OF HOLOCAUSTS AND GUN CONTROL

Washington University Law Quarterly ^ | DANIEL D. POLSBY, Don B. Kates, Jr

[Klickitat]

.

[the invisib1e hand]

not one of the principal genocides of the twentieth century, and there have been dozens, has been inflicted on a population that was armed.

it doesn't take an encyclopeadia of footnotes to state the obvious.

if the just had arms on 9/11, the Twin Towers would be standing today.

[Unknowing]

This Northwestern professor seems to provide enough information for several amicus briefs. This learned article should prove to be very influential. Of course, it merely overstates the obvious.

[BudgieRamone]

bump for later

[Travis McGee]

Firearms are too dangerous for ordinary civilians to own.

They should be reserved for trained government agents, police and the military only!

[risk]

The Killing Soldier

There you stand with your big bad gun,
There you stand with all the power,
There you stand with your face as a rock.
Don't you care about that boy?
Don't you care about his mother and father?
Don't you care about his other family and friends?
What did this boy do to you?
Did this boy hurt you?
Maybe you should think
before you pull the trigger.

-- Student Poem at http://www.holocaust-trc.org/Engl_Jrnl02.htm

[LaraCroft]

Bumped for further reading later.

Just a note for people using this info, it is no longer "this" century that these atrocities occured, but the last century. Still highly relevant, to people who do not wish to repeat the past.

Why is it that a liberal thinks a gun owner is a foolish, paranoid, idiot... until they get mugged?

[risk]

Excerpt from an Interview with Holocaust Survivor Theodore Haas at http://www.jpfo.org/Survive.htm

Q.) Did the camp inmates ever bring up the topic, "If only we were armed before, we would not be here now"?

A.) Many, many times. Before Adolph Hitler came to power, there was a black market in firearms, but the German people had been so conditioned to be law abiding, that they would never consider buying an unregistered gun. The German people really believed that only hoodlums own such guns. What fools we were. It truly frightens me to see how the government, media, and some police groups in America are pushing for the same mindset. In my opinion, the people of America had better start asking and demanding answers to some hard questions about firearms ownership, especially if the government does not trust me to own firearms, why or how can the people be expected to trust the government?

There is no doubt in my mind that millions of lives could have been saved if the people were not "brainwashed" about gun ownership and had been well armed. Hitler's thugs and goons were not very brave when confronted by a gun. Gun haters always want to forget the Warsaw Ghetto uprising, which is a perfect example of how a ragtag, half starved group of Jews took up 10 handguns and made asses out of the Nazis.

[spodefly]

I'll try to read Johnny Utah's term paper on Sunday morning rather than Saturday night BUMP.

[risk]

Press Release	Extremism
ADL Reaffirms Support for Gun Control Initiatives During National Policymaking Session in Philadelphia New York, New York, June 8, 1999 … The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) has reaffirmed support for gun control initiatives "designed to make it more difficult for extremists as well as children to acquire and use guns and other dangerous weapons in this country." At a meeting last week of the National Executive Committee, ADL’s top policymaking body, in Philadelphia, members adopted a resolution in support of efforts to expand the regulation of firearms and other weapons. ADL’s support for gun control measures at the state and federal level goes back to 1967. "While we have always supported legislation that attempts to address the problems of extremism and gun violence in our society, the recent school shootings in Littleton, Colo. and Conyers, Ga. have focused public attention on another troubling dimension of the problem – the ease with which young people are able to obtain guns in this country," said Howard P. Berkowitz, ADL National Chairman, and Abraham H. Foxman, ADL National Director. "Strong gun laws are the only way we can act immediately and decisively to hopefully prevent another tragedy from happening in our schools." In reaffirming support for gun control initiatives, ADL urged Congress to support legislation proposed by President Clinton to further restrict gun sales. The legislation would require safety locks, background checks at gun shows, and a ban of high-capacity ammunition clips. The Anti-Defamation League, founded in 1913, is the world's leading organization fighting anti-Semitism through programs and services that counteract hatred, prejudice and bigotry.

