Iceland review - 2019, Page 113

Tools for hunting
It’s impossible to speak of Icelandic gun
culture without talking about hunt-
ing. “Guns are tools for hunting,” Atli
Bergmann tells me. Atli has been a fly
fisherman since he was 20 and began
hunting some 15 years ago. “It’s the best
outdoor exercise you can get. Spending
hours in intimate contact with nature,
the wide open outdoors gives you a deep
sense of serenity.”
Hunting is a way to enjoy the
great outdoors, while also provid-
ing Christmas dinner, Atli tells me.
Ptarmigan is a popular dish on
Christmas. For many Icelanders,
Christmas Eve is not complete without
roasted ptarmigan, and each fall, Atli
goes hunting to catch enough for him-
self and his extended family. To protect
the population, it’s illegal to buy or sell
Icelandic ptarmigan. Supermarkets
have imported Scottish grouse, but
most people either shoot their own ptar-
migan or know someone who hunts. In
addition to ptarmigan, Icelanders hunt
geese and ducks, various seabirds, and
reindeer. Arctic foxes and seals are also
hunted to control their populations, but
ptarmigan and geese hunting are most
popular. Sustainability is extremely
important to Icelandic hunters and
shooting only as much as you can eat
yourself is an important rule for many.
“If I get two ptarmigan, I’m satisfied,”
Kolbeinn Óttarsson Proppé, an MP for
the Left-Green Movement, tells me.
“That’s more than enough for myself.”
People are extremely
uncomfor table w i th the
idea of armed of f icers
patro l l ing the st reets .