One Alex Seitz-Wald, posting at Salon suggests we all forget about Adolf Schickelgrubers gun control laws. There is a little problem there. SeitzWald really should have consulted a good world history book.
Which would have told the very young man that Hitler and his gangs of freikorps killers and street thugs took advantage of a provision of the Treaty of Versailles, which forced the Weimar Republic to disarm its civilian population; often with great cruelty. At one time, roving bands of freikorps would kill anyone caught carrying a gun on sight, including women, forcing people trying to comply with the law to summon the police to escort them to the turn-in point.
While Hitler’s gangs were, and continued to be very well armed, the German people were violently disarmed. And while NSDAP (NAZI Partei) members were encouraged to arm themselves and to enjoy the shooting sports, those who did not have a Partei card were essentially banned from gun ownership.
A few rich Jews actually managed to retain at least a few guns, and the “final disarmament,” coming as it did the day after “Kristallnacht,” was the prelude to Hitlers final solution.
To stop talking about Hitlers gun laws is to ignore an important chapter of history. And no one has any right to urge others to do that.
Stranger
I’ve read the concept of Seitz-Wald’s argument before. I can’t wrap my mind around how the idea, “he only disarmed those he was trying to exterminate” is supposed to be a persuasive argument in support of gun control.