Apparently they’ve raised the age limit on handgun licenses, and made applicants prove they’ve been involved in shooting activities before being issued. At least some Finns realize the Catch 22 here:
“How one can prove that one has been active in a hobby for two years, if one cannot own the equipment,” asked Teemu Simelius, organisation chief at the Finnish hunters’association.
These are the common sense gun laws our opponents would love to bring here.
Two things that don’t go together. Common sense and politicians.
That’s called “grandfathering in” the exemption. Except in this particular case it will literally be grandfathers!
It will likely be only the Finnish grandfather who in WWII who fought against the Soviet invasion (ie Winter War) in which a small contingent of lightly armed infantry repulsed the Soviet juggernaught, who will get a gun.
Two lessons here:
1. These incremental “common sense” gun laws are often Trojan horses.
2. An armed population can stop aggression, if they fail to deter it. Hence the Second Amendment’s intrinsic value.
Same thing happens over here. You had to be a member of a shooting club for about a year before they’d give approval to the police. IIRC, that involved renting the club guns for the interim.
Didn’t stop Thomas Hamilton from lying on the license application (on *three* separate occasions), and getting away with it due to police incompetence.
What a bunch of dumbasses.
It looks like living next door to Russia doesn’t concentrate their minds enough.
I had heard once that the Finns were one of the biggest source of Mosin-Nagants that were never fired, only dropped once. Though, you still need someone to pop the first guy with to get his rifle off him.
That sound you hear is Simo Hayha digging his way out of his cold, frozen grave with Mosin bayonet.
What is going on in the world where the freaking FINNS are becoming nanny staters?
And of course the Finnish laws are rife with “Sporting Purposes” verbiage. I don’t see the point in even fighting, once “Sporting Purposes” becomes the core “reason” for keeping firearms the noose is around your neck.
Also “Gun Deaths” will happen anywhere, but when you make guns only about sports and criminals the justification for a total ban becomes VERY palatable.
Gareth has to be talking about Australia. Shot a match over there with borrowed everything. One guy had just spent most of a year practicing enough and shooting enough matches with borrowed equipment to qualify for his license to purchase, one specific gun. After that you have to practice and shoot roughly once a month to keep your license and gun. You check in at the range, pay your fee, and get a receipt that you eventually turn in to the club president who in turn files the reports with the govt. Of course they have a 10 round magazine limit, which frustrated the heck out of a guy who normally shoots an STI 9mm with 20 +1.
“Gareth has to be talking about Australia. Shot a match over there with borrowed everything.”
Nope, UK. I mentioned Hamilton the Dunblane shooter in my previous post.
I don’t shoot personally (not actual firearms at least) mainly due to a lack of transport to a range, and not many if any nearby.
Had a teacher in the Tech Support HND course that enjoyed it though, got info from him. He’s part of why I joined the pro-gun side.
Hmmmmm….
Don’t know that I’d screw with the Finns. Read a bit about the Winter War.
The Finns had 250,00 men under arms, the Russians 1.5 Million.
The Finns had 30 tanks, the Russians 6500.
The Finns had 130 aircraft, the Russians 3800.
The Finns had 26,000 dead, the Russians 226,000 confirmed with 400,000 missing.
The Finns had 40,000 wounded, the Russians 265,000.
There were 1000 Finns captured, 5600 Russians.
Don’t mess with the Finns!
The concept is not altogether bad, just the execution. I personally believe that no one should be allowed to have and raise children until they have demonstrated 5 years experience in the art.
The solution is simple: Buy (or build) a bow and arrow. Kill a Reindeer or similar medium sized game with it. Drag the corpse down to the firearms registration place and say you’ve been doing this for two years. If they say “that doesn’t count because guns are more dangerous”, then point out that bow and arrows have been around for 20,000 plus years and have certainly killed more humans than firearms have in the past 500 years. A Bow and Arrow is certainly more lethal than a .22 at most distances, even with a lower rate of fire.