No less than six Glock 17 pistols have been stolen from inside the Swedish Government Offices in Stockholm.

This was reported yesterday in Dagens Juridik (Today’s Law), which is a Swedish daily online newspage about matters of the law. (Normally they have between 50 000 and 70 000 unique readers per week.)

In Sweden The Government Offices “form a single, integrated public authority comprising the Prime Minister’s Office, the government ministries and the Office for Administrative Affairs”.

Logotype of the Government Offices of Sweden

Inside the Government Offices, the Prime Minister has his office space, and also the Minister of Justice and Migration. The security guards all carry Glock 17s.

The stolen weapons are so-called “extra weapons”, which are to be used by the Government Offices’ security guards in case the security level has to be increased. Such an event can can occur during a period of increased terrorist threat or an ongoing terrorist attack.

The Swedish Police have confirmed to Dagens Juridik that there is a preliminary investigation ongoing, which is being handled high-up in the Criminal Investigation Unit.

The theft was allegedly discovered already in March of this year, more than seven months ago, but it only became official on 15th November.

Along with the Glock 17s, there are also 300 rounds of hollow-point ammunition missing. The ammunition is, in our opinion, most likely Gold Speer Dot, which is used by the Swedish Police as well.

Picture from Speer Ammo

The Glock 17 is also used by the Swedish Army, where it is called the “Pistol 88“. More information about the Glock 17, chambered in 9×19 mm Luger, here.

Picture from Glock EU

The exact number of people who had access to the Glock pistols is unclear. The fact that the Glocks have been stored in a locked safe doesn’t change the actuality that they are missing. Personnel have searched the Government Offices, but the weapons have not been found.

Somehow, someone managed to get the firearms out of the building. According to Dagens Juridik, the company responsible for the Government Offices’ security guards, and the weapons is Securitas, but they have not made any official comments. Their responsibility for security can be confirmed by an old Press Release from 2016.

Below: From the Securitas Sweden Instagram:

In fact, there are were few comments from anyone in the matter apart from “No comment” and the event has all the signs of a cover-up.

In Dagens Juridik’s podcast of today (Swedish only) the subject is of course why there are no comments from any of the parties involved.

Picture from Speer Ammo

The reasoning is that even if some of the information and details might be secret, the bad news about the theft is already out and that the involved key people keep to a “no comments” policy due to embarrassment rather than anything else. The pod is also discussing the storm on social media, especially Twitter, where the subject literally exploded yesterday afternoon and evening.

The Swedish Government suggests a permit to own magazines: “to fight criminal gangs”.

There is added embarrassment for the Swedish Government as the Legal Council completely slashed the Government’s suggestion to make it a requirement to have a permit to own magazines, just hours after the fact about the missing Glocks became official.

Obviously there are going to be missing magazines in this story as well, although that might be the least of anyone’s worries.

One of Sweden’s best regarded researcher on the subject, Dr. Erik Lakomaa, research fellow at the  Stockholm School of Economics, commented that the suggested legislation to require a permit to own a magazine has very little to do with criminal activity. (Source: Dagens Juridik)

Firearms legislation driven by the Swedish Police has since long been based on the assumption that all illegal weapons were first legal, and that there is therefore a clear connection between the number of stolen legal weapons – mainly from hunters and target shooters – and the access of weapons to criminals. (Source: Timbro, page 43 and RPS 1995:1 page 9 “Illegal Weapons”).

Unfortunately this assumption has set the tone for Sweden’s legislation on the matter since the 1990s, and has greatly influenced the recent EU Firearms Legislation (also known as the EU Gun Ban).

By the looks of it, the source of illegal weapons seems to be coming from Government sources, rather than individuals with permits.

Sources: Dagens Juridik and here, SVT.se, Securitas, Svensk Jakt, Timbro, Cornucopia, SVD.