Gaffe Track: Did Gun Control Cause the Holocaust?
The candidate: Ben Carson. Welcome back, doctor!
The gaffe:On CNN Thursday, Carson was asked about a passage in his book A More Perfect Union suggesting that gun regulation during 1930s Germany meant Jews couldn’t resist the Nazis. The Republican candidate didn’t flinch: “I think the likelihood of Hitler being able to accomplish his goals would have been greatly diminished if the people had been armed. There’s a reason these dictatorial people take the guns first.”
The defense: What Carson is saying here may be new to many viewers, but it’s an idea with a long history in conservative media. (Here’s a version from National Review, for example.) Many on the right argue that a better armed populace might have resisted the Nazis.
Why it matters (or doesn’t): Understandably, many people find this argument offensive, in part because it implies Jews didn’t do enough to defend themselves. Moreover, experts from historians to the Anti-Defamation League have rejected the idea as factually baseless. The gaffe also cements Carson’s penchant for poorly considered remarks—comparing the U.S. to Nazi Germany elsewhere, or likening ISIS to the Founding Fathers.
No, gun control was not a cause for the Holocaust. It was, however, one tool among many used by Hitler to gain near total control of Nazi Germany.
The most notable figure involved in gun control during this time was perhaps Werner Best, who first implemented ever increasing restrictions on gun ownership in the Weimar Republic, followed by confiscation and lists of gun owners, in the interests of "public safety." Sound familiar?
Eventually as the Nazis gained power Werner became a Gestapo member and oversaw mass searches and seizures of weapons, and implemented rules banning gun clubs, and then prohibiting Jews from being allowed anywhere near guns, their manufacture, the manufacture of ammunition, etc.
By the time Jews, homos*xuals, blacks and political undesirables were being rounded up for slaughter, he had ensured there were no weapons available to those who were, for the "greater good", sent to the gas chambers en masse.
I think that the motivating factor to the holocaust was caused by racism. This particularly nasty version of the "Us and Them" syndrome humans have a strong tendency to believe led to the notions of "Aryans" who were racially superior to everyone else.
YES, did you know that BLACK PEOPLE was among those in the holocaust?