The BEST Guide to POLAND
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Posts by AmerTchr  

Joined: 13 Jan 2013 / Male ♂
Last Post: 3 Apr 2013
Threads: Total: 4 / Live: 0 / Archived: 4
Posts: Total: 201 / Live: 66 / Archived: 135
From: From the USA, living in Gdansk
Speaks Polish?: Nope.
Interests: Reading, Computers, Shooting, Travel, History, LIFE.

Displayed posts: 66 / page 1 of 3
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AmerTchr   
31 Mar 2013
Travel / Gdansk Easter - open on Sunday / Monday? [9]

It's great unless your family is on the other side of the world and you are sort of sitting here looking at the courtyard needing some contact with the world to rmeind you about the importance of humanity.
AmerTchr   
25 Mar 2013
Law / The right to own guns: would you support such legislation in Poland? [2237]

jasondmzk: I don't want you to have one legally. I don't want you to have one at all.
so what?

What you see in this sort of exchange is the truth of the matter. It's not about safety or security, it's about controlling people and the fears of those wanting to control you.
AmerTchr   
25 Mar 2013
Law / The right to own guns: would you support such legislation in Poland? [2237]

So much for rationality.

People on this forum who are "in Europe" both as citizens and as expats have repeatedly posted about their wish that the laws were relaxed so your assertion that "no one" misses it is patently false. There went your credibility.

It's pretty clear who lives in a fantasy world. Enjoy the butterflies.
AmerTchr   
24 Mar 2013
Law / The right to own guns: would you support such legislation in Poland? [2237]

Well of course theier was a long guerrilla war against the Russians. Hand guns are even more obviously irrelevant to freedom

You have an interesting version of history and make the same glaring mistakes as most of the antis. The smarter ones don't push this theory since it destroys their own argument as they present their "facts". I particularly love your "Try shooting down a drone with an AR-15" fantasy.

Facts are that every generation believes it is different, Hitler presented arguments that society had progressed to the point where individuals could trust the state for protection as did Stalin, Mao and conquerors since the dawn of time. History is full of rulers (not always despots) who had faith in their armies and secret police. The vast majority of these attempted to disarm their populations.

The facts are that Afghans, Libyans, Syrians, Viet Cong, Laotians, Iranians and countless other populations have rebelled or held out against these all-powerful forces you claim exist. Drones, tanks, F-18's, A-10's, artillery, etc. are far less useful in urban warfare against non-uniformed personnel who don't conveniently stand around in formations waiting to be attacked or move through the countryside in precise columns along known roads to little fortresses scattered around the area of operations.

The wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have indeed worn out the US military. Our people are tired, dispirited, divided and nearly broke from fighting that war. You may think they "failed to evict" but the reality is that the army left and the people are still there, armed by the way.

Your scenarios make no mention of the facts that rebellions almost always involve defecting forces from the armies and other branches (better go back and read up on Libya and Syria for instance). Neither do they allow for the effect of a high percentages of well-trained combat veterans in the population who have trained not only on the weapons they use, but also on the weapons they would be up against. Like many ignorant individuals, you continue to ignore the dispersion of thousands of armored units, tanks, helicopters, aircraft, command vehicles, communications equipment and heavy weapons throughout our territory. The President doesn't keep the keys to those thousands of vehicles under his pillow at night. BTW, handguns are very effective in CQB situations, unless of course overwhelming numbers are pouring through the door. As a tool for insurgency, counter-insurgency, assassination and terrorist operations they are pretty effective. You might want to read up on the Fort Hood shootings for instance. LA had to mobilize dozens of police officers to take down two criminals with AKs. Other armed personnel, in large numbers and body armor stopped that situation. There's a reason the military organizations of the world still issue millions of handguns to their personnel. But hey, write your country's armed forces and tell them how stupid they are for issuing such "ineffective" weaponry in this modern age.

