Preparing for a crisis

On a large scale, the cycle of history:

"Good times make weak people
Weak people make hard times
Hard times make strong people
Strong people make good times"

Hopefully, these difficult times will wake the Finns from her sleep and put her priorities in the right order. In Ukraine, the difficult times due to external Russian factors and history have awakened the nation to a crisis.

The information about the security situation in Europe in recent days has been nothing but worrying. Although there has been a war in Ukraine since 2014, the preparation could have been better. The question arises about the situation in Finland.

Finland's defense capability is based on a trained and competent reserve. The operational capacity of the reserve is secured through training and acquisitions, which are promoted during peacetime. Many Finnish reservists would like to practice in other ways than in official refresher exercises, even with the equipment they have acquired themselves. This should definitely be facilitated and not made difficult. Due to a lack of funding, the defense forces have had to significantly reduce their training times.

In Finland, bureaucracy multiplies. Our legal system does not always fit the citizens' sense of justice. The costs of a legal shooting hobby are borderline painful. Just everyday traveling eats up a large part of the funds. Finland's competitiveness and prosperity compared to comparison countries is weak.

Permit bureaucracy and processing times have been artificially made more difficult for Finnish reservists and legal gun owners. Laws and resources must be allocated so that things can be handled without unreasonable delays and fees. Not US-style arming of the entire nation, but with simple and responsible gun licensing practices, which was prevalent even in Finland at the beginning of the 2000s. The free distribution of weapons can only be resorted to as an extreme measure, as has just happened in Ukraine.

The price of a gun license in 2002, when the cash club came to Finland, was around 17 euros. In 2022, the price will be 105 euros. Permit prices increased by more than 500%. In Finland, the average annual change in inflation from 2002 to 2022 has been 1.4% per year... The high price of a gun license often affects or postpones the independent initiation and active continuation of shooting hobbies and national defense activities.

There have been good times in Finland, but the direction has been worrying. The amount of bureaucracy is absurd. This consumes the resources of every Finn, which could be used to make our nation prosperous, promote innovation, and increase our well-being and security.

We promote and assist reservists and security industry operators in maintaining both skills and the will to defend the country. The time for naive thinking is over. We hope that Ukraine and Europe will get through this with honor and motivation. We hope for speedy and permanent peace, but help is needed now; a little longer and heavier than words.

- Aawee | #maanpuolustus #reservi #reserviläinen #ukraina #finland