The Hitler Gun Control Lie
This week, people were shocked when the Drudge Report posted a giant picture of Hitler over a headline speculating that the White House will proceed with executive orders to limit access to firearms. The proposed orders are exceedingly tame, but Drudge’s reaction is actually a common conservative response to any invocation of gun control.
The NRA, Fox News, Fox News (again), Alex Jones, email chains, Joe “the Plumber” Wurzelbacher, Gun Owners of America, etc., all agree that gun control was critical to Hitler’s rise to power. Jews for the Preservation of Firearms Ownership (“America’s most aggressive defender of firearms ownership”) is built almost exclusively around this notion, popularizing posters of Hitler giving the Nazi salute next to the text: “All in favor of ‘gun control’ raise your right hand.”
In his 1994 book, NRA head Wayne LaPierre dwelled on the Hitler meme at length, writing: “In Germany, Jewish extermination began with the Nazi Weapon Law of 1938, signed by Adolf Hitler.”
And it makes a certain amount of intuitive sense: If you’re going to impose a brutal authoritarian regime on your populace, better to disarm them first so they can’t fight back.
Unfortunately for LaPierre et al., the notion that Hitler confiscated everyone’s guns is mostly bogus. And the ancillary claim that Jews could have stopped the Holocaust with more guns doesn’t make any sense at all if you think about it for more than a minute.
More at:
The Hitler Gun Control Lie
I’m reminded of the pictures of the gun turn ins at the end of the war and the allies were surprised as all these shotguns, hunting rifles and privately owned handguns were turned in. My own Mauser HSc from 1942 has no waffen-amt proofs on it - only the civilian proof marks so it was never issued by the military. If the German public were banned from owning private guns in 1938 then why would one of the biggest arms companies still be making guns for civilians in April 1942?
The writer of this article does dispel some myths about the history of gun control in Germany during the Third Reich. It’s good to see some accurate reflection of the history of guns in Germany. The debate in our nation is not helped by bogus history.
