Police confiscate more than 10 guns in crackdown

Some people sent to mental health treatment

print this

As of Monday, police had confiscated nine guns from a total of seven people in connection with a crackdown on firearms legislation enforcement after the Kauhajoki school shootings, in connection with the investigation of threats made against schools and the content of certain websites.
     Seizures of weapons have taken place around Finland, and they have continued after Monday. For instance, three guns were taken from a man in Vantaa on Tuesday.
      Jukka Mäkynen of the internet surveillance team at the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) says that in some cases police confiscated the weapons based on videos put up on the Internet, which indicated that firearms had been used in violation of the terms of the gun permit. For instance, they have shown the holder of the gun shooting in a forest, rather than at a firing range.
     Police have also sent some people to medical treatment for apparent mental health problems.
     “Police are obligated to send a person to hospital treatment if that person is seen to be in immediate need of treatment for mental illness”, says Ari Karvonen of the NBI.
     The NBI will not specify the communities where the confiscations have taken place.
     
Helsingin Sanomat has learned that on Tuesday, police confiscated three legal hunting weapons from a home in the west of Vantaa. Police had been tipped off about an online video in which a boy born in 1993 appears holding a shotgun.
     Police said that the boy did not point the gun at the camera or make any threats.
     The boy’s father has permits for the guns. Neither the father nor the son have been questioned yet.
     
Police in Juva had previously seized hunting weapons from the home of a teenager in Varkaus, who is one of the suspects in a case in which threats were made against a school in Joroinen in September.
     Local police say that it is not known if the boy had handled the guns, nor have any shooting videos emerged.
     The guns belong to a person living in the same household, who has a licence for them. Police say that a safer place is being sought for storing the guns. The case was first reported by the newspaper Savon Sanomat.
     Police in Tampere, Espoo, Turku, and Helsinki said on Wednesday that no such seizures had taken place in their jurisdictions.
     
The NBI says that more than 120 threats against schools were made within less than two weeks of the Kauhajoki school shootings. The number includes messages on the Internet, rumours, SMS messages, and graffiti on school desks.
     The number of online tipoffs sent to the NBI has decreased, but they are still coming on a daily basis. Upgraded NBI online surveillance is set to continue through the end of October, although the financing of the operation remains open.
     
Online communities have also reacted to photographs and videos depicting guns and shooting.
      Matti Kari, head of communications at Irc-galleria, an online community favoured by young people, says that dozens, and even hundreds of pictures have been removed from the pages at the request of users. However, the webmasters have not reported any of the pictures to police.
     The YouTube online video service has many different types of shooting videos, but Google, which owns YouTube, says that they are not in violation of the rules of the site.
      Victoria Katsarou, information officer of the London office of Google, says that the company has not contacted Finnish authorities over any videos uploaded after the Kauhajoki shootings.


Previously in HS International Edition:
  Schools closed in different parts of the country after threatening messages (26.9.2008)
  More than 120 threats against schools since Kauhajoki killings (8.10.2008)
  Police officer who let school shooter keep weapon faces criminal charges (1.10.2008)

Helsingin Sanomat