A New Interpretation

Almost ninety years ago, something worth remembering was happening in Germany.  Author David Roll describes it in his book George Marshall, Defender of the Republic.  Roll writes about Hitler: “…Adolph Hitler engineered a political revolution by captivating German voters, especially the country’s six million unemployed…Hitler was a singularly gifted speaker and performer.  Between 1928 and 1932, his Nazi party shocked the German establishment by increasing its share of the vote in the Reichstag (parliament) from 2.6 percent to 37.4 percent.  By the end of July 1932…the president of Germany’s crumbling Weimar Republic, was persuaded by right wing advisers to ask Hitler to become Reich Chancellor (supposedly a coalition of cabinet would curb Hitler’s extremism)…It wasn’t as if Hitler hid his intentions.  He had spoken and written of restoring Germany to greatness by…destroying Jews and Bolsheviks…But the politicians discounted his stated intentions as overblown rhetoric and they underrated his abilities.  After all, Hitler was just a lunatic that had emerged from the lunatic fringe…”

Remember, NAZI was the abbreviation for National SOCIALIST German Workers Party.

Is there a lesson in this for us, today?  We certainly have a lunatic fringe representing the Socialist movement in America that ignores history in their search for power.  And there are leaders of this movement who are gifted speakers and performers. One is constantly praised for his smile.  Don’t discount them.    

It’s fair to label these leaders of the current lunatic left as anti-2nd Amendment, just like the NAZI’s.  But wait!  There is a new movement creeping into the academic world (See Columbia University "On Gun Registration, the NRA, Adolf Hitler, and Nazi Gun Laws: Explodi" by Bernard E. Harcourt.)   The socialist Left wants to revise history and remove the gun control label from the NAZI’s because the NAZI’s ‘relaxed’ gun prohibitions.  Like much of the current anti-2A rhetoric, it twists facts to suit its purpose.  To forewarn and forearm you about something that is coming, let’s review a few facts about NAZI gun control.    

The Versailles Treaty of 1919, which ended WW1, imposed strict gun control on Germany.

A 1928 law eased gun control – sorta.  Weapon purchase permits were introduced - but the law only allowed "authorized persons" to purchase and possess firearms. (Requiring a permit to purchase a gun; could that happen here in NY State?  Sarcasm intended.) 

And check out the wording in NY State’s Concealed Carry Improvement Act [CCIA] for similarities to ‘authorized persons’.) 

The law also introduced mandatory registration of weapons, which gave the government a list of weapon owners and their weapons to facilitate confiscation.  (The current Left denies that gun owner lists would be used for confiscation.) 

The purpose of this NAZI law was described as ensuring that firearms were only issued to "reliable individuals" – as the government defined ‘reliable’.  (CCIA replaces ‘reliable’ with ‘good moral character.’)

In 1933, Jews were defined as ‘unreliable.’  The weapons’ laws were then used to confiscate weapons and disarm Jews.  “Searching for weapons" was used as the justification for raids and searches of homes.  (Albert Einstein’s summer residence in Caputh was searched in spring 1933.)

Because the law gave the police the authority to issue or withdraw weapon permits, Jewish weapon owners were disarmed through warrants issued by the police and later – starting in 1935 - by order of the Gestapo. Self-defense of Jews had been abolished.

Why does the socialist Left now say the NAZI’s eased gun control?  The key to this new interpretation of NAZI gun control laws is a 1938 law which the Left sometimes describes as a relaxation of existing regulations. Sort of true; it relaxed the law for ‘certain groups’ of officials who no longer needed a permit for weapons possession.  Of course, it is ignored that ‘certain groups’ only included privileged members of the Nazi Party and its associated organizations.  In addition, the new Left’s interpretation ignores that the 1938 laws also prohibited the possession of any weapons by other groups of people, namely Gypsies and all individuals who lost their "Civil Honors" or who were under supervision of the police, which included people convicted due to homosexuality.

Directly after ‘Kristallnacht’ the possession of any weapons by Jews was prohibited.  It’s reported that some rationalized this as good because it kept Jews from committing suicide.  (Sounds like a current theory of the anti-2A left.)

Under the NAZI’s, the privileged – as the NAZI’s defined them - saw their access to guns relaxed while all others and especially Jews, Gypsies, etc. saw the right to a firearm completely taken away.  That doesn’t really sound like relaxing gun control.  But it does sound like the twisted logic being used today to justify gun control.