Shootings have fallen by half since 2022, but the numbers are landing in an election year that still treats gang violence as the country's biggest wound. I checked the news on my phone last week, out of habit more than anything, looking for the kind of headline that used to arrive every few days: a shooting somewhere in Stockholm , a name, an age, sometimes a photo of police tape strung across a parking lot. I didn't find one. It took me a moment to notice what I was actually noticing. The numbers. Sweden recorded 39 shootings in the first half of 2026, according to police data reported by NordiskPost . Compare that to 187 shootings over the same period in 2023 and 205 in 2022, and the shift is not subtle. Brå, the Swedish National Council for Crime Prevention , reported 84 cases of deadly violence in 2025, down from 92 in 2024 and well below the 2020 peak of 124. That's the lowest annual figure since 2014. Firearms still caused half of those deaths, 42 cases, but even tha...