Finally, while many Europeans just cannot grasp the concepts of political reality, it would behoove you to read up on the percentages of red/blue, liberal/conservative, pro/anti and other likely dividing factors. This might give you the picture that, God forbid the US suffer another Civil War, it will divide the country nearly in half ideologically. You should also read up on how the military feels about the current administration. While the nanny governments have successfully cowed their populations into a "accept our decrees, resistance is futile" mindset, things in the US just may not be as pat as you think they are based on your societies and ill-conceived fantasies.

Hence, the importance of the Second Amendment.
AmerTchr   
23 Mar 2013
Law / The right to own guns: would you support such legislation in Poland? [2237]

Well, there is a discussion because someone, sometime ago brought it up....for discussion. You seem to be participating in it.

I know I didn't come here to argue, most of the comments amuse me with their childishness, irrelevance and inaccuracies.

What is involved in getting a hunting license IN POLAND, what are the seasons/animals IN POLAND and, finally, where do people hunt IN POLAND?

Anyone IN POLAND ever gone to another, reasonably close country for hunting?
AmerTchr   
23 Mar 2013
Law / The right to own guns: would you support such legislation in Poland? [2237]

Basically we don't need those laws in Poland, there are few living in secluded areas, everything is close, people still, amazingly, trust each other

And it's your country so that's great that you live somewhere you are comfortable.

I am a little curious about your point about everything being "close". I would expect your crime rates in cities to be higher than in small villages and rural areas. While people on ranches and farms tend to have weapons for rodents and hunting needs, violent crimes and murders particularly tend to be higher in "close" conditions as well.

I would also observe that the Poles I talk to do not seem very trusting of each other or at least no more so than any citizen of any other country where I have lived.
AmerTchr   
23 Mar 2013
Law / The right to own guns: would you support such legislation in Poland? [2237]

Interestingly, the so-called liberals are always keen on offering up some sort of mathematical comparison on this issue.

The anti's are obsessed with the question of "How many dead children...?"

Yet, when you ask them "How many millions of dead citizens are worth REDUCING of the PROBABILITY that a child MIGHT....?" They throw their hands up and loudly deride your question as being borne of hysteria and paranoid fantasy. The casualty lists detailing Hitler's, Stalin's, Mao's, Pol Pot's, yada, yada, yada (it's a long, long list) depredations against their own populations stands in mute testimony as to what happens when people are disarmed and made into prey.

So much for humanity and reality.

================================================================= ===================================

And who cares what Americans think about guns in Europe or Poland. There is no likelihood of guns laws loosening up.

Why is this thread full of Americans basically discussing Americans gun and gun crime problem? both are nothing to do with Poland.

American Constitution? A joke.

Defending against a tyrannical government? A joke. Don't you know what democracy is?

My family owns guns in Poland, doesn't make me feel the slightest bit safer. I'm far more likely to be harmed in an accidental shooting than anything criminal. Having guns didn't stop the hunting dogs getting nicked.

================================================================= =================================

Well actually, some of us are trying to discuss Poland's laws and situation. However, you need to accept that comparisons to the US system are inevitable.

Our opinion of your system is just as relevant to you as yours probably is to ours. Of course, many of us actually live here while only a couple of Polish people here seem to be living in the US.

You own guns in Poland? WHat do you use them for? Hunting, target shooting, what? Do you shoot often?
AmerTchr   
22 Mar 2013
Law / The right to own guns: would you support such legislation in Poland? [2237]

I wish we had gun laws up here that would allow us to use guns for self defence purposes.

Well, you can always emigrate.....

Ask yourself how strongly you feel about being able to defend yourself.

I will grant you though, that RIGHT NOW I would have to think long and hard about emigrating from Canada to the US.
AmerTchr   
22 Mar 2013
Law / The right to own guns: would you support such legislation in Poland? [2237]

Your sarcasm aside, the fact is that legal gun owners have the lowest incidence of gun violence, yet they are the ones who are being assaulted by the government bureaucrats who always know what's best for us (more sarcasm).

Kudos to you ZImmy, you're seeing through the smoke and mirrors they attempt to use for deflection.

