Quoted:


You can have these in Finland? Cool! Where's my plane ticket?

Well, i´ll try to keep this short.

There is no 2nd amendment kind of right to bear arms.

For each weapon you must be able to show a valid reason for owning it, the main reasons are 1. Hunting 2. Sporting use(from clay shooting to IPSC and Reserve 3 gun matches)3. Collecting.

The purchase of a weapons goes like:

1. You figure out what kind of weapon you are looking, and depending on the purpose of it, the difficulty in obtaining the purchase permit varies
- For hunting, the nation wide hunting licence will normally suffice
- For target shooting, the .22 weapons are fairly easy to accuire, for larger pistols and semi auto rifles, you have basically two reasons, IPSC and 3 gun match use, but if you have gone thru the IPSC basic course and do shoot somewhat actively, you will get the permit.
- For collecting, the permit situation is changing, you used to apply the status as a collector from the state officials, but there is a change going which will centralize the application handling to one place.

Now, you have the purchase permit in hand(costs roughly $14 for normal weapons, around $40 for collecting weapons)

You find the weapon you like, the dealer fills the permit, you go withing 30 days to show that the serial numbers are okay and the weapon matches the permit. Now you have the purchase permit until a plastic permit card arrives within 3-4 weeks, you just stop by the station to exchange the temporary permit for the plastic card.

It is fairly simple when in use and the Finns are accustomed to it.

Best thing is, the prices for Class3 equivalent weapons are microscopic compared to US prices..oh..no $200 tax, fingerprint checks and months of waiting on the suppressors either