Ban on semiautomatic weapons is not to be implemented

Interior Minister is not pushing ahead with the recommended legislation

print this

Minister of the Interior Anne Holmlund (National Coalition Party) has decided not to call for a total ban on semiautomatic weapons that was proposed by an investigation board set up after a school shooting in Kauhajoki in 2008.
     
The use of semiautomatic weapons makes it possible to rapidly fire several successive shots. Such firearms were used in the school shootings in Jokela in 2007 and in Kauhajoki a year later, as well as in the killings at the Sello shopping centre on New Year’s Eve 2009, with a total of more than 20 people ending up dead in the three incidents.
      Holmlund justifies her stand by saying that the government decided after the Kauhajoki vocational college shooting in 2008 that a complete ban on any type of firearms was not to be implemented. Nevertheless, the restrictions on the availability of firearms will be tightened.
     
In September 2008, the Ministry of the Interior set up a two-phase project to prepare the reform of firearms legislation and certain statutes related to it.
      The proposals have been under a wide consultation in Parliament already for a year.
      A report by the Kauhajoki investigation board was completed in the spring, when the proposals were still being debated in Parliament.
      A total ban on semiautomatic weapons and other potential amendments are currently in the hands of Parliament, according to Holmlund.
      Parliament could amend the Firearms Act by adding to it a complete ban on semiautomatic guns.
      ”I would regard it as rather peculiar if the goverment were to prepare any changes to paragraphs that have already once been approved unanimously”, Holmlund argues, adding:”The line cannot be changed all the time”.
     
Apparently, there is no urge to implement a complete ban on semiautomatic weapons in Parliament, either.
      Helsingin Sanomat interviewed some Chairs of the Parliamentary Groups of political parties, and the only chair who supported such a ban was Annika Lapintie (Left Alliance).
      ”A complete ban might not prevent such shootings entirely, but damage would be smaller if people did not have such weapons in their homes”, Lapintie argued.
      Jukka Gustafsson, the Deputy Chairman of the Parliament Group of the largest opposition party SDP, sided with the government: monitoring and raising the age limit for granting firearm licences would be more effective than a complete ban on some types of firearms.
     
The Kauhajoki investigation board was led by Helsinki’s Deputy Mayor Pekka Sauri (Green League).
      His party colleague Ville Niinistö, the Chairman of the Green Parliamentary Group, said that the total ban continues to be under consideration, but if it is difficult to implement ”for technical reasons and reasons linked with property protection”, there must be ”another effective and feasible solution”.
      The first phase of the amending of the Firearms Act is to be submitted to a vote in Parliament in the upcoming autumn.
      The government is already preparing the second phase, which is to follow the decision made in the autumn of 2008: no total ban on semiautomatic weapons or any other groups of weapons.
     
It is proposed that significant restrictions nevertheless be imposed on the availability of handguns (pistols, small-calibre pistols, revolvers and small-calibre revolvers).
      In the future, only persons who have reached the age of 20 and practised shooting - as a member of a shooting club - actively for at least two years could be granted a handgun permit.
      It is also proposed that a new provision on suitability testing be added to the Firearms Act.
      An acquisition permit applicant would be obliged to undergo a suitability test held by the licensing authority, which would establish the applicant’s personal suitability for the possession of a firearm.
     
According to the proposals, the first possession permit for a handgun would always be granted for a fixed term, not exceeding five years.
      The permit holder should submit to the licensing authority every five years a reliable account of his or her being suitable for the possession of a firearm.


Previously in HS International Edition:
  Six dead after Espoo shopping mall shooting; gunman killed himself (31.12.2009)
  Eleven die in shooting bloodbath (24.9.2008)
  Gunman and eight others die in school shooting spree (8.11.2007)

Links:
  Ministry of the Interior

Helsingin Sanomat