Obviously, but you conveniently didn’t quote the part where I said you need a signed proof from a licensed weapons trainer.

So every time you practice, there's a licensed weapons trainer at the scene? Sounds a bit like being a part of a sports shooting association to me.

I’m not going to prove that just for the sake of random conversation over the internet.

As if you could. What would you do, phone up a person right now, after today's events, and ask them "hey, say if someone told you they've been training with an air pistol in their back yard, would you sign a certification saying you think it's okay for them to get a license for a handgun"? I'm sure that even the lazier and less responsible ones wouldn't agree after today.

The point rather being that you need verification. Your argument is "yeah you just write up a diary of when you practiced and how and it'll get you a signature from a licensed weapons trainer and that'll get you a gun" when in reality, it does not work that way.

Obviously many of them are hobbyist hunters as well, but you don’t get a permit for 9mm pistol for duck hunting.

No, but without having a hunting license, you won't get one. This is the same as with finished military service. It affects the decision of the police, which is quite subjective. I know the Finnish cops are highly overestimated, so I understand that some of them don't exactly follow the law to the letter, but in most places, they're pretty strict about guns. If you have a hunting license and you're part of a hunting association and you need a gun for executing livestock, it's a no-brainer. If you're a farmer without a hunting license, as I specified, good luck getting one. And if you're a hunter, you're in a hunting association. That's almost 100% true. I dare you to challenge that assertion and show me farmers who are hunters who aren't part of hunting associations.

So you're saying you shot with an air pistol by yourself, for more than two years, then logged the times, then went to a firearms instructor, told them, "yeah I have some scribbles in a notebook, can I gets gun" and then they said "sure, I don't see a reason to doubt you at all" and then got a license from the police based on that and at no point were you associated with any sort of hunting association or a sports shooting club?

Yeah, I call BS on that.

Weird how you completely missed the

Random shooting at a target, however, could not be considered a shooting hobby as referred to in the paragraph, but a shooting hobby should include the active pursuit of a sport in which competitions are organized

part and the other parts which specify that the exact sort of thing you're talking about is explicitly guarded for.

Had we had this talk back in -99, sure. But -24? Nope.