Young Guns
The Shootist: Grzegorz Wronko
Grzegorz Wronko casually pulls a .38-caliber revolver out of his briefcase and places it on the table. Made out of matte black steel, with a wooden grip, it almost looks like a child's toy.
"This gun is a hoax; it doesn't have a barrel," he says indicating that it, and the bullet cylinder, are filled with solid metal.
"But everything else its weight, the balance, the mechanics is identical. It was manufactured for me in a factory."
He draws the gun up to his right eye he lost his left eye after a bomb exploded in his face while he was in the army in the early 1980s and looks through the sight.
"Some people like fishing, but what I enjoy is that I can relax and concentrate on what I do in order to achieve a maximum effect," he said
Wronko, a tall, mustachioed man, who fired his first gun when he was 17 years old, is one of those rare people whose hobby has become his job: His hobby is guns and his job is teaching schoolchildren how to shoot them.
This replica .38 Special revolver is just one of the weapons in his cache that also includes sports rifles. He uses these in his business, which goes by the rather upbeat name of "Voila Shooting for Everybody."
A goldsmith by trade, Wronko and Ania Stolarska his business partner and girlfriend take their
guns touring around Poland to various high schools each year. The guns are fitted with infrared beams and the students get 30 shots each, shooting at special targets. The targets, which are linked to a computer, record accuracy and provide a computer printout at the end of the session.
In Poland, guns and students go together like Bonnie and Clyde. Back in 1944, armed students helped fuel the Warsaw Uprising. Chances are they had all studied a subject at school called "defense." Today, it's still an important part of the curriculum.
A defense course can include topics such as military organization, map reading, what to do in the case of a nuclear or incendiary device explosion, plus your more pedestrian subjects like fire drills, first aid and shooting a gun.
In the 1980s, the defense course experienced an extended hiatus when, under martial law, the government demanded that all defense teachers surrender the small-caliber guns they typically kept on campus.
"And after martial law, most defense training teachers didn't pick up their guns from the (government) deposit because they would have to be responsible for them it is an additional, very troubling responibility," said Wronko, who keeps 11 guns at his home. "So most of these guns were eventually sold or destroyed."
Since those bleak days of communism, only some schools have reintroduced shooting. Wronko hopes Voila, which he launched four years ago, will see a resurgence, not only in school shooting, but in creating a new generation of amateur gunmen. He cites three reasons: Voila's service is 100% safe because the guns fire nothing but a pulse of light; there's less travel because he brings the guns to the school; and finally, it's cheap. Wronko calculates it costs as little as zl. 5 per student. He earns more from corporate clients, including the British Embassy, Polish State Railways (PKP) and Casinos Poland, which pay zl. 300 per hour to book Voila for Christmas parties and functions.
But profitability is still low, and Wronko supplements his wage with occasional repair and restoration work on antique guns and a burgeoning security business.
With the dedication of a zealot, Wronko is convinced that all children should try shooting at least once in their life.
"Guns are everywhere often illegal guns," he said. "Voila focuses on education .We teach young people that a gun is not a toy and how dangerous it can be. We also want to destroy the myth that being able to officially obtain guns can increase crime."
Under Polish law, just about anyone can own a gun. The 1999 Act on Weapons and Munition, specifies that all people applying for a gun license must be mentally and psychologically healthy subject to an examination conducted by a doctor appointed by the Health Ministry. The applicant cannot be an alcoholic or a drug user, or have a criminal record. The applicant must also pass an exam organized by a police committee, using the gun he or she wants to own.
According to figures from the police, Polish individuals own almost 240,000 firearms (including hunting, hand and sports guns). Every year, police hold more than 500 people on suspicion of illegally possessing firearms and retrieve more than 100,000 pieces of munitions. Around 500 weapons are stolen each year.
While Wronko acknowledges guns are dangerous, he believes that other things are just as dangerous.
"Why would you ask children to eat soup with a spoon why shouldn't they eat from a bowl, because a spoon can be dangerous," he said, drawing a rather obtuse analogy.
But he does practice what he preaches and Wronko's children from his previous marriage Monika, 16, Marcin, 17 and Tomek, 9 all regularly use firearms.
"My daughter, Monika, has been to school competitions and she was the best shooter at her school," he said proudly.
But whether she gets to eat her borscht with a spoon is another question.
