Gun politics in Finland - a few questions.

[Lord of Manchester]

My experience is: I was a gun owner in England (years ago) I was invited to Hirvijähti some year ago as a ajomies, liked it and decided to resurrect my interest in hunting.
I lived then in Helsinki but hunted in the Sysmä area, I bought a Sako Finnbear 30.06 bolt action single shot hunting rifle from a friend.
In order to get a licence even to possess the thing I needed to (a) take the rifle to the central police station in Helsinki (b) produce a written statement from the chief of police in Helsinki stating that I had no criminal convictions (other than parking tickets etc) and (c) produce an identical statement from the British police.
I currently own a 30.06, 30.08 and a twelve gauge side by side Holland and Holland shotgun, I have no idea how you can get a gun licence other than by using this procedure.