Medical Association: Responsibility for firearms licences should remain with police

Holmlund insists "first gun" ban on handguns would not have prevented Kauhajoki shootings

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In the view of the Finnish Medical Association, responsibility for the granting of firearms licences should remain in the hands of the police.
      The FMA take the stand that it is impossible for a doctor to determine the mental health background or the possible future behaviour of an applicant in the course of a 10 to 15-minute evaluation session at a health centre.
      “No doctor has a crystal ball to see into the future like that. Nobody can state with any degree of confidence, on the basis of a one-off meeting with a person who probably behaves normally, that that person is not ever going to pose a danger to anyone”, charges the FMA’s deputy executive director Risto Ihalainen.
     
The Association’s statement on Tuesday follows on from Monday’s announcement by the Ministry of the Interior of new directives for firearms control, including the demand that the granting of a handgun licence must always be accompanied by a doctor’s evaluation of the applicant’s mental health, in order to safeguard that the applicant does not have mental problems that might pose a danger to himself or others.
     
In Ihalainen’s view, rather than acquiring medical information of this nature it would be wise to ponder the general availability of firearms in Finland and the position of handguns in particular.
      “The Constitution contains safeguards on the protection of privacy, but it does not guarantee the right to carry a firearm”, notes Ihalainen.
      He argues that all things considered the reforms as proposed are mainly a means of providing a suitable “guilty party” in the case that something akin to the mass killings in Jokela and Kauhajoki were to happen again.
     
Speaking to YLE News on Tuesday, the Minister of the Interior Anne Holmlund (National Coalition Party) acknowledged the challenges faced by physicians when evaluating firearms licence applicants, but insisted that the police need information about any possible mental health problems.
      Holmlund further stated that she did not believe a ban on handguns as a first firearm would have prevented the Kauhajoki shootings from taking place.
      The gunman Matti Juhani Saari had had a firearms licence for just over a month at the time of the shootings.
      The new directives announced on Monday require all applicants to have one year's membership in a gun club before a handgun certificate can be issued.


Previously in HS International Edition:
  Mental health certificate now required for handgun ownership (30.9.2008)

Links:
  Finnish Medical Association

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