Actually obtaining a gun is much harder in Sweden than in the United States, too. Though hunting culture is prominent in Sweden, potential gun buyers must pass multiple tests to gain a permit. That may lend itself to the lowered death rate. In 2015, 157 people were killed by firearms in Sweden, whereas 13,268 people were killed by firearms in the U.S. (and there were 372 mass shootings). Recently, however, Sweden has been seeing an uptick in gun deaths among young men