Denmark Bans More Weapons to Make Country Safer

January was bargain month for knives and other small weapons as dealers dumped their stocks in advance of a government ban on them.

The aim of the legislation, which took effect Feb. 1, is to make this relatively safe country even safer. It bans slingshots, crossbows and air rifles and makes it illegal to carry knives with blades more than 2.8 inches long in a public place.

Before the law took effect, youngsters at Ole Hoiberg’s Arms Gallery, just across a canal from the Parliament building, sorted through a box of cut-rate, high-power slingshots.

Bali-songs, the double-handled flip knives from the Philippines, were reduced from $28.50 to $15.50.

Despite local news reports of heavy sales in advance of the ban, Hoiberg maintained that volume was up only slightly.

“We’re in a peaceful part of the world,” said Hoiberg, who heads the Danish Weapons Dealers Assn. and served on a parliamentary commission studying the new law. He opposes the law but said that “no one has complained, and it wouldn’t do any good anyway.”

Lawmakers rushed the bill through after the fatal stabbing Oct. 31 of an off-duty policeman by an Iraqi immigrant in downtown Copenhagen, not far from the main pedestrian shopping zone. It passed unanimously.

Butchers, bartenders and others who use knives are exempt from the ban while at work.

Denmark, like other Scandinavian countries, has long enjoyed a reputation as a place where violent crime is rare. But official statistics for this country of 5.2 million show an increase in crimes involving weapons--from 1,312 cases in 1976 to 4,927 in 1986.

Police had to draw their firearms 162 times in 1986, according to Justice Ministry figures. In 90 of those cases, the suspect had a gun and in 40 of them a “pointed instrument” said Claus Rosholm, a chief of section at the ministry.

Guns are already strictly controlled, for use only in hunting or target shooting.

“In Denmark, the right to carry weapons in self-defense is not accepted, and there’s never been a major national debate about it,” said Rosholm. “It is the job of the police to protect citizens and not the citizens to protect themselves.”

Residents of Christiania, the sprawling hippy “free city” and hashish market a 20-minute walk from downtown, took issue with the idea. They complained of harassment and frequent beatings by members of a special police force known as the Uro (unrest).

“Some people just get fed up and feel they have to defend themselves,” said a young Christiania dweller who refused to be identified by name.

Slingshots are favorite weapons of street rowdies, here and elsewhere in Western Europe. In West Germany, for example, they are banned at demonstrations.