The author is pretty ignorant for a guy who supposedly grew up on Hitler stuff, lots of mistakes in his column:
1) The Germans had a constitutional system, with a split executive. Pretty clever set up too, the Chancellor controls the purse, the president the Army. Basically the 1871 Federalist Empire set up but with the Kaiser replaced by the president and some other minor tweaks. The author seems to nothing of german governing law or historical trends.
2) Hitler did not tighten gun laws for ordinary Germans, he loosened them. If you doubt that compare the 1928 gun act with the 1938 gun act. 1938 was far less oppressive. But if you were not a citizen or a Jew you could not get a gun permit after 1938.
Column written by an ignorant fellow who has a 10 grade knowledge of Hitler, at best.