If you ever come through Gdansk, the first round is on me.
AmerTchr   
22 Mar 2013
Law / The right to own guns: would you support such legislation in Poland? [2237]

Dont see ALL there. Might wanna read before blowing smoke...

They can't read very well. It happens.

Between language learners and those with tunnel-vision, the lack of reading comprehension and attention to context is endemic on this forum.

It's far more fun and useful to your agenda to distract everyone from the focus of questions and answers.

Whether you are Polish, Pakistani or American, it behooves one to stay wary of your surroundings and the intentions of those around you. The fact remains, some people believe that it is less safe in Poland than in their former residences.

Unfortunately, many are going to keep blowing smoke because they realize they have nothing of substance to comment.
AmerTchr   
22 Mar 2013
Law / The right to own guns: would you support such legislation in Poland? [2237]

Only people that need to be controlled are criminals, mentally ill and politicians the rest is just fine.

Well said. It's not about guns but about control.

The government doesn't want to talk of concentration camps, gulags, massacres and killing fields where millions have died by conscious decision of supposedly rational minds. Instead, they want to stand before you and remind you of the infinitely smaller number of children killed by what they bemoan as "senseless" violence. Notice the tightened lips, the stalling silences, quivering blustering and attempt to portray righteous indignation as they attempt to deflect contemplation of those instances when their fingers were on the triggers which resulted in dead children.

Notice how none have any sort of answer about no prosecutions of criminals on gun charges? Nothing to say about a man arrested for driving burglars from his home? Attempts to search a family home because of a picture of a gun? How about my personal favorite, suspending a child from school because he chewed a breakfast pastry in the shape of a gun.......?

Real problems call for real solutions, not photo opps, nor ill-thought laws that divide the population further by turning law-abiding citizens into criminals while crime continues.

Moving back to the immediate events, has anyone seen any more on the triple murder? I heard they arrested a Russian national in Elblag but that is strictly hearsay.
AmerTchr   
22 Mar 2013
Law / The right to own guns: would you support such legislation in Poland? [2237]

Explain the one thing to me please. In America all you have to do to retract the right to bear arms is hold a Constitutional Convention and strike the right off the Bill of Rights with an amendment. Why don't gun grabbing psychopaths do this instead of incrementally sneaking in regulations over the years until they can impose their will on others and disarm them without a convention as the Constitution describes?

You are pretty much on target regarding your analysis of their strategy. They know that repealing the 2nd Amendment is a long shot. It's also worth remembering that the Right to Bear Arms is acknowledged in a statement as opposed to being granted by decree. The Constitution was designed to limit the government, not the people, and this has been the legacy of our founders through the years. The one attempt to limit the people (Prohibition) was a miserable failure.

Instead, they have used the illusion of compromise to make those incremental moves.

The fact remains that just because some people are afraid of guns there is no particular reason to limit them. This is a clear example of rule by law versus rule of emotion. 99.99% of the guns out there are not involved in supporting criminal activity. Even now, people in America are beginning to question why it is that the immediate impact of passing poorly-designed gun laws has been to criminalize law-abiding citizens and remove them from people without criminal records yet there have been no prosecutions of criminals or crimes which failed due to their passing.

Really Kondi, work in some other descriptive phrases or action verbs to describe possible outcomes or objectives. There are some innocents and easily-offended individuals who happen into this discussion. I'd also back away from using the terms of sociopath and psychopath. While some of these undoubtedly exist in the anti-gun lobby, the masses are generally simple, easily-manipulated sheep who hope that the nanny will make the boogieman go away. They ignore the dead children the government kills, their inability to protect their citizens from violence and hypocrisy of politicians and "important people" being protected by armed bodyguards.

YOur choices of words aside though, you pretty much understand what is going on in terms of anti-gun strategy and tactics.
AmerTchr   
22 Mar 2013
Law / The right to own guns: would you support such legislation in Poland? [2237]

Yeah, I "cherry-picked" a triple murder with an 18-month old victim, 150 m from my apartment. The amazing Kreskin is coming by this afternoon for a lesson on precognition and mental influence a little later today.

