Tougher hand gun laws went into effect in Finland Monday, after being pushed through parliament amid outrage over two recent school massacres and a shopping centre shooting spree.

The new legislation raises the minimum age for a handgun permit from 18 to 20 years of age, requires applicants to be trained by a police-approved instructor at a gun club, and obliges medical and military personnel to report anyone they feel is mentally or socially unsuitable to own a gun.

The rule change came after two massacres in schools and one in a shopping centre sent shockwaves through the traditionally tranquil Nordic country, which counts one of the world's largest per capita gun ownerships.

In November 2007, 18-year-old Pekka Eric Auvinen shot eight people in a high school in Jokela, north of Helsinki, before turning the gun on himself.

Less than a year later, 22-year-old culinary arts student Matti Saari in September 2008 killed 10 people in a classroom in the small town of Kauhajoki before committing suicide.

And in 2009, 43-year-old Ibrahim Shkupolli stabbed his ex-girlfriend to death and gunned down four of her colleagues in a shopping centre in a Helsinki suburb.

The school shooters had both received permits for .22 calibre handguns just prior to their killing sprees, while Shkupolli had previously been fined by police for firearms violations.

"Of course these incidents had a profound effect on reforming the legislation," police spokeswoman Liisa Timonen told AFP.

With the new law, gun permits now have more requirements attached, and procedures to grant permits no longer vary from region to region, Timonen said.

"There are criteria for the applicant, for the weapon, for the purpose of owning a gun and the individuals are screened to make sure they are suitable," she said.

Finnish police will now also be required to reexamine the suitability of everyone who received a gun permit before 2008, when a medical mental health certificate requirement was introduced for permit holders.

"This will take a lot of resources to accomplish, and it requires a lot of supervision," Timonen acknowledged, adding she could not say how long it would take police to reexamine all the existing permits.

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