Should people be allowed to own guns?
In the presentation I will try to explain the
current situation of access to weapons in Poland and also in other countries.
I'll try to objectively present both pros and cons of available weapons to citizens. Should the gun
be available because of the right to freedom and to protect yourself? Or maybe
weapons would become a dangerous tool in the hands of the wrong people?
In Poland, the topic of common access to weapons is rarely
discussed in public. Currently in Poland, access to weapons is limited. Who
wants to legally possess a weapon must first obtain a permit. According to the current
law, if someone has a weapon without a permit, he may be punished with
imprisonment from 6 months to 8 years.
Below you can see some statistics . This list
shows countries with the number of guns per capita (exactly number of privately
owned small firearms). Here you can see a full list of surveyed countries: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Number_of_guns_per_capita_by_country . According to these figures, Poland takes
141 place out of 178 countries in terms of the number of weapons owned by
citizens. So for every 100 people in Poland belongs 1.3 of weapons. Here are
the statistics for our neighboring countries and culturally close to us:
country guns per 100 residents
France 31.2
Germany 30.3
Finland 29.1
Czech
Republic 16.3
Russia 8.9
Ukraine 6.6
Poland 1.3
Lithuania 0.7
These figures show that Poles has very few
weapons compared to other countries. Personally, I am surprised that quite a
lot of private weapons are located in countries such as Germany and France. What
do you think about this data? Did anything surprise you?
Currently, Europe is increasingly threatened by
terrorist attacks. The last attack in Paris highlighted the defenselessness of people. Terrorists fired to unarmed
people.
After the attack, some European politicians
have proposed to restrict access to weapons for private people. What is your
opinion about that?
Questions:
1.
Do
you think that in Poland we should be allowed to own guns without any permit?
Why yes / why not?
2.
Would
you feel safer if the weapons were widely available or on the contrary more in danger?
3.
What
are the pros and cons of common access to weapons?
Only with permission! Why?
ReplyDeleteYou're walking on the street and see 5 to 8 guys. They coming to you and they behave aggressively.
You feel better because you have a gun?
Well, guess what? They also have guns.
Maybe you feel safer when you have a weapon, but if everyone have a gun? Not so much...
I think that polish people aren't ready to get a gun. If we could buy it in "Biedronka" then most of bad guys would buy it. Other, calm and peaceful person... well, I think they conservative and they to scared of it.
I also have the impression that many Poles aren't mentally ready to have a weapon.
DeleteDo you think that obtaining a permit for the weapon should be easier whether it is ok now?
I don't know to much about getting permission for weapon, but I've read a little.
DeleteThere's a big to-do list before you can get the gun. Maybe even a little to big, in my opinion. In that case: Yes, I think it should be a little easier to get it. But not too much, because we don't want "Made for Biedra" weapons :)
What's your opinion? Maybe you know exactly what should be changed?
Unfortunately, I don't know what exactly should be changed. But like you, I think that access to weapons should be even a little easier than currently.
Deletemore or less I know what one should do to get a sports weapons permit. Or at least how it was 2 years ago.
DeleteAnd that is a bit to much for an average Joe like me.
Obviously you need to be a member of the sports club. Sometimes membership is not just matter of payment but also hours spend on the shooting range and your performance. When you finally get there, you need to get a 'shooting patent' that is basically a piece of paper that does absolutely nothing except, that when you're renting a gun and a lane in the shooting range, there is no need for instructor to look for you, therefore its a bit cheaper. On this point you need to participate in shooting contests. My instructor told me that to really get a gun permit you need to end at least 3 of them with a silver medal. This is probably a bit obsolete now, but that was enough to push me away from this kind of sports, because once If you failed to meet the requirements the permit is withdrawn, and your precious, extremely overpriced, and 100% legal gun is confiscated.
Absolute lack of permanence is what is bugging me the most, once you let go, there is no coming back, except for repeating whole process again.
The problem of majority of people is the fact that they can't obtain a weapon, while actual murderers and other criminalists have one regardless. So yes, I do agree that it should be legal to own a gun, but I also feel like we need to have some tests to be passed, just to decrease amount of potential madmans with guns in country.
ReplyDeleteI feel exactly the same. Law-abiding citizens have limited access to weapons, however, the bandits and murderers will gain weapons regardless of restrictions. But of course candidates for possession weapons should pass some tests before.
DeleteSo I think that Poland should be possible possession of weapons. When someone broke the law for example a person who came to your area (home) and don't know it, you can use the weapon. For sure I would feel safe if I was in danger. The right to have weapons equal opportunity between weak and strong.
