Hahah
Parhautta +fave

Wanha witsi, mutta hauska .

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"Ja, die Welt ist nur ein Leierkasten, den unser Herrgott selber dreht, und jeder muss nach dem Liede tanzen, das gerade auf der Walze steht..."

Excellent. I love the Finnish tendency to cache old weapons in barns and cottages. I kinda want to go on a hike in Finland and inventory the "forgotten caches" that are lovingly maintained by an eighty year old farmer. "Let's see... two Maxim guns, three crates of 7.62x54R, four Suomi M/31s, seven boxes of landmines,"

Tulee mieleen meidän paappa kun kävi Neuvosto-Virossa turistireissulla...
Viisumihakemuksessa kysyttiin syytä aiempaan vierailuun Neukkulassa. Vastauksena: Jatkosota...

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Watson, I'm scared.

There's this one particular case, actually by our own multinational war hero, Lauri Törni a.k.a Larry Thorne who was also involved in the afterwar weapon concealments; The cache was eventually found, and among them was a DP light machinegun, which was recognized by Mauno Koivisto (the prime minister and later the president of Finland) as his personal weapon. His handkerchief was still inside the stock.

Awesome. Freaking awesome. Yes, I realize it's probably illegal, but it's still freaking awesome.

Thorne is a madman. I was reading that he was involved with MACV-SOG. When he went missing he was carrying an M1903 Springfield. Apparently he'd always gone to war with a bolt action rifle and so decided to carry a Springfield instead of any number of other weapons he might have been carrying. Last he was seen was on a helicopter (H-34, I believe) that later went missing. Could be good material for a sketch.

What inspired this comic?

Illegal? It was like a scandal. Allied Control Commission (read: Soviets) which was observing Finland after the Continuation War wasn't happy. Especially when it came clear that several senior officers were involved, thus many had to leave Finland, Törni among them. What's the most striking thing is, that many cases occurred around the country without them knowing about each other. This reflects well the time and the feelings. Fear of possible Soviet occupation was strong, and many felt that this sort of action was necessary. "Just in case".
Inspiration; I heard this is actually an old joke, but I was actually inspired after reading a morning newspaper in a coffee house. Read the (very small) news. I just ripped and almost choked. Other clients must have thought I'd had a seizure of some sort. The whole weapons concealment wasn't there, just the helmet-issue, but I decided to boost up the joke a little more.
I have read about Lörni quite much, but didn't know about his Springfield rifle. During his career, whether in the Finnish Army, Waffen SS or the US Armed Forces, he must have gone through an impressive list of firearms. During the Continuation War he was almost always carrying "Suomi" >like here<, but at least >this photo< shows him with M16.
There's an excellent two-part comic book story about him available in Finnish.

Lörni?

And M16 pic obviously from early '60s Vietnam, not WW2 Finland I should read what I write before sending the reply