Eleven people have so far been confirmed dead after the school shooting at Campus Risbergska in Örebro.

Many are injured, five of them seriously. It is by far the worst mass shooting we have experienced in Sweden in modern times and politicians and the media agree: «We are shocked!» But are we really…?

When the Swedes returned from their lunch breaks on Tuesday, they were met with the news of a school shooting in Örebro. The initially vague information during the first press conference held at 3:30 p.m. contradicted the material that had simultaneously begun to circulate in social media and in public service live broadcasts. During the evening, the news came: Eleven people have been confirmed dead. Of these, ten were murdered by the eleventh. The shooter is said to have taken his own life.

The police are currently unable to say how many are injured, but some are said to be seriously injured.

The reactions in TV studios, among politicians and government officials are unanimous: They say they are in shock, they cannot understand that this has happened, that something like this could happen here, in Sweden. For example, Carl Bildt writes in a post on X:

My country is in a state of profound shock after the worst mass killing in its modern history. Tens of people – numbers still not clear – have been gunned down at a shooting at a school in Örebro.

But those I have spoken to are not surprised, rather many think it is strange that something similar has not happened before.

Violence has been normalized

Swedes have experienced how violence has built up, to the point where «shootings», «misfires» and «explosions» have become normalized as part of daily news reporting.

We have seen school shootings before, for example in Trolhättan in 2015 and in Malmö in 2022. More and more schools are introducing security checks with, for example, metal detectors at the entrances and in principle all students in Sweden, down to primary school age, have practiced «evacuations». We as parents have in many cases already had conversations about the risks of a school shooting with our children.

I would like to say that those affected and many Örebro residents are of course in great grief and severe shock today, but the nation as such is so refined that many bluntly state that «now it has happened».

The Swedes have seen the development for so long, and when we have reached a point where residential buildings are practically blown up daily and murders are being committed on the open street, the step is unfortunately not very far to a mass shooting.

«Society must step up»

Until now, the increased violence has been seen as almost a given, a natural development that is impossible to stop and that Swedes simply have to learn to deal with. As long as you are not in the wrong place at the wrong time, the risks are still low, we have been told.

But yesterday the playing field changed. Now society must step up, says psychotherapist Björn Tingberg to SVT.

The step-up has already begun.

Minister of Justice Gunnar Strömmer is not only signaling that Swedish schools must become safer, but also opening up for stronger control and reduced integrity. During an interview with SVT’s Morgonstudion on Wednesday morning, Strömmer believes that it is time to ease the secrecy between authorities, something that has previously been called for as a means of counteracting the large-scale benefit fraud and the identity fraud where a newly arrived person can be assigned multiple identities. All such measures have been deemed impossible. So far.

The shooting at Risbergska is, in all its tragedy, the event that makes the necessary changes possible – and more. It is only days since Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson’s statement that the Swedish state has lost control over deadly violence, something that led Ayaan Hirsi Ali, among others, to call Sweden «a textbook example of a failed state».

After years of escalation, where voices have raised demands for the military to be deployed against violent riots and riots, Sweden wakes up on the morning of February 5 to a country where anything seems possible. Ten people have been murdered and just as many families have been shattered. Countless people have suffered injuries and trauma for life.

Was this what was needed for Sweden to react and ask for help – to sort out the situation it has put itself in, through the policies that have been pursued for decades??

Europol on the spot

But as usual, it can happen that when Sweden does act, it acts extremely and almost in desperation. Now it is not just doing what it should have done many years ago. Suddenly it has an opening to implement draconian measures.

The Security Police are involved and the police are also supported by Europol.

A number of measures are being implemented from a national perspective. Among other things, the cyber environment is being monitored and digital platforms are being collaborated on to identify and remove content online that could fuel threatening sentiments, writes Expressen.

What awaits Sweden and the Swedes now remains to be seen. We are already seeing increased surveillance, reduced privacy and police reinforcement from the EU.

On the other hand, much seems to follow the classic Swedish modus operandi: First nothing is done, then nothing and nothing again. Then disaster strikes and then everything is done at once.

«Sweden is in shock,» writes the media. I suspect – unfortunately – that this is not the case. However, the deep sadness over lost security and the great anxiety about the future have etched themselves even deeper into the people’s souls.