On August 11, the Regulation of the Polish Minister of the Interior and Administration of June 28, 2023 on documents templates related to the possession of firearms has come into force. The Regulation is "only" to unify certain things and in accordance with the first paragraph - The Regulation specifies the template of a weapon holder's ID card, the certificate entitling to purchase a weapon, the ID card of a person allowed to ownin a weapon, the weapon's certificate and the weapon registration card.

Old-pattern documents remain valid and will continue to be issued until the stocks of documents already printed is exhausted, but no longer than until October 1, 2024.

Unfortunately, the new gun owner's books will be noticeably larger (125x88 mm) than the current ones (104x75 mm), so any wallets and document cases of gun owners will no longer fit it.

On the positive side, the new booklet will have 20 spaces to enter registered guns (the current one has 10). The design of the book itself has obviously changed, it looks "modern" and hopefully will have better security features.

The Regulation states that the book will have a "personalization page in the form of a sticker" and at the same time "a photo and personal data applied using an inkjet printer or other equivalent". Comparing this with the new graphic design of the book, it is difficult to understand - will the photo be glued? However, if the photo will be printed, what is the purpose of the "personalization sticker"? Time will tell.

Unfortunately, there are still no plans for dripping the idea of using paper book in favor of a plastic card and a fully electronic register of gun owners and firearms circulation.

PS The book will still have a red cover, so the concept of the "red book" will not disappear.