ReplyDeleteThanks for an opinion! I have exactly the same opinion as you, that for example when a burglar came to our home, we can use our weapon.
DeleteThink that having weapon without permission is good idea. Fear is the reason why most crimes wont have place. Situation mentioned before about 5-8 aggressive guys - in nowadays at 90% they are confident that you their victim cant fight back. With weapons they will have fear. Does not count that they can get weapon too, if they want, they will have even today, think they do not follow the letter of law. No one want to die. Fear will stop mostly peoples like you mentioned from crime way.
ReplyDeleteGuns could be allowed in Poland by only for people who passed psychological tests. The only probelm I see is that it is easier to kill someone with a gun then a knife for example, both physical and mental way. I've also heard about accidents when children find their parents weapon and shoot someone or themselves accidentally.
ReplyDeleteThat's right, the downside of common access to weapons are incidents where people die because of bad of use the weapons.
DeleteJesus christ, hell no ! Poles are not ready for having a gun, again I have goosebumps by only thinking about it. In Poland it's extremely hard to get a gun, my dad struggled for like 2 years to get it. So it's a very painful process to go through.
ReplyDeleteI would feel more in danger, I am very familiar with real guns and from my own experience I know that it's really easy to use guns, it's so easy to shoot, what I mean here, to kill somebody, it is a controversial topic ;)
For somebody who likes shooting, easy access will be a pron, maybe for safety but it's a vicious circle you know, you buy a gun to feel safer, other people buy guns to feel safer. ;)
I am also not sure if Poles are ready for common access to weapons.
DeleteAs you said access to weapons is very difficult now. Do you think that obtaining a permit for the weapon should be easier whether it is ok now?
If owning a gun would be commonly pemitted, I wouldnt feel safer at all. On the contrary, I think it puts a person in a much higher risk. If u do get approached by a criminal in a dark alley, even if u have a gun with u, what are u gonna do with it? Are u trained in actually using it? If yes, then fine, but still he may have more luck than u. One way or the other, if he sees u reaching for a gun, he'll shoot.
ReplyDeleteThe more interesting question is: if u had that possibility, would it be OK with u to actually kill that man? It's not so easy to aim just to disarm or incapacitate in a situation like this.
Good observation . What feels the person who killed someone in defense of yourself? It's a difficult question. Another issue is a currently valid law about self-defense.
Delete1. I think it's a bad idea to have a gun without any permit. Each person has a different personality. We can't be sure that our neighbor has healthy psychic. Everyone should pass psychological tests to have opportunity to guns.
ReplyDelete2.I wouldn't feel safer if I don't have a confidence that person with gun is responsible.
3. I don't see any pros to have own weapon. The main con is probably higher risk of crimes.
But don't you think that law-abiding citizens have currently limited access to weapons, however, the bandits and murderers will gain weapons without any problems?
Delete1. Definitely not. In Poland, there too many irresponsible people to give them free access to weapons. I think it would create a great threat to humans in Poland. I think that we aren't enough responsible people to get such a privilege.
ReplyDelete2.In Poland I would feel threatened. Besides, in the United States, I believe that it is a mistake. You never know in whose hands the weapon will be and what the consequences will be.
3. The good side of this is that we can defend ourselves. The downside, however, is that someone can attack us sooner.
Idea of wide weapon access really scares me. Psychological tests should be mandatory for everyone who wants to possess any type of gun. Of course there are people saying that without weapons they feel afraid. Thinking a little bit wider if everyone around you could have gun with them, would you felt safer? It would take years to allow weapon possession in Poland, and in my opinion it is really unnecessary.
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing your point of view. Do you think that obtaining a permit for the weapon should be a bit easier than now or possession of weapons should be completely banned?
DeleteIt's hard to say becouse in my opinion it has the same number of positives and negatives. Maybe You will feel safer with gun but think about that other person can have it and this isn't game where You have a lot o lives . What kind of situation You would like to choose when You and Your opponent have guns or without it ? With use of gun is higher risk that somebody get down
ReplyDeleteGun control laws should be strict. Although people should have the right to defend themselves, some people use guns to take away other's live. School shootings and other forms of gun violence in USA are a direct result of their gun control laws. A gun is a powerful weapon that should not be given away freely.
ReplyDeleteHooray, let's shoot the shooters. What could go wrong? I say we give the guns to the robots instead. They'll make short work of all these "criminals".
