A 24-year-old gunman in military fatigues killed six people and wounded 15 more in Krakow's Main Market Square Saturday — in a country with some of Europe's strictest gun control laws.
The attack demolishes the comfortable media narrative that mass shootings are a uniquely American pathology born of permissive gun laws. Poland, where just over 1% of the population holds a firearm permit, just witnessed the kind of carnage its gun controllers promised was impossible. Don't expect the American press to dwell on that.
The Polish citizen drove a sedan into the medieval square around 3 p.m. local time and opened fire at random from his vehicle, according to Krakow police. He wore military-style fatigues and a bulletproof vest and carried a military-type long gun, police spokesperson Katarzyna Cisło told TVN24. Officers found additional firearms and a large quantity of ammunition in his car.
Police shot and wounded the attacker in a gunfight nearby. Even after being hit, he kept firing at officers, Cisło said. Two police officers were wounded — one seriously, shot three times in the shootout, according to the Guardian. Dramatic video posted on social media shows an injured officer firing at the suspect before collapsing to his knees, struggling to reload with an apparent arm wound, NBC reported.
The dead include four women and two men. The toll was initially reported as five but updated to six by police on X.
It was not immediately clear whether the firearms used were legally obtained, Baltimore News reported. Poland's gun laws are among the most restrictive in Europe. Only about 411,000 people hold gun permits in a country of 37 million. The Guardian noted that the number of legally owned firearms in Poland surpassed 1 million for the first time this year, with a record 50,700 permits issued in 2025 — nearly double the figure from a decade earlier. Interest in gun ownership has been rising, but the legal barriers remain high.
Mass shootings are extremely rare in Poland, every outlet noted. Breitbart reported the country was already on high alert following a series of stabbings in October, which Prime Minister Donald Tusk denounced as a "cult of violence." Breitbart also noted that Warsaw has repeatedly warned of Russian sabotage on Polish soil — a detail that invites speculation about motive but remains unconfirmed. Police have not disclosed one.
Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk headed to Krakow and praised the "heroic police officers who risked their lives." President Karol Nawrocki said he awaited "a full explanation of the circumstances." U.S. Ambassador Tom Rose posted on X: "America stands with Poland at this dark hour."
The American outlets covering this story all noted the rarity of such violence in Poland. None drew the obvious parallel to the gun-control debate that dominates American media after every domestic shooting. When a shooter opens fire in an American mall, the solution is always fewer guns. When a shooter opens fire in a European square under strict gun control, the solution is silence.
Evil doesn't check for a permit before it acts. The open question is why America's gun-control press still can't admit it.