[risk]

REFORM MOVEMENT DEMANDS AN END TO THE NRA’S HOLOCAUST REFERENCES

Contact: Jeff Mandell, (202) 387-2800

WASHINGTON March 27, 2000 — Rabbi Gerald Serotta, respected activist and Scholar in Residence at the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism, joined Senator Frank Lautenberg of New Jersey and two survivors of the Holocaust in denouncing material on the National Rifle Association webpage that compares American restrictions on guns to the systematic disarmament of Jews prior to the Nazi Holocaust.

This is only the latest outrage in a stream of condemnable NRA rhetoric. In a letter to the NRA last week, Rabbi Eric Yoffie, President of the Union of American Hebrew Congregations, spoke out against their accusations that President Clinton condones gun violence to achieve political aims. Today, Rabbi Serotta called on the NRA to remove references to the Holocaust from its website and to discontinue its disruptive rhetoric, instead seeking proactive ways to make our society safer from gun violence.

[risk]

NRA Under Fire For 'Nazi' Comparison - http://www.thejewishweek.com/news/newscontent.php3?artid=8855

How can anybody point to the Holocaust as a reason to oppose sane gun control measures? asked a spokeswoman for StopTheNRA.com, Wendy Katz. "It's not only ridiculous. It's a deep offense to the memories of the six million innocent Jews who were tortured and murdered during the Holocaust. The rationale behind a gun registration system is to help facilitate criminal investigations. Contrary to what the NRA suggests, it is not part of a nefarious, coordinated plot against gun owners modeled after the Nazis' campaign to eliminate the Jews."

[risk]

Gun Control: Gateway to Tyranny
by Aaron Zelman

Click for a large image of The Cover.

This book is a real blockbuster. Produced by Jews for the Preservation of Firearms Ownership, it contains the German language original of the Nazi Weapons Law of March 18, 1938, a page-by-page translation, and then a page-by-page comparison with the U.S. Gun Control Act of 1968. The similarities are striking. The book also contains an actual copy of the correspondence between the U.S. bill's sponsor, Sen. Thomas Dodd, and the Library of Congress which translated the Nazi law for him. Click here to read more about this book.

[Travis McGee]

Are they insane in the ADL? What are they thinking?

[philman_36]

So long that too few will read it, no matter how good it is.
Hindsight is 20/20.

[Ancesthntr]

How can anybody point to the Holocaust as a reason to oppose sane gun control measures? asked a spokeswoman for StopTheNRA.com, Wendy Katz. "It's not only ridiculous. It's a deep offense to the memories of the six million innocent Jews who were tortured and murdered during the Holocaust...."

My wife's uncle was a "guest" at 4 of Herr Hitler's concentration camps, and witnessed the murder of his father and brother. He is the only survivor of his family. He owns full-auto weapons and always carries a gun with him. Who is Wendy Katz to suggest that this man, who carries such awful memories with him day and night, should be disarmed... or that his living relatives should also be disarmed, so that they may also face the power of the State without an effective defense someday?

It is "deeply offensive" to those Jews who resisted the Nazis - or for that matter the Arabs who have more recently tried to exterminate the Jewish State (and all of its residents) - to state that they'd have been better off without guns. It is simply not true - without guns, they'd be DEAD! And as far as those who did die using guns to defend themselves, at least they died on their feet instead of on their knees, at least they had some self respect, and at least they defended with all of their resources that most precious gift from G-d, life itself.

Wendy Katz and all of the other Ghetto Jews can do as they wish, but this Jew will follow the example of his wife's uncle and only be disarmed when he is dead.

"...The rationale behind a gun registration system is to help facilitate criminal investigations.

I'm sure that this was one of the arguments for registration in Weimar Germany. As the article mentioned, the Nazis didn't invent gun control, but they sure benefitted from the neat and well-organized lists of gun owners throughout Germany (and, later, throughout countries that they occupied). Oh, and BTW, I'm also sure that such a claim is cold comfort to those residents of NYC that registered their long guns pursuant to a 1966 law (at which time they were promised that the information would "never" be used for confiscation), when Mayor David Dinkins ordered the police to round up all "assault weapons" in the early 1990's.

Contrary to what the NRA suggests, it is not part of a nefarious, coordinated plot against gun owners modeled after the Nazis' campaign to eliminate the Jews."

That is a hypothesis that cannot be proven. Given the stakes, I'm not willing to take her assurances (or anyone else's) that it is true.