The Facts
- Danish police confirmed that three people were killed and four more were seriously wounded after a gunman opened fire at shoppers at a mall on the outskirts of Copenhagen on Sunday.
- Søren Thomassen, Copenhagen's chief police inspector, said on Mon. that the gunman acted alone and appears to have selected his victims at random. He added that while the motive remained unclear, there was nothing to suggest it was an act of terrorism.
- He said police received the first reports of a shooting at 5.37pm local time and that the gunman – identified only as a 22-year-old ethnic Dane – was arrested 11 minutes later. He was charged with manslaughter and will be brought before a judge on Monday.
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The Spin
Right narrative
Despite Denmark possessing some of the strictest gun laws in the world, lethal mass shootings - akin to those plaguing the US - can still occur. Clearly, even rigid gun control legislation cannot prevent attacks such as the tragedy in Copenhagen.
Left narrative
This tragedy was an isolated event. Gun laws might not prevent all gun crime, but they drastically reduce it. Denmark's restrictive gun laws mean that far fewer people own firearms compared to the US, and deaths by firearms are therefore far rarer.
Metaculus Prediction
There's a 50% chance that there will be at least 1.38 small firearms per capita in the USA by 2029, according to the Metaculus prediction community.