In fact, the only person "cherry-picking" is you with your quoted links. That this happens in Poland, with a population roughly 1/9th of the US and supposedly peaceful, in part due to disarmament, you manage to prove my point rather than weaken it. The tourist murder sentencing was publicized less than a month ago and goes into my perception f violence since I was simply sitting and enjoying a beer in a Mexican restaurant rather than feverishly searching for a link to establish a point. You get many news broadcasts from Kentucky or Iowa at your place Jason?

Thanks for the contribution of irony to the discussion.

For others, my comments are clear. In 50+ years of living in the US, I have never had a murder within a half mile of my home, much less one like this one is described. The statement(s) is simple; "I feel no more safer in Poland than I do in the US, particularly in light of all the boasting and bragging about the bar fights and confrontations on TEFL and expat forums."
AmerTchr   
22 Mar 2013
Law / The right to own guns: would you support such legislation in Poland? [2237]

jasondmzk

Half a million people in Gdansk, Poland's 4th largest city. Can you imagine a triple-homicide being "the most brutal crime" any city of that size and age in America experiencing?

Uh, double, execution murder with an 18-month old beaten to death with a pistol, yeah, absolutely.
AmerTchr   
22 Mar 2013
Law / The right to own guns: would you support such legislation in Poland? [2237]

Just for the sake of discussion I'll point out that a few weeks ago I saw the news report that some guy who murdered a couple in front of a tourist night club/bar in Lodz last summer was being sentenced and then last week three people are killed at their home in a gangland-style execution less than 150 meters from my building.

I certainly don't feel any safer here than I do in the States, London, Baku or Kyiv. For that matter, I hear stories from a variety of expats across Poland (and Ukraine and Azerbaijan for that matter) concerning a higher than I would expect number of fights among teachers. Questioning some of my students and Polish acquaintances it seems that wariness and avoiding certain areas here is just as prevalent as back home.

So, on reflection I have to say that I clearly see the actuality of the statistic that violence is more prevalent in Europe.

My suspicion is that when you remove the firearms statistics involving youth gangs along with about 8 or 10 cities which are recognized as out-of-control, it's fair to acknowledge that it is at least as, if not more, dangerous than the US. This seems in line with the published statistics. Roughly 20% of our cities and population (in the States) account for approximately 60+% of the homicides and violent crime actions.

The context of this was not so much the firearms issue as a general question of "Do you feel safer in Poland or back home?" which a couple of westerners were discussing in the last couple of days.

Oh, here is the text of the article about the murders in Gdansk this last week:

Family executed in Gdansk old town

Gdansk police have described the discovery of the bodies of three members of a family including that of a small child as the most brutal crime they can remember having to deal with.

The bodies of a man, woman and 18-month-old child were discovered in an apartment overlooking the main pedestrian street in Gdansk, ul. Dluga. The man has been named as Adam K., who TVN24 sources claim is one of a number of people named in a case concerning the trading of weapons being led by the Department for Organized Crime and Corruption Appellate Prosecutor's Office in Gdansk.

AmerTchr   
18 Mar 2013
Life / Don't Forget: Tomorrow, March 8 is Women's Day in Poland! [115]

I didn't acknowledge Women's Day this year, not do I any year.

It's just another day on the calendar for me.

A few gals mentioned it to me but I shrugged it off.

I also don't do flowers or special gifts for occasions like anniversaries, Valentine's Day or the like.

Birthdays and holidays are observed with gifts and dinners and I am usually good for a reasonable dinner outing on an anniversary.

Oh, I do take my mother out on Mother's Day and helped my children take their mom out then as well but they are responsible for that now that they are grown men.

Thinking back I did take my secretary to lunch on Secretaries Day each year and also had a big basket of candy or sacks delivered so she could not be embarrassed in the eyes of other secretaries. Privately though I always made sure they understood that they were especially valued all the time.

