Sports Minister Kamil Bortniczuk unveiled the plan at a news conference on Thursday.
Meeting the media at a shooting range in the capital Warsaw, he said the government wanted to train 8,000 people this year, at a cost of around EUR 1 million, the state PAP news agency reported.
“Next year, we are planning to attract even more participants,” he added.
Bortniczuk said the project sought to capitalise on heightened interest in shooting sports among the Polish public, sparked by Russia’s attack on Ukraine.
‘Promoting shooting sports, boosting defence’
The programme is designed to raise the number of sports shooters in Poland, while strengthening patriotism and boosting the country’s defence potential in the process, reporters were told.
Combining one hour of theory, including how to give first aid, and 11 hours of practice, the course will see each participant fire over 350 shots, Bortniczuk announced.
Learners will be trained to use pneumatic weapons as well as "small-calibre guns," both long and short, he added.
Courses are set to be run by sports clubs at some of Poland’s 370 gun ranges, with the sports ministry also planning to team up with the defence department for the project, according to officials.
Bortniczuk also told reporters that his Republican Party, a junior partner in Poland's ruling right-wing coalition, had proposed a bill to widen access to guns, “under certain conditions, to do with health, for instance.”
Friday is day 37 of the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
(pm/gs)
Source: PAP, gov.pl