State policy regarding civilian access to weapons in the context of the war in Ukraine and the Covid-19 pandemic

Abstract

The scientific goal of this article is to present the impact of state policy on civilians' access to weapons in the context of the war in Ukraine and the Covid-19 pandemic. In the context of the above-outlined research goal, the article examines all currently possible forms of access for civilians to weapons in the Republic of Poland: sports, hunting, collecting, personal protection, protection of persons and property, historical reconstructions, commemorative, training and others. The research used dogmatic, comparative, analytical and historical methods as well as the method of literary criticism. The argument process included, in the first part, the analysis of statistical data from the Police Headquarters regarding civilians' access to weapons. Then, the shortcomings of the current law were indicated and de lege ferenda proposals for the most urgent and necessary legislative changes were indicated. The need for urgent statutory and administrative changes in the scope of currently applicable law was pointed out, with particular emphasis on adapting it to EU directives. It was recommended that there be an urgent need to introduce an electronic system for collecting and analyzing data on weapons permits, required by the EU directive; the need to adapt the categories of weapons contained in the EU directive to the UoBiA; moving away from 'to-target' permits to four levels of permits and a departure from specifying the number and type of weapons in the administrative decision; finally, regulation at the statutory level of the rules for storing weapons, currently regulated by an implementing regulation.