Finland proposes a ban on guns

Cameron Ainsworth-Vincze

On Sept. 23, 2008, a culinary student named Matti Juhani Saari walked into a vocational college in Kauhajoki, Finland, drew a semi-automatic pistol, and killed 10 people before taking his own life. Less than a year earlier, an 18-year-old fatally shot eight people at a high school in Tuusula, 50 km north of Helsinki, before killing himself. In the wake of Saari’s rampage, Finnish Prime Minister Matti Vanhanen promised a grieving nation that “events like this would not happen again.” Now, he is trying to back up those words with legislation.

Finland, population 5.3. million, has 650,000 licensed gun owners, ranking it fifth in civilian gun ownership per capita behind the United States, Yemen, Switzerland and Serbia, according to the Geneva-based Small Arms Survey.

Source: Macleans

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