Finland to Encourage Shooting Knowledge Among Citizens

From The Firearm Blog: Finland to Build an Additional 300 Shooting Ranges for Civilians

300 new shooting ranges, up from a current 670 shooting ranges is quite an increase.

Finland has a long history of militia defending their country, and the also have experience with Russia, or the Soviet Union anyway, invading their territory. The Winter War started in 1939 when the Soviet Union invaded Finland. People mobilized to defend their country, and the experience gave rise to The White Death, Simo Häyhä, the deadliest sniper in history, with 542 confirmed kills.

But your population can't rise up and fight off an invader if they have no skills.

Finland has mandatory military service for all men and voluntary service for women. After the service ends, soldiers become reservists and many choose to keep their skills sharp in their spare time.

There is more at that firs link, including a link to the Associated Press video on the topic.

FGC-9 Factory in Finland

From Impro Guns we get the following story. Year of Sauna for Tech Entrepreneur and Family Man who ran Massive FGC-9 Factory

Veikka Joki-Erkkilä, 34, apparently participated in something known as "The Fairy Tale Wedding program," and so was known to the Finnish public.

“Calculated, a gun was printed per week, which means that at least 17 guns could have been completed, the prosecutor estimates.

Veikka Joki-Erkkilä has a serious criminal past. He has received several suspended prison sentences for financial crime

All the usual suspects are freaking out, which in Europe is just about everyone. But then I'm not sure I would describe 17 guns as the output of "a massive factory." I suppose it is a matter of perspective.

The FGC-9 is apparently going for €1800 on the black market.

The FGC-9 (F*ck Gun Control, 9mm) was originally designed to be semiautomatic, but since even those are illegal in Europe, a select-fire, fire control group was designed (to be 3D printed, I believe) for full auto. And according to the (Google Translate version of) the Finish newspaper article, the guns being produced were full auto.

The FGC-9 was designed to be 3D printed, and use common hardware store items for things like bolts and firing pins, and relatively common steel tubing for the barrel. The last I checked there were even steps to rifle the barrels using electrochemical machining. I think the results are questionable, though I suppose it is better than a smoothbore. (I've never seen such a barrel in person, and the images online are not of the highest quality.) There are low-tech rifling machines described on the internet, perhaps not suitable for production, but for 1 or 2 barrels a month...

The FGC-9 pictured above is similar to the photo that accompanies the newspaper article, though I believe that is the Mark 1. There is a Mark 2 version of the firearm, and a couple of follow-on designs that take that as a starting point.

Finland to Join NATO and Their Recent Elections

Finland is set to join NATO Tuesday, despite or because of the fact that they have a long border with Russia. I would guess that most Americans don't know that, and don't know much about Finland, or that they recently had an election, in which their version of the Democrats got defeated. Finland's PM Marin concedes defeat as right-wing NCP wins election

Finland's left-wing Prime Minister Sanna Marin conceded defeat on Sunday in the Nordic country's parliamentary election as the opposition right-wing National Coalition Party (NCP) claimed victory in a tightly fought contest.

Reuters being the Left-wing-hacks that they are labeled the NCP as "right wing." (Scary!) As far as I can tell, they are more like the Chamber of Commerce branch of our Republican Party. Most people consider them center right. Marin's Social Democrats did come in third place behind NCP and the Finns party, which probably has Reuters shaking in their boots. The Finns are a more populist party on the Right. I expect to see all of the "establishment media" outlets violate Godwin's Law in the next few days and weeks.

As for the election results:

The center-right National Coalition Party (NCP) claimed victory with all of the votes counted, coming out on top at 20.8%. They were followed by right-wing populist party The Finns with 20.1%, while the Social Democrats garnered 19.9%.

So it was definitely close. Sanna Marin has promised that she won't govern with the Finns, not that I expected the NCP to try and form coalition with the Social Democrats.

There are many theories for why the Social Democrats were defeated. The Finns are not in favor of unrestricted immigration from developing countries and are opposed to the spending that the old regime undertook. NCP is concerned about the spending, and everyone is impacted by inflation.

The producer price index climbed 9.2 percent year-over-year in February, slower than the 10.7 percent surge in the previous month.

There is much on social media about the Woke policies that Sanna Marin was pushing as being a contributing factor. Granted, some of the policies she was pushing were the wokest of the woke.

Parts of the Left, that notice international news, are melting down. The HuffPost, for example, is in denial of course. Finland's Center-Right Party Claims Victory In Tight Election

The government will replace the center-left Cabinet by Marin, a highly popular prime minister at home and abroad since 2019.

So popular that her party came in third place.

As for the relations with Russia, Finland has tried since before the fall of the Soviet Union to be somewhat neutral. Not Switzerland, but they didn't join NATO. It The Soviet Union did invade Finland in 1939. Look up the Winter War and The Continuation War, if you're interested.