Arms|There may be tens of thousands of deactivated firearms in Finland. Possession of such a weapon will soon become a punishable offense unless reported to the police.
Only a very small proportion of deactivated weapons are reported to the police. According to the police’s assessment, the majority of deactivated, i.e. permanently unfireable, weapons in Finland are still waiting for registration, even though the deadline expires in two weeks.
According to the law, possession of a deactivated weapon becomes punishable two weeks from now on July 15, if it has not been reported to the police before then. Inspector General of the Police Board Tarja Ranta tells STT that very few announcements have been made so far.
“Currently, there are roughly 2,700 notifications in the register,” he says.
However, Ranta refers to the total number of reports made through electronic transactions alone and reminds that, in addition to those, reports could have been made by physically visiting the police department on site.
In any case, the numbers are really small. Ranta estimates that there are approximately 30,000–40,000 deactivated weapons in Finland that have not been reported to the police.
Registration the background is the requirement of the EU directive, with which the amendment to the Firearms Act came into force in Finland in July 2019. Ranta says that the change made deactivated firearms so-called notifiable objects.
Since the law came into force, there has thus been five years to inform the police about the possession of a deactivated weapon. According to Ranta, the police have been very careful about the issue over the past year, so that people would not leave reporting until the last drop.
Registration aims to increase security. A significant part of the deactivated weapons may have been insufficiently deactivated.
The EU regulation on the deactivation of firearms entered into force in 2016, but the requirements concerning the deactivation itself were specified by a new regulation in 2018.
“Guns that were deactivated before 2018 may be easily converted back into working firearms. Of course, that’s always a risk,” says Ranta.
People acquire deactivated guns typically as decorative items or out of an interest in firearms or their history.
A deactivated weapon must be reported to the police again when it changes hands. This can be the case, for example, when a deactivated weapon is bought, sold, donated or inherited.
You have 30 days from the moment of delivery to make the notification.
“Here, the principle is exactly the same as normally, when there are changes in the ownership of the weapon, so that we can keep track of who has these weapons,” says Ranta.
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