“If someone is going hunting, is it necessary to be able to store a gun in the Parliament? This is also a big occupational safety issue: every lawmaker and employee in the Parliament must be able to feel safe every day.”
The rule has come under scrutiny due to the suspicions linked to Timo Vornanen, a first-term Member of Parliament for the Finns Party. Vornanen is suspected of causing danger, illegal threat and firearms offence for discharging a small-calibre handgun at the ground outside a nightclub in Helsinki in the early hours of Friday, 26 April.
He is presently on leave from his position as senior constable with Eastern Finland Police Department.
Pertti Rauhio, the administrative director at the Finnish Parliament, said to Helsingin Sanomat last weekend that lawmakers can leave a firearm with the security division for safekeeping if they need it after the workday for recreational purposes, such as hunting.
“For situations like these, we’ve confirmed the administrative instruction that firearms shouldn’t be stored in a car or the office or any random place, but they should be handed over to the security division, which puts them in a locked cabinet,” he commented to the newspaper.
Rauhio said Vornanen did not leave a firearm with the security division on Thursday.
According to Helsingin Sanomat, the firearm used in the shooting was a CZ 92, a 6.35-calibre pistol with only few justified applications in hunting, for example. While licences for such small and lightweight handguns have therefore become increasingly rare in recent years, they continue to have some appeal among collectors.
Criminals, the newspaper wrote, have carried them for self-defence purposes due to its concealability.
Vornanen has told police interrogators that he was carrying the handgun because of previous threats made against him. In a message to the media, he stated that police granted him a licence to carry the handgun years ago on “very strong” grounds related to his “previous work and personal protection”.
Police consider firearms licences classified and have declined to comment on questions about the licences for Vornanen.
His suspected involvement in the shooting is outright unprecedented, Henriksson stated to Helsingin Sanomat on Tuesday.
“I’ve been in the Parliament for 17 years, and not once has it even crossed my mind that a representative could have a firearm with them,” she said. “It’s such an alien thought.”
“Given that we’re also talking about a person who has served as a police, it makes the situation even more serious and incriminating.”
Aleksi Teivainen – HT
