Gun Politics In Finland
In Finland there are 32 privately owned firearms per 100 civilians according to the Finnish Ministry of the Interior. By the end of 2006 there were more than 1.6 million licensed firearms. Averaged among Finland's population of 5.3 million it comes to 30.5 per 100 people. Another study puts the number of firearms per capita as high as 0.55
Unlicensed firearms are estimated at around 1.5 per 100. There are some 650,000 firearms permit holders in Finland. 60% of firearm permits are issued for hunting weapons. There are an estimated 290,000 handguns, which comes to 5.5 per 100 civilians . Permits are not required for muzzle-loaded black powder guns made before 1890 as long as they are not used. Captured guns from World War II are thought to constitute the largest share of illegal firearms.
The widely cited Small Arms Survey 2007 by Graduate Institute of International Studies in Geneva Switzerland claims there are some 3 million firearms in Finland, or 56 per 100 civilians.
Read more about Gun Politics In Finland: Military Reserve, Regulation, Proposed Changes To The Regulations, Firearms Categories, Action Categories, Related Objects, Unregistered Firearms
Famous quotes containing the words gun and/or politics:
“What cannot stand must fall; and the measure of our sincerity and therefore of the respect of men, is the amount of health and wealth we will hazard in the defence of our right. An old farmer, my neighbor across the fence, when I ask him if he is not going to town-meeting, says: “No, ‘t is no use balloting, for it will not stay; but what you do with the gun will stay so.””
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“Beware the politically obsessed. They are often bright and interesting, but they have something missing in their natures; there is a hole, an empty place, and they use politics to fill it up. It leaves them somehow misshapen.”
—Peggy Noonan (b. 1950)