ReplyDeleteAnother difficult and almost philosophical topic... People can kill with many things. You can kill people when driving a car. When you hit someone with a car he dies almost immediately. Problem is who can get a driving license and drive this car. Anyone can get driving license but actually in my opinion it shouldn't be so easy. Many people are driving cars but they don't how they work and how to actually use them. It's the same situation with guns people should go through many test and courses, psychological and practical how to use guns. Without that giving guns to people like that because they have that kind of right is just stupid. But even when people would pass that tests percentage of people killed from guns would of course increase in few years. We can't avoid everything unfortunately....
ReplyDeleteDefinietly yes, everyone should have a gun. I would feel a lot safer if I had a gun. I think that we should be allowed to have own guns in Poland because we would feel safer and if there would be an terrorist attack like in France someone would protect us against terrorists. The pros of common access to weapons are that people could take care about themselves. And the disadvantages are that terrorists and gangs would have easier access to weapons. But they can also buy them now so it's not entirely negative.
ReplyDelete1. The problem is that the bad people will always have access to guns or with permission or not. I personally would feel more safer if I had the opportunity to align the chance of a burglar or thief.
ReplyDelete2. As I wrote earlier, I would have felt safer.
3. The pros is that in an emergency the chances would be the same, in my opinion, should be made psychological tests of people who have guns (every year).
Permission to carrying the weapon is and should be stay. Personally I am feeling more safe with the thought that not every person have gun. This is more safe, and society aren’t in dangerous.
ReplyDeleteI do not think that universal access to weapons in Poland is a good solution. How can you give universal access to weapons nation that believes in all the election promises? ;) (Sorry, I could not resist), I think that access to weapons should be adults, imputable and those who received training in the use of weapons. I disagree with the fee for the license for the weapon, if it is not a tool to earnings (as in the case of hunters) or when you do not use it professionally (like the police or anti-terrorists). I do not think society is ready for such a step.You do not believe me? just go out on a Saturday evening for a walk to Warsaw. Wojciech Cejrowski said that if our country could be to own a gun, it would be better because everyone "idiots" would be killed. I admire his lack of imagination. I'm afraid I would have suffered on that a lot more people than just "idiots" ;)
ReplyDelete1. No, because no gun in no man's hand isn't dangerous tool. There are no "right" and "wrong" people in this matter.
ReplyDelete2. Guns could only existed in movies, if you ask me.
3. No pros, only cons.
1. I think that in Poland it’s not a good idea to own gun without any permit. I don’t think that I would feel better if I knew that some unpredictable people own guns.
ReplyDelete2. As I said, I don’t feel safier if the weapons were widely aviable, because some crazy people would use them for evil.
3. i think that the main pron is self-defense. We would also use weapon to defend our family from bad people. If we talk about cons, I think that unjustified use is one of them and that can lead to a higher risk of crime.
Weapon is a source of evil, no-one should have access to it, it shouldn't even exist. I know that my ideas are not really possible in real world but I still think that letting people get the gun will not reduce the criminality and increase the security. Especially in Poland people have the tendency to overuse their priviliges and forget about their duties. There are too many stupid people here in Poland to give them access to such dangerous weapon. Also, looking at USA I don't consider it as a good idea to abolish permission to posses guns.
ReplyDeleteThank you, you are like UK or Poland government. People are stupid lets ban all stuff that is "dangerous". You forgot one thing. Evil people will always buy a gun (unless you create a country like North Korea) and it doesn't depend how strong the prohibition will be. With this kind of thinking you are disarming normal people, again thank you ;)
Delete1. Currently the law in Poland allows to buy an old gun or its replica. You can also buy a bow. Did anybody see a killer with a bow nowadays? Did anybody of you think there are many shootings created by normal civilians?
ReplyDeleteOf course, by the time of buying a gun we should be obliged to register it and give the seller a proof that we are not sentenced for any crime.
2. First of all we should train people how to use weapons. Without a training it could be dangarous, even because someone couldn't use a gun properly.
3.
+ Contry is safer
+ Normal people are safer
+ A criminal thinks twice before using a gun
- Mental ill people, that are not "detected" could buy a gun.
It's hard topic, cause there's no clear answer. I would say yes. In western movies few times that quotation appear: "you've been preparing and training your whole life for that one moment". One moment is enough to loose life. If having gun help me to survive. It may never be useful, but if yes. On the other hand I would say definitely no, not in Poland. Instead of battle for food and clothes in Lidl or H&M we would have massacre.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteIf we talk about only collector's guns - yes , otherwise no .
ReplyDeletePolish young and older people arent ready for it .
Now , if we'll can buy weapon without any permission ,
i'll feel unsafe. Everywhere could be people with guns ...
And slums in cities will looks like from Gtand Theft Auto game :)