Finland to Open Shooting Ranges to Strengthen National Defense
A shooting range in Finland, 2024. | Photo: X/ @_zvers
June 3, 2024 Hour: 5:59 pm
The Ukrainian war has increased the population’s interest in firearms and shooting practices.
On Monday, the Government of Finland presented a project to strengthen national defense by protecting the 670 existing civilian shooting ranges in the country and creating 330 additional ones over the next six years.
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The Interior Ministry wants to implement the necessary legislative amendments to safeguard the activities of civilian shooting ranges and open more to ensure there is “a sufficient number” throughout the country, especially for tactical and rifle shooting.
The project will take into account regional needs and those of various user groups, such as public authorities and national defense organizations, reservists, sports shooters, and hunters.
The initiative aims to present proposals to streamline the granting of environmental permits and conduct a comparison of current legislation on this matter in other European Union (EU) countries.
The number of shooting ranges not managed by the Armed Forces has decreased considerably over the last three decades, as there were between 2,000 and 2,500 shooting ranges in the country during the 1990s.
Finland, with 5.6 million inhabitants, has over 1.5 million civilian firearms, and around 430,000 people hold gun licenses, thanks to the high popularity of hunting and target shooting. This makes Finland one of the nations with the most guns per capita in the world.
According to national television YLE, the Ukrainian war has increased the population’s interest in firearms, shooting practices, and self-defense courses for civilians and reservists.
Sources: EFE – YLE
teleSUR/ JF
