Poland Becomes 1st EU Nation to Mandate Firearms Training for Schoolchildren

Based, as the cool kids say.

Poland is reportedly the first European Union (EU) nation to mandate firearms training for schoolchildren. Per DW, these firearms courses will be “compulsory for primarly schoolchildren in preparation of a potential Russian attack.”

The video summary reads in part like this:

Firearms lessons are now compulsory for schoolchildren - even at a young age. This is how Poland is preparing itself for a potential Russian attack. The children are enjoying it, and their parents feel proud.

If you think Poland is based, it’s because they’re anti-Kremlin and remember how Russians treated them. (Thank NATO, however imperfect, too!) Soviet horrors are still very raw to Poles. Poland, like my ancestral homeland Lithuania, is all too familiar with Russian occupation—especially the Soviet variant that spanned five decades. Not to mention Nazi occupation before that.

Although I’m a first-generation American, friends here tell me firearms lessons used to be common in grade school. While less prevalent today - due to gun control efforts, media fear-mongering, and increased urbanization - these courses can still be found in parts of the South, Mountain West, and in Alaska. But seeing Europe jump on this trend, despite having no Second Amendment enshrined in their individual constitutions, is wonderful to see.

European civilian firearms ownership is small compared to the U.S., with just 25 million Europeans across the 27-member states owning firearms for personal uses—namely hunting and not self-defense. One source claims nearly 500 million firearms have been produced in the U.S. since 1899. Yet today, there are over 300 million lawful firearms - making us the most armed country in the world.

The most comprehensive study on EU firearms ownership, from about a decade ago, basically admitted firearms ownership is intentionally restricted in the continent:

The control of firearms trafficking is a high priority for the European Commission, which has enacted a number of EU-wide measures to complement and reinforce the strategies of individual Member States. The European Commission aims to boost cooperation between the national administrations tasked with enforcing firearms controls, and to improve the monitoring of the movement of firearms into and within the EU.

Here are some key findings from the 2013 study:

• Cyprus has the “highest incidence of firearms ownership in the EU” with 3 out of 10 respondents saying they “own or used to own a firearm.”

• 53% of respondents “support stricter regulation of who is allowed to own, buy or sell firearms in their country,” compared to 39% of respondents preferring other measures to reduce firearms-related crime.

• Europeans that own firearms for sport: Luxembourg (44%), the UK (44%) and Germany (33%)

• Europeans that own firearms for personal protection: the Czech Republic (43%), Lithuania (43%) and Belgium (34%).

Bravo, Poland. Your friends here in America wish you great success with this program.

Let’s hope it inspires more safe and responsible firearms usage in Eastern Europe and throughout the E.U.!

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