Overall, I celebrate women in general and my woman in particular every day of the year. She's just as likely to get a necklace, a washing machine or an AR on February 14th as she is on September 7th or June 23rd (random dates). I get the door most every day, respect her opinion all the time and we enjoy dinner dates 4-5 times a month. If a woman only wants to be special 3-4 times a year, they aren't my kind of gal and I can live without them.
AmerTchr   
12 Mar 2013
Law / Registering for military service in Poland. Is it mandatory? [34]

The CIA has it that "18-28 years of age for male voluntary or compulsory military service; conscription suspended in 2009; reserve obligation to age 50 (2009) " so one possibility is to remind or record the reserve?

Make sense.America did almost the same thing with regard to registering even though service obligations were no longer required. We didn't do the medical assessment though.
AmerTchr   
25 Feb 2013
Law / Anybody adept in requirements for non-EU citizens to start business in Poland? [39]

Okay, everyone can have a big smile now. The newbie hit the wall at Immigration today. I'm sorting through the conflicting information and hoops and hurdles to jump through and will let you know what happens next.

Could you tell me exactly what I need to do, or steer me in the right direction? Thanks.

I am hustling the next couple of days but quickly, it took me maybe two hours total to get the business setup. The paperwork follows in the next 7 calendar days but my company was live in the Ministry of the Economy's database within 72 hours.
AmerTchr   
24 Feb 2013
Law / The right to own guns: would you support such legislation in Poland? [2237]

How would Poland benefit from any changes in attitude or policy in regards to offensive weaponry? The idea is to keep people safe, isn't it? I mean, that's the main priority of any legislation, personal liberty non-withstanding. With less than 400 gun deaths a year, including self-harm and accidental shootings, what would be gained from ANY new legislation? I submit that the answer is, "nothing whatsoever".

You would have to ask the OP why they posed the question in the first place.

Is the idea "to keep people safe"? For some perhaps, but others view it as a right which gives them a measure of control over their lives and a check against government tyranny. If the intention was to keep people safe and preserve life then why isn't more being done to save the thousands dying due to medical errors, speed limits being lowered or automobiles being built to only reach a top speed of 70 or so through gearing and engine governors?

Everyone is entitled to their opinion, "nothing whatsoever" is yours, others may feel differently for various reasons.
AmerTchr   
24 Feb 2013
Law / The right to own guns: would you support such legislation in Poland? [2237]

SO since Poles CAN own guns, including assault rifles with hi-cap mags, I'll throw out some possibilities as to what "restrictions" could be loosened or eliminated. Referring to the US examples, the following sort of issues vary by state in multiple combinations.

1. Possession at home of certain types of firearms rather than locked in sporting club facilities.
2. Transport in vehicles, openly or concealed, loaded or unloaded.
3. "Carry" (Open or Concealed) by citizens. Open carry is in view, concealed is under clothing or in purses/cases.
4. Location restrictions - IF carry was allowed, are there places where they should not be allowed? (Bars, Restaurants, Courts, Schools, Churches, Jails, Military Installations, Banks, Post Offices, Hospitals, Government Offices)

5. Home storage requirements and inspections. (Construction, lock mechanism, fire-ratings)
6. Ammo purchases. (Limited numbers, limited types, permits to buy in some cases)
7. Requirements for "permission" to purchase firearms.
8. Magazine capacity.
9. Weight restrictions on weapons.
10. Attachments on weapons (bayonets, forward grips, scopes, lights, etc.)
11. Limits on numbers of weapons allowed
12. Restrictions on barrel lengths. (Shorter lengths are generally prohibited or require a special license.)

13.There is also a concept to consider regarding licensing the ability to carry or not.

You can have "May Issue" - which leaves authorities with discretion to require things like cause or just generally gives the local police authorities the right to decide yes or no on the carry permit.

You can have "Shall Issue" - which forces the authorities to grant the permit unless one or more of the stated grounds for refusal is applicable.

14. Property Rights Issues come up as well.
- Should a business have the right to refuse entry or to serve a customer with a firearm?
- Homeowners rights as to their residence or land area.

What changesm small or large, might or might NOT, make sense?