 | | According to Finnish police illegal trade of
de-activated weapons is on the rise. | |
The national daily Helsingin Sanomat reports that the national weapons register is rife with mistakes and inaccuracies. “The Interior Ministry’s weapons register is outdated and highly inaccurate. Many mistakes were made when the register’s data was converted from file cards to an electronic registry in 1992. Already before this, White Guard rifles, for example, have been registered with a type number instead of a manufacture number. ‘For God’s sake, in Finland we have many Parabellums whose serial number has been marked as 1916, 1917 or 1918, for example, because it reads so on the side of the weapon. In reality that number is the year it was made,’ says retired lieutenant colonel P. J. Virtanen, a firearms salesman from Hamina. 650,000 Finns possess a firearms license. Annually, about 60,000–70,000 guns are exchanged legally. In addition to that there is a lot of illegal trading in firearms. Now the police are particularly concerned about the accelerating trade in de-activated weapons, meaning weapons that have been modified so that they cannot be fired. They do not require firearms licenses and they are not registered. Criminals have been fixing them so that they can be fired. De-activated weapons can be purchased without a gun license. They are also no longer registered anywhere, so the police have no chance whatsoever to track their movement.” Tommi Nieminen - Helsingin Sanomat 16th November 2008
Matti Björkman - Lehtikuva |
