50,000 sign petition on gun ban in Finland

[ericire12]

http://www.gulf-times.com/site/topics/article.asp?cu_no=2&item_no=253839&version=1&template_id=39&parent_id=21

HELSINKI: A petition signed by more than 57,000 people demanding a ban on handguns was presented yesterday to the Finnish government, just weeks after the second school massacre in a year sent shockwaves through the Nordic country.
The petition, calling for a total ban on private ownership of guns with barrels shorter than 600mm (23.6 inches), was handed over to Interior Minister Anne Holmlund.
Finnish Defence Minister Elisabeth Rehn was among those who signed the petition.
“The discourse in our society needs this kind of activity,” Holmlund said in an address to parliament after accepting the petition.
The government planned to present a bill in early 2009 that would among other things “limit the availability of small calibre handguns”, she added.
The petition came less than two months after a 22-year-old culinary arts student, Matti Juhani Saari, marched through his vocational school in the southwestern town of Kauhajoki in a ski mask and black outfit, shooting dead 10 people before turning his gun on himself.
The massacre was the country’s deadliest school shooting and followed another shooting in November 2007 at a Finnish high school in Jokela, north of Helsinki, in which 18-year-old student Pekka-Eric Auvinen shot six students, the headmistress and a school nurse before killing himself.
“We are still recovering from the shock after the tragic events of Jokela and Kauhajoki,” Holmlund said yesterday , pointing out that witnesses to the massacres and the loved-ones of those who died might “never be free from the nightmarish burden of these event”.
Following both massacres, government officials vowed to tighten gun laws in Finland, which has one of the world’s highest gun ownership rates, ranking third behind the US and Yemen, according to a study last year.
Holmlund said she had set up three work groups to revise Finland’s gun laws.
She did not divulge the details but said the focus would first and foremost be on introducing stricter requirements for obtaining gun permits.
But “in the case of some arms, even their total prohibition will be considered”, she said. – AFP

[twyacht]

Damn, I just posted a UN report for gun ownership by country to oldeurope "no new posts from him/her recently" Hmmmm,.. damn troll.

It said Finland was one of the last holdouts of european gun ownership by its citizenry.

It seems the lemmings have approached the cliff.

[TAB]

I could get 50k sigs on a petition to ban dihydrogen monoxide.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yi3erdgVVTw

[ericire12]

I could get 50k sigs on a petition to ban dihydrogen monoxide.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yi3erdgVVTw

I love all the people in that video signing the petition that are carrying bottled water. "Yeah, I'll sign your petition.... Hold on, let me put down my bottled water first."




Here is another good one:

Penn and Teller take on 9/11 Truthers (Content Warning)


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kcrF346sS_I&feature=related

[Fatman]

I could get 50k sigs on a petition to ban dihydrogen monoxide.

A worthy cause! Although I've always referred to it as Hydric acid. Sounds even more sinister, and it is!

http://www.dhmo.org/facts.html

As to the Finns giving up handguns, I think calmer heads will prevail.

[Sponsor]