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Firearms possession issue splits Finland
Published: 27 May, 2010, 10:54
Edited: 31 May, 2010, 03:54
TAGS: Arms, Conflict, Europe, Law
Finland has one of the highest concentrations of gun owners per capita in the world. However, after three deadly shooting sprees in the past couple of years, campaigners say it is about time the issue was reassessed.
Gun shop owner Mika Nevalainen says the only gun-related problem he knows of is that not enough people are buying them. Nonetheless, there is a stream of customers coming into his weapons shop in central Helsinki.
With a population of just over five million, there are more than 1.5 million registered guns, making it one of the highest concentrations of personal firearms in the entire world.
“There is a common understanding that we have to tighten our laws,” says Lisa Timonen, Head of the Firearms Administration at the National Police Board.
Radical measures have been proposed to deal with the country's gun problem. They include a ban on semi-automatic handguns, which are powerful and easy to conceal. Parliament has so far rejected them – much to the annoyance of the police.
Mika Nevalainen says it is problems in society – not the guns – that are to blame for the problems.
“These people, if they didn't get a gun, of course they have different ways of doing something. We had a bomb in a shop a few years ago – well, maybe the guy didn't get a gun,” says Nevalainen.
To legally own a handgun a Finnish citizen has to attend a shooting range for at least two years.
“We've been here for ten years and we’ve trained literally tens of thousands of people who came here for the first time. Half a dozen, maximum, have actually caused any concern for us,” says shooting range owner Otso Vainio.
A pro-weapons advocate, Otso Vainio claims that the hysterical media has distorted the scope of the problem.
“The [average] amount of people killed with legal guns in Finland, I can’t remember exact figures, but it was two point something annually. Thirty-nine people die from the heat of the sauna annually.”
The gun debate will continue to divide Finland, but if further shooting tragedies happen, it may eventually spur Finnish lawmakers to make citizens surrender their firearms.
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2 comments
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Everyone knows that criminals and terrorists will get their guns illegally anyway. Taking firearms away from law-abiding citizens will only increase the rates of violent crime , not decrease them, as then the people cannot defend themselves against the criminals who are armed. In the U.S., there are more gun-owners today than ever before, yet the murder rate has been going down consistently , year after year, and is at about the lowest point it's been at in 45 years. The governments of the world need to realize that allowing good people to own firearms is the BEST way to lower violent crime rates. Criminals are scared of armed civilians, if they know they might have a gun or two kickin' around.
It is a proven fact that when guns are banned that crime goes up 75% to 100% in the first year. Take a look at the crime in London, England. Guns are banned there and they have one of the highest crime rates in the world. They even have problems with criminals braking into homes during the day with the residents home, assaulting and robbing them. Washington DC in the past had the highest crime rate in the U.S., after the US Supreme Court declared there gun laws unconstitutional there crime rate fell by 25% within 3 months. Check out this website, http://www.fbi.gov/ucr/prelimsem2009/table_4.html this will show you a correlation between the states/cities that have light gun control and those that have gun bans. Take New York as an example, the state offers Concealed Carry Handgun Permits, New York City banns guns unless your of the elite in the city then you can get a permit and a state permit is not recognized. Then look at Texas with two large cities, Dallas-Ft Worth metroplex and Houston. Guns don’t kill people, they are a lifeless object. People kill people. You outlaw guns and there is still knives, clubs, pens, fingernail files, cars, rocks, poison, etc. You outlaw guns and only outlaws will have guns because they don’t care about the law unless it is to their benefit. What it all boils down to is the people. In any society there are people that will take whatever they want, when they want, and don’t care about anyone else. Guns are for protecting what is precious, Life, Liberty and Family.