Finnish police cancel 1,000 gun permits

[Eldritch]

Finnish police has cancelled around thousand gun licences. The cancellations mostly concern licence carriers with a history of violent crime or drug abuse. Nearly eight-hundred licence holders have been cautioned for reoccurring arrests over drunkenness. This is the first time police is cross-checking gun licenses with their criminal records.

The police initiated a research on 5 500 gun licences. Around 40 000 gun owners are listed in Police’s criminal records. The move comes after tragic school shooting events in Kauhajoki.

People who received warnings had been in contact with the law over alcohol abuse more than once. Reoccurring drunk and driving offences and domestic disturbance calls could have lead to cancellations. However, being under suspicion of criminal behaviour, or minor traffic offences didn’t count as a reason to cancel a permit. Chief Director of the Police Force, Mikko Paatero*, says the outcome was expected and that some individuals carrying a permit shouldn’t have had them.

Currently every police station in Finland has received a name list including gun permit holders who appear on the criminal record. However, by summer 2011 a new system will put the two lists together which will make cross-referencing much easier in the future.

Link.

*Paatero is a corrupt, publicity-hungry multiculturalist clown who's very quickly eroding Finns' confidence in the police -- until now one of the most respected instutions in this country (Finns have a deeply ingrained desire to look up to austere, no-nonsense authority figures, you see).

He's also indirectly responsible for at least one Finnish citizen's death. He tried to cover up the fact that the Espoo shooter was an Albanian Muslim, which allowed him to escape the Sello shopping center and kill one more person.



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