Gun Control’s Horrific History
Russ Chastain 09.19.19
When it comes to gun control, it’s always about one thing: Control. And once a government gains control of a population’s firearms, it has complete control.
Complete.
In a perfect world, that might not be a bad thing. In a perfect world, there would be no evil, thus no need for weapons. Citizens would have no need to defend themselves against thieves and robbers, because there would be none. And no government in a perfect world would ever perform organized mass murder. (Nor would there even be a need for government in a perfect world.)
Unfortunately, our world is not yet perfect. Evil exists, and governments can and do murder their own citizens in order to gain/solidify/regain power. And there is only one way to prevent this: By arming citizens so they may protect themselves against all comers.
Using fear and other emotions to create more gun laws laws will not prevent evil people from performing evil acts, but it will most certainly allow more evil acts to occur, by disarming most citizens.
Stephen P. Halbrook explores this in a recent Independent Institute article entitled, “Recalling the Tragic History of Gun Control.” In it, he explores Nazi Germany and why its example caused the United States Congress to reaffirm Americans’ Second Amendment rights in 1941.
Congress has repeatedly rejected gun registration based on bitter historical lessons. Just before the 1941 Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Congress forbade gun registration and reaffirmed the Second Amendment right to keep and bear arms based on how the Nazis used registration records to confiscate firearms from their intended victims.
Purportedly to fight street violence, Germany’s Weimar Republic in 1931 decreed gun registration, but warned that the records must not fall into the hands of radical elements. Unfortunately, those radical elements—the National Socialist Party led by Adolf Hitler—seized power in 1933 and used those very same records to disarm political opponents, rendering them incapable of resistance. Disarmed German Jews paid the price in the 1938 Kristallnacht pogrom, a major step in the road to the Holocaust.
Gun registration became law in France in 1935. When Germany invaded five years later, they imposed a death penalty for anyone who did not turn over his or her firearms.
Death. Penalty.
It was regularly enforced by firing squad. Still, many French citizens defied the law despite the risk, creating an underground resistance and eventually fighting openly alongside the invading Allies. They were of course hampered by a shortage of guns — especially because “military style” firearms had been banned even before the war.
Back to Mr. Halbrook, who concludes his piece so soundly I must let him have the last word here.
Such experiences are as old as humanity. Tyrants, conquerors, and dictators of every breed disarm their subjects in order to dominate and exploit them. It’s an iron law of history. Has it lost its meaning today?
No such conditions exist in the United States, due in no small part to our rights protected by the First and Second Amendments. But history should teach us to be careful of what we wish for. Every mass murder—which can be committed in any number of ways—prompts the siren call to disarm good citizens.
Require registration of, or ban, ordinary guns that are arbitrarily called “assault weapons”? Ban all firearms? Don’t bank on much compliance.
Impose felony penalties; imprison citizens; send police to break into houses to seize firearms; shoot those who think they’re resisting a home invasion? What a recipe for disaster.
Maybe it’s time to pursue real solutions to criminal violence and forget about a war on peaceable, law-abiding gun owners.
