Police concerned about homemade weapons

Kripos in Oslo.Police officer Gøran Dyvesveen shows a home-made shotgun.Photo : Heiko Junge / SCANPIX .

Homemade handguns are still showing up in criminal cases throughout the country. They are equally used as purchased weapons, and the police want stricter regulation of the market.

 

‘’They are very similar to original weapons. With the naked eye, one can hardly see a difference. They are easy to get and they are easy to build. It is very disturbing,’’ said police officer, Gøran Dyvesveen to NRK news.

He works at the Forensic Department at Kripos in Oslo, which is the only weapons laboratory in Norway.

‘’This is a weapon that was originally designed to be a staring gun. It is becoming more and more common that these are rebuilt so that they can fire off shots with ammunition,’’ he said.

The police in Oslo want the purchase and sale of firearms to be more stringently controlled.

“Converted firearms are popular for” one-time use “to shoot someone, then throw away the weapon,” said Anders Rasch-Olsen, Head of Section for Special Operations at the Joint Investigation and Intelligence Unit.

For example, firearms can be ordered online, and ownership is difficult to track since they are not registered. They are also much cheaper than original firearms.

Rasch-Olsen says a converted weapon can not do as much harm as a real weapon, but they are dangerous at shorter distances.

The police in Oslo have seized approximately 50 weapons in the past three years, of which about half have been converted to functional small arms. So far this year, approximately five such weapons have been seized in Oslo.

 

© NTB scanpix / #Norway Today