Ministry of the Interior sets up project to safeguard Finland’s shooting ranges

The Government Programme aims to safeguard the activities of Finland’s existing shooting ranges and promote the establishment of new shooting ranges. The Finnish Ministry of the Interior has set up a project to examine ways to safeguard the activities of shooting ranges and to prepare the necessary legislative amendments.

The Government Programme seeks to increase the number of shooting ranges in Finland to 1,000 by the end of the decade. The focus will be on establishing a sufficient number of rifle and tactical ranges throughout the country.

The purpose of the Ministry’s project is to assess and prepare any legislative amendments necessary to safeguard the activities of existing shooting ranges and promote the establishment of new shooting ranges. In line with the Government Programme, regional needs and key user groups will be taken into account in the preparation.

Most of the shooting ranges are maintained by game management associations, hunting societies, private individuals or companies, and they are also used by public authorities and by reservist and national defence organisations.

The project runs from 1 June 2024 to 30 September 2025. The steering group and the working group will have members from the Ministry of the Interior, the Ministry of the Environment, the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry and the Ministry of Defence.

Environmental permit processes will be streamlined

There is a risk that the number of shooting ranges in Finland will decrease significantly if no measures are taken. There are shooting ranges throughout Finland, and they are geographically dispersed.

The project will put forward proposals for streamlining the environmental permit processes in line with the Government Programme. It will also make an international comparison of the legislation and environmental permit processes in use in Finland’s reference countries in the EU.

At the moment there are about 670 shooting ranges that are not managed by the Defence Forces. The number of shooting ranges in Finland has been in sharp decline in recent decades. In comparison, there was an estimated 2,000–2,500 shooting ranges in the country in the 1990s. 

Inquiries:
Seppo Sivula, Chief Superintendent, tel. +358 295 488 591, [email protected]