twitter. “It’s time to admit that gun laws DO NOT stop mass shootings!”
The statement comes despite mass shootings being a freak occurrence in Denmark, with only two occurring in the past seven years.
The US meanwhile has recorded 303 mass shootings so far this year alone, according to the Gun Violence Archive.
The last time there was a mass shooting in Denmark before Sunday’s incident was in February 2015, when two people were killed and five injured in Copenhagen in a series of Islamist-motivated shootings.
And when comparing the two nations in terms of crime and violence, the difference is huge. Denmark’s rate of violent death deaths per 100,000 people is 0.141 while America’s is 3.964. Denmark saw 39 homicides in 2021 whereas US states like Texas and Colorado see more than that each day.
But the massive disparity in gun violence between the two nations was not enough to stop Second Amendment-loving right wing Americans making similar claims about Sunday’s shooting.
Here are some of the other reactions:
A shooting at a mall in Copenhagen, where guns are practically impossible to own for the general public, disproves every single Leftist talking point on guns.
— Irene Armendariz-Jackson For Congress (@ArmendarizDis16) July 3, 2022
Praying for the people of Copenhagen, Denmark.
— Dr. Willie J. Montague (@RepMontague) July 3, 2022
Also praying the Left wakes up and realizes that mass shootings are not prevented by gun laws.
Denmark makes it nearly impossible to get a gun, yet a mass shooting just happened there.
Can someone on the Left explain to me how a nation like Denmark has mass shootings when the only type of weapon that civilians may own without a licence are air rifles.
— JR Majewski (@JRMajewski) July 3, 2022
Sounds like gun laws are useless for criminals, as we’ve been saying.
Shooting in Copenhagen Denmark where guns are BANNED?
— Lavern Spicer🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸 (@lavern_spicer) July 3, 2022
Oooooh child I can’t wait for the Left to explain how that happened!
However, many social media users pointed out that there have been far fewer mass shootings in Denmark than the US – meaning it isn’t the best example to use as a country where restricted gun use has failed.
Denmark’s last school shooting was in 1994 - not one in the last 28 years. The country averages 49 homicides a year for the past 10 years - and not even all of those were shootings. pic.twitter.com/rHV9rnRgPs
— Ron Filipkowski 🇺🇦 (@RonFilipkowski) July 3, 2022
Colorado had 364 murders in 2021, Denmark had 39. We have the same population as they do.
— jpberglâ˜˜ï¸ (@jpbergl) July 3, 2022
It's the guns. https://t.co/md7a0RHizD
1 Mass shooting in years in Denmark vs 1 Mass shooting a day here in America. Denmark had 39 Homicides in total for 2021. Texas or Colorado sees that many every day. So stop the disinformation campaigns for that NRA money & stop being so stupid! https://t.co/CHZ9p979RK
— Russell Foster A New Texas (@RussellFosterTX) July 4, 2022
What happened in Copenhagen?
Three people were killed and several others wounded in Copenhagen when a shooter opened fire at Field’s shopping centre, between the city centre and the airport.
A 22-year-old suspect was arrested at the scene shortly after police arrived. He was known to the police “but only peripherally”.
“He’s not someone we particularly know,” Copenhagen police chief Soren Thomassen told a news conference after the attack.
According to witnesses, the alleged shooter was armed with a large rifle.
“There are three dead and several injured, three of them in critical condition,” Chief Thomassen said.
The three dead were a man in his forties and two young people whose ages were not given.
On social media, people had been speculating about a possible racial motive, but the head of the investigation said: “I cannot say that we have anything which supports that at this moment.”
Police however confirmed they were investigating videos posted online which claimed to show the suspect with weapons and pointing a gun at his head.
Images from the scene showed parents carrying their children as they fled the building and ambulance personnel taking people away on stretchers.
‘We ran for our lives’
The shooting occurred around 5.30pm local time. Many of the people at the shopping centre were there for a concert with British singer Harry Styles at the nearby Royal Arena, which was subsequently cancelled.
“My daughters were supposed to go see Harry Styles. They called me to say someone was shooting. They were in a restaurant when it happened,” Hans Christian Stolz, a 53-year-old Swede who came to pick up his children, told AFP.
“We thought at first people were running because they had seen Harry Styles, then we understood that it was people in panic … We ran for our lives,” his daughter Cassandra said.
Styles said he was devastated by news of the attack.
“I’m heartbroken along with the people of Copenhagen. I adore this city,” the singer posted on Twitter.
“I’m devastated for the victims, their families and everyone hurting. I’m sorry we couldn’t be together. Please look after each other.”
The attack occurred two days after this year’s Tour de France cycling competition set off from Copenhagen, and the Tour organisers released a statement expressing their sympathy.
Witnesses quoted by the Danish media described how the suspect had tried to trick people by saying his weapon was a fake one, to get them to approach.
“He was sufficiently psychopathic to go and hunt people, but he wasn’t running,” one witness told DR state television.
Others told Danish media they had seen more than 100 people rush towards the exit as the first shots were fired.
“We could see that many people suddenly ran towards the exit and then we heard a bang,” Thea Schmidt, who was in the shopping centre at the time of the attack, told broadcaster TV2. “Then we ran out of Field’s too.”
Other witnesses described the gunman as a man around 1.8m tall carrying a hunting rifle.
Footage of the arrest shows the suspect, wearing a white jumpsuit to preserve DNA evidence, being taken away by officers.
“Denmark was hit by a cruel attack on Sunday night. Several were killed. Even more wounded. Innocent families shopping or eating out,” Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen said in a statement.
“Our beautiful and usually so safe capital was changed in a split second.”
The Danish royal family said their “thoughts and deepest sympathy are with the victims and their relatives and all those affected by the tragedy”.
– with AFP
Originally published as Conservative Americans claim gun laws don’t work after Copenhagen shooting
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