Finland plans to open more than 300 new shooting ranges to encourage more citizens to take up the hobby in the interest of national defence.
It is hoped that shooting in the Nordic country – which last year became Nato’s newest member and which shares a 830-mile (1,330km) border with Russia – could become as popular as football or ice hockey.
There are about 670 shooting ranges in Finland, down from about 2,000 at the turn of the century. By 2030, the government plans to increase the number to about 1,000.
Jukka Kopra, a National Coalition party MP and the chair of Finland’s defence committee, told the Guardian: “The present government aims to increase the amount of shooting ranges in Finland from roughly 600-700 up to 1,000. This is because of our defence model, which benefits from people having and developing their shooting skills on their own.”
Since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the popularity of voluntary training courses aimed at teaching reservists and civilians how to defend Finland has doubled. There has also been a big increase in the number of Finns applying for gun licences.
Last year the Finnish defence training and education association MPK put on 116,000 training days, a significant increase on previous years when there were usually about 50,000.
MPK’s executive director, Antti Lehtisalo, said enthusiasm among Finnish people to defend their country was strong. “We have a very high will to defend the country.”
He said that after completing the courses, participants needed to practise their new skills on shooting ranges.
“One part of this training and education is of course education in shooting because people want to be part of this comprehensive security, so they’re coming to our courses and after that we need more shooting ranges.”
Lehtisalo said shooting was only permitted on ranges, and civilians were given thorough safety training.
The defence ministry said it planned to “safeguard the activities of Finland’s shooting ranges and promote the establishment of new shooting ranges”.
A spokesperson added: “The environmental permit processes and legislation concerning shooting ranges will be streamlined. The target for the number of outdoor shooting ranges will be about 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.”