As Americans, we are fortunate to have rights unseen throughout the world. From free speech to keeping and bearing arms, the U.S. is blessed to have these basic rights. This is especially true with having a Second Amendment enshrined in our Constitution.
Two of our allies, Canada and Poland, are pursuing vastly different approaches to gun ownership and training. While both heavily restrict firearms ownership with extreme licensing systems and offer no constitutional guarantees, the latter is giving a masterclass in smart and responsible firearms usage.
Earlier this month, Canada banned 324 firearms models and announced these additions will likely be donated to Ukraine. Canada’s Defense Minister Bill Blair was quoted in the AP, remarking, “Every bit of assistance we can offer to the Ukrainians is one step toward their victory."
As someone sympathetic to Ukraine’s plight, I find this justification by Canadian government officials to be cheap and disgusting. You don’t disarm your populace in this grotesque manner, and then proceed to virtue signal about Ukrainian self-defense.
As of November 2024, over 2,000 types of gun models - including lawful semi-automatic firearms - have been banned in Canada. Their justification? Ottawa believes this is a “comprehensive approach to tackle gun violence in Canada.”
An official government bulletin claims these guns are “assault” weapons, writing, “The prohibition of these additional unique makes and models takes effect immediately. These firearms can no longer be legally possessed, sold in, or imported into Canada, and can only be transferred or transported under limited circumstances. These firearms must be securely stored in accordance with the storage requirements for their classification prior to the prohibition."
Let’s be honest: This justification is comprehensively idiotic and not sound. Yet, as we know, no gun control measure ever deters criminals from misusing firearms. In fact, the opposite is true. Lawful gun owners are ultimately criminalized by the very government that promises a false sense of security.
In contrast, Poland is treading down the right path and normalizing firearms usage in classrooms. This nation - soon expected to overtake Germany as a top European powerhouse - hasn’t forgotten what five decades of suffering under communist rule looks like–including the absence of lawful firearms ownership. In wake of Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine, Poland and its neighbors - like my ancestral homeland, Lithuania - are encouraging citizens to train against potential threats from their resentful, aggressive neighbor.
A recent Deutsche Welle (DW) report from Poland highlighted an initiative at Nicolaus Copernicus Primary School in Skarszewy, a northern town near the city of Gdansk, to prepare and train students about safe firearms use. Students 13 and older will be required to take courses learning how to operate and assemble firearms. For this classroom settling, young participants will be handling firearms with laser technology and not live ammunition.
“It is a compulsory subject in Polish schools, and the lesson content consists only of assembling and operating weapons,” Ewa Golinska, the school’s principal, told the German broadcaster. “With the state of the world today, I think this type of training is very valuable.”
One mother of a child attending the school added, “We are very proud that our children want to be on the right side of history, to defend our country and to be patriotic.”
A corresponding report noted all 18,000 Polish schools will have laser-gun technology at their disposal for similar courses.
Poles have every right to arm themselves. Authoritarian regimes - from the Nazis to Soviets - first disarmed people as a means of exerting control. A 2007 Harvard Journal of Law & Public Policy study was proven right - despite being renounced by Harvard and memoryholed from the internet. It found murder rates in anti-gun Soviet Russia were “three times higher” compared to gun-owning America.
This summer, Poland’s government loosened firearms requirements for soldiers in wake of the ongoing migrant crisis from Belarus.
While Poland is a relatively pro-gun European Union (EU) nation, it still has miles to go to resemble America’s gun-owning population. The most available data suggests 324,000 Poles lawfully own 843,000 weapons–or 2.5 civilian firearms per 100 people. Here in the U.S., it’s 120.5 civilian firearms per 100 people. It’s no wonder we are the top gun-owning country in the world.
When examining these two fellow NATO countries, we should be grateful for the Second Amendment. Only four nations globally, including ours, have some semblance of gun rights. How shameful we can’t export these policies abroad. Our right came very close to endangerment had VP Kamala Harris won the election, but is expected to flourish under a second Trump administration.
That being said, Poland deserves our kudos while Canada should be ruthlessly mocked. Let’s hope Trudeau’s conservative opponent, Pierre Poilievre, prevails next October and successfully rescinds his draconian anti-gun measures.