Icelandic police officers are seeking grief counseling after being forced to take the life of a 59-year-old man with mental illness who shot at them. It’s the first time police have killed someone since it became an independent republic in 1944. Officers in Iceland don’t even carry weapons very often because violent crime in the nation is virtually non-existent.
“The nation was in shock. This does not happen in our country,” said Thora Arnorsdottir, a journalist at the Icelandic National Broadcasting Service. She also said, “The nation does not want its police force to carry weapons because it’s dangerous, it’s threatening. It’s a part of the culture. Guns are used to go hunting as a sport, but you never see a gun.”
Arnorsdottir also said, “A part of the great thing of living in this country is that you can enter parliament and the only thing they ask you to do is to turn off your cellphone, so you don’t disturb the parliamentarians while they’re talking. We do not have armed guards following our prime minister or president. That’s a part of the great thing of living in a peaceful society. We do not want to change that. ”
Iceland is not anti-gun however. They are 15th in terms of per-capita gun ownership in the world.
Police officers have already apologized to the victim’s family, though not because they felt they were in the wrong. The police are being questioned over why they didn’t first try to negotiate with the man before entering his building.
By contrast, hundreds of people are killed every year by police officers in the United States.
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