Finland is Building Shooting Ranges to Boost Citizen Soldiers

AmmoLand ^ | February 22, 2024 | Dean Weingarten

[marktwain]

A recent article in the Telegraph was republished on Yahoo. The article touted the Finnish government’s decision to open 300 shooting ranges to encourage the development of shooting skills by Finnish citizens, for the purpose of national defense. From the article:

“This is because of our defence model, which benefits from people having and developing their shooting skills on their own.”

In 2023, Finland’s new Right-wing coalition agreed plans to increase the number of ranges to 1,000 nationwide by the end of the decade, as well as plans to allow diabetics to serve in the army and encourage more women to join up.

There are currently around 600 ranges in Finland, compared with 2,000 at the turn of the 21st century.

Only 25 years ago, Finland had 2,000 shooting ranges. Consider the trend. It means 1,400 shooting ranges were closed or destroyed in the last 25 years. It coincides well with the fall of the Soviet Union and the belief that Finland no longer had to worry about invasion.

The hard lessons of the Winter War of 1939 – 1940 were minimized. Although completely outmatched by Soviet manpower and material, Finns fought the Soviet behemoth and kept their independence. They are said to have caused 300,000 Soviet casualties while suffering only 68,000 casualties. Over 125,000 Soviets were killed, and about 25,000 Finns were. They ended up ceding 11% of their territory, but they survived as a country.

Every Finnish school child knows the history of Simo Häyhä, “the White Death.” He was one of the most successful snipers in history, killing 500 Soviet soldiers in three months of winter.  The Finnish military expects a great many of its 900,000 reservists to be able to accomplish many of the same feats as Simo Häyha.

[Noumenon]

I’m a fan of Ian McCollum’s Forgotten Weapons channel, and that’s where I learned about Finnish Brutality. It’s a totally badass event. Love the way Ian chooses his battle outfit to match the weapon he uses. Where does he find that stuff?

[Bonemaker]

I don’t think I want to! What words/language won’t these bastards befoul next! But it was said in context of 30-06, .243, .308.

[Charles Martel]

I have wondered about that, too. Either Ian has been collecting militaria since he was in his teens, or he has deep contacts in the current milsurp importing world. Some of the stuff he finds is very rare these days. Maybe he finds some of it through those auction houses that he sometimes visits.