NRA RY, Column of the President

NRA

Column of the President

Kansallinen Kivääriyhdistys (National Rifle Association) of Finland founded officially on July 7th, 2006 to watch and protect the rights of the gun owners, who have about 1,700,000 guns. 540,000 people, which is 10 per cent of the total population of Finland, have license to own guns. It means, that Finland is the third in percentage in the whole World, the U.S.A. is the first, Jemen the second. Only 20 per cent of all homicides in Finland are done with guns and about half of it the gun used has been illegally owned (not licensed). Finland became as a member of the E.U. on 1995, then among numerous of others, the gun directive started to concern Finland, too. The legislation in Finland transferred to correspond with the 1991 directive of the E.U. and people still have the opportunity to own guns.

On 2001 a process in the United Nations started to control the illicit trade of small arms and light weapons and the target was military type weapons. Anti-gun organizations demanded, that it must control and ban all small arms. United Nations never solved the main problem, the official definition of small arms and light weapons as well as an idea to take away all legally owned guns Worldwide lead the process into dead end. When the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Finland got involved to the movement of anti-gun organizations and countries on 2003, only few citizens and gun owners realized it. The Minister of Foreign Affairs, Mr. Erkki Tuomioja, has been a member of peace movement and was earlier involved among other things in the activity against the Shah of Iran. Mr. Tuomioja has been very active to ban all civil arms and has been involved and a patron for such organizations like IANSA, OXFAM and Amnesty International. Most meetings of these organizations has been kept in secret from press to make sure, that the people and the Parliament of Finland can't criticize the arrangements for the U.N. meeting.

The Finnish representatives in the U.N., ambassadors Mr. Pasi Patokallio and Mr. Kari Kahiluoto are wellknown around the World because of their comments. On July 7th, 2006 Mr. Kahiluoto started his speech, " I have the honour to speak on behalf of the European Union..." He brought the message of anti-gun organizations, "Small arms kill thousands every day..." (www.finlandun.org). His message doesn't perform the opinion of the gun owners in Finland or any other part of the E.U. Finnish politicians and members of the Parliament do not know how active our Minister of Foreign Affairs is to get a global ban for guns, therefore there is a need for a national organization to protect the heritage of the people in Finland to legally own small arms.

It's very important to know, that "the U.N. Conference to Review Progress Made in the Implementation of the Programme of Action to Prevent and Eradicate the Illicit Trade in Small Arms and Light Weapons in All It's Aspects" June 26th - July 7th, 2006 ended without agreement. All gun owners Globally should be very thankful to the opinion of the U.S.A. and especially the influence of the NRA of America to stop anti-gun organizations. I recommend to visit www.stopUNgunban.org. To understand how the anti-gun organizations are giving reasons for gun ban, you should purchase DVD / VHS about the debate between Mr. Wayne LaPierre of the NRA and Ms. Rebecca Peters of the IANSA at King College in London, GB http://www.nrastore.com/nra/Product.aspx?productid=PB%2002311.

Anti-gun associations never rest, or as Mrs. Sandra S. Froman the President of the NRA of America said, "enemy never sleeps" means, that we must keep on eye what's going on and visit the site of the NRA of America, www.NRAILA.org. The most important organization for the European gun owners is WFSA. Hunters' FACE and gun colectors' FESAC are working together in the E.U. concerning the legislation for gun ownership.

Being the Chairman of the E.U. from July 1st to December 31st, 2006 means, that Finland has an important role for the general opinion concerning small arms in the entire E.U., although there is no need to change the gun directive, because the Conference of Small Arms was not successful. There is a long history of private ownership on small arms in Finland, since 14th century in the Kingdom of Sweden and Finland Finnish farmers have had the right to hunt game animals, as well as moose and deer, which belong in any other part of the Nation to the king. Thanks to e.g. this, Finnish soldiers performed excellent marksmanship in all wars Sweden was involved. From 1809 to 1917 Finland was a part of the Empire of Russia, but 1917 Finland declared it's independency and the Independence War begun. 1918 Finland, as a free and independent country, maintained for all free men the right to keep and bear arms. The Finnish Homeguard (Suojeluskunta) had an important role as a developer of military shooting practise and thanks to the Homeguard the Finnish Defence Forces (Puolustusvoimat) could perform excellent resistance against the Red Army during the Winter War 1939. The Winter War last 105 days, although loosing some of it's territory, Finland still remain impregnable. Remarcable and heroic were individual troopers, armed with rifles and famous Finnish machine pistol, 9mm KP 31, Suomi. One of the best known, legendary Finnish trooper, Corporal Simo Häyhä shot 546 Russian soldiers with his own Finnish Homeguard Suojeluskunta service rifle m/28-30, cal 7.62 X 53R, as a sniper, but without any optical sight. Corporal Häyhä was nicknamed by Russians as the White Death.

As a big country, if you think the territory, but scattered, if you compare it to the population, it creates excellent opportunities for many outdoor activities and Finland has a long heritage of the right to hunt, there are about 340,000 registered hunters. Because of the enormous land area, Finland is forced to have an Army of 600,000 men in war time, nowadays reserves are smaller, beacause of the peace in Europe. Our Army is still one of the biggest, comparing especially to the total population. Many reservists practise with their own rifles and pistols and ammunition. It's very important to support the Army Reserves, because at this moment there is no Homeguard or comparable organization available in Finland and there are all the time attempts to restrict the reservists' practise.

The heritage and the right to hunt as well as bear arms will be protected in our country by the NRA of Finland. The NRA of America is now 135 years old and we like to congratulate the NRA of America, all members and board, because of the work generation after generation to train the best shooters for the U.S. Olympic and other teams and to fight for the Second Amandment of citizens' right to keep and bear arms. Special thanks to the Board of the NRA, because of bringing up the debate about the goals of international anti-gun organizations.

As the President of the NRA of Finland, I have been always interested in shooting, hunting and collecting guns. I have written several articles about guns, hunting and legislation in numerous hunting and gun magazines and served as specialist on several radio and television programmes during the last 25 years. I was involved in gun business about 35 years, specialized in police instructor weaponry, chemical arms etc.. I have been an associate member of the IACP since 1970'ies and the SCI since 1980'ies, because I like hunting of big game animals. I have been a member of the NRA of America several tens of years, enjoying reading the American Rifleman since 1960'ies. I have been the President of the AECAC (The European Association of the Civil Commerce of Weapons) in the E.U. for 4 years and many other such organizations, e.g. in Finland. I believe, that the right to keep and bear arms will need protection also in the future, because there are always weak politicians trying to get "extra points" with an idea to forbidden certain kind of arms, like in the United Kingdom few years ago. Co-operation globally is necessary and we will as a Finnish organization protect the right to keep and bear arms in Finland and other parts of the E.U.. We must have in all parts of the civilized World an opportunity to practice target shooting, hunting, gun collecting and other legal activities.

NRA ry
Runo K. Kurko
President