A record 45,900 firearm permits were issued in Poland last year amid unease at the war being fought between neighboring Russia and Ukraine.
A sudden increase in firearm permits for private use was recorded in 2022 – the year Russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine – when 37,400 new licenses were issued in Poland.
In 2023, another 40,900 permits were issued, Polish daily Rzeczpospolita reported, citing police statistics.
Across the country, 367,400 people in total have firearm permits. Together, they legally own nearly a million guns, up from 463,800 in 2017.
Criminologist Professor Brunon Holyst told Rzeczpospolita in 2023 that the surge in Poles acquiring firearms was a direct response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February of the previous year.
“The public today feels insecure, so they want to stock up on weapons. The impulse is the war in Ukraine, but also concern for personal safety and the safety of property,” he said at the time.
Former MP and ex-policeman Jerzy Dziewulski said that the conflict isn’t the only reason Poles are buying weapons.
“Owning a gun boosts every guy's ego, especially if until now my buddy had one and I didn't,” Thursday’s edition of Rzeczpospolita cited him as saying. He added that the trend had been made possible by increasingly liberal laws.
Under an initiative announced earlier this month aimed at strengthening national security, all adult Polish men will be offered military training, though details on implementation are still being finalized.
