- Title: FINLAND: Shocked Finland mourns dead students, rethinks gun law
- Date: 25th September 2008
- Summary: (W4) KAUHAJOKI, FINLAND (SEPTEMBER 24, 2008) (REUTERS) EXTERIOR OF THE STUDENT ACCOMMODATION WHERE MATTI SAARI LIVED WINDOW IN THE HOUSE EXTERIOR OF THE HOUSE VARIOUS OF POLICE TAPE OVER ENTRANCE FLAG AT HALF-MAST
- Embargoed: 10th October 2008 13:00
- Keywords:
- Location: Finland
- Country: Finland
- Topics: Crime / Law Enforcement
- Reuters ID: LVA92UHRKPEC5L8A029BP0EOSPXY
- Story Text: As Finland mourns the victims of its second school shooting in less than a year, it is once again questioning whether it is time to clamp down on private gun ownership.
Finland was on Wednesday (September 24) once again forced to consider its gun laws after a gunman killed 10 people at a school in western Finland.
Matti Saari, 22, shot and killed 10 people on Tuesday (September 23) at a vocational school in Kauhajoki -- days after drawing police attention with online videos of himself at a gun range -- and then turned the gun on himself.
He died later of a head wound in Tampere University Hospital.
On Wednesday, Finnish media focused heavily on how police, alerted to Saari's videos, could question him on Monday but not confiscate the gun, how Saari could get a gun in the first place, and how to tighten Finland's gun law.
But William Wadstein who owns a gun shop in the capital Helsinki said he thought the law was good.
"Our gun law is perfect and very strict. What we should do is take a good care of the possibilities of people using the Internet in a wrong way," he said.
According to police, Saari had a temporary permit for a .22 calibre pistol.
They also said Saari had bought his gun in the town of Jokela in the south of the country less than 11 months ago.
It was in Jokela where Pekka-Eric Auvinen killed eight people at the local school last year. Auvinen also shot and killed himself.
Police said the two men were likely to have been in contact with each other.
Wadstein said the .22 calibre pistol was a copy of the famous Valter p99.
"Valter 22 is a copy of world famous Valter p99 military pistol.
The original one is used by the police, by the military forces. It is a perfect gun. The copy of this is calibre 22. It looks the same but quite low price. It is not for sport shooting. You can maybe have it on a hand to shoot some animal in a trap," he said.
On Tuesday, Prime Minister Matti Vanhanen said Finland should consider banning private handguns altogether.
His views were echoed by National Police Commissioner Mikko Paatero.
"The legislation concerning hand weapons should be tightened and I suppose hand weapons should not be given to private persons at all," he said.
Gun ownership in Finland is among the highest in the world, but crime rates are low. - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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