KERAVA, Finland — Destabilized by Russian expansionism and emboldened by its recent membership in NATO, Finland is mobilizing for national self-defense beyond its classical military capabilities.
The popularity of guns in the Nordic country has skyrocketed in recent months. Few places tell the story of Finns’ growing affinity for self-defense more than the shooting levels that are experiencing a resurgence of interest.
Russian President Vladimir Putin’s order for a full-scale invasion of Ukraine — another big Russian neighbor — in February 2022 continues to resonate in many Finnish minds, and partially explains the ballistics binge.
The Vantaa Reservists Association, which is leading a shooting at a warehouse formerly used to make sex toys in Kerava, north of Helsinki, has more than doubled its club in the past two years and now has more than 2,100 members.
“They have something in the back of their head ringing that this is the skill I have to learn now,” said association chairman Antti Kettunen, standing among bullet-riddled targets. “I think that the wind has changed. Now it’s blowing from the east.”
Earlier this year, the coalition government announced plans to open more than three hundred new shooting ranges, a significant jump from the 670 that were in operation recently.
Officials are encouraging interest in national defense in this country that has an 830-mile border with Russia, where shooting ice hockey is more of a pastime than shooting balls.
“Interest in national defense is traditionally very high in Finland and especially these days with the Russian aggression on Ukraine, the interest has risen even more,” lawmaker Jukka Kopra, who chairs Finland’s defense committee, told AP earlier in December.
Inspired largely by concerns over Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Finland became the 31st member of the NATO military alliance last year. Western neighbor Sweden followed suit in March. The two countries last month announced plans to boost their civil defense strategies, without mentioning Russia by name.
Self-defense methods do not prevent the use of firing ranges.
The National Defense Training Association says it has gained a total of 120,000 days this year, more than double what it did three years ago.
The number of reservists, made up of 90% army reservists but also some amateurs, has grown by more than two-thirds to more than 50,000 members since the invasion of Ukraine.
And unlike some other European countries, Finland has kept around 50,000 Cold-War era civil defense shelters, which could accommodate roughly 85% of the population of about 5.5 million.
“This is the new era of civil defense shelters, which is against the newest developments of war,” said Tomi Rask, of Helsinki Rescue Services, during a recent tour of one shelter in the capital. “We know that all of our neighbors have the capability of harming us, of harming our citizens, and we think that we need to prepare.”
Dressed in camouflage clothing at the Kerava firing range, military reservists and gun enthusiasts make their way through an obstacle course, opening fire with Glock stun guns instead of targets in human form.
“Some other people do this just for fun,” said Miikka Kallio, a 38-year-old firefighter. “Some [do it] for our eastern neighbor: I heard comments that they joined the reserves because of the Russian attack” on Ukraine.
Finland is no stranger to tensions with Russia, and much of the country’s national identity was forged while fighting its eastern neighbor: it gained independence from the Russian Empire in 1917 and then drove back a gigantic Soviet force with its small, poorly supplied army in 1917. what became known as the Winter War at the beginning of World War II.
Kettunen said learning to shoot guns is a bit like learning to swim: Both require training and preparation.
“When you want to know how to shoot or swim and you don’t know, it’s too late,” he said.
Brooks writes for the Associated Press.
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