RollinThundr wrote on Mar 18, 2013, 17:35:
*snip*
But hey lets "amend" the 2nd, and remove the right to bare arms. That worked oh so well for the people when Hitler took all the guns away, Or Stalin or Mao. Don't worry! The government will protect you! They then killed millions of defenseless innocent people.
*snip*
Took away all the guns, you say?
"Gun restriction laws applied to all guns and ammunition. The 1938 revisions introduced restrictions specifically reiterating the prohibition for Jews to hold firearms, but made it easier for one party nazi regime to gain acquisition and transfer of rifles and shotguns, as was the possession of ammunition."[4]
The legal age at which guns could be purchased was lowered from 20 to 18.[5]
Permits were valid for three years, rather than one year.[5]
The groups of people who were exempt from the acquisition permit requirement expanded. Holders of annual hunting permits, government workers, and NSDAP members were no longer subject to gun ownership restrictions. Prior to the 1938 law, only officials of the central government, the states, and employees of the German Reichsbahn Railways were exempted.[4]
Jews were forbidden from the manufacturing or dealing of firearms and ammunition.[4]"
As if owning a gun would have deterred any of it. They'd just be dead in their homes instead which may or may not have been an overall better outcome, I'm neither Jewish nor old enough to have been there so I can't judge that. There was more wrong in Germany than the '38 gun law.
As for Soviet Russia, Stalin came in to power in part due to extremely lax gun control laws that allowed the *massive*, open, importation of firearms. When the Bolsheviks took power they only banned fire arm possession by non-party members. Plenty of people owned firearms during WWII and many of their best snipers grew up hunting in the mountains.
And finally, there's little evidence that gun control laws played any role in Maoist era policy making. More people died due to starvation (IE bad regional planning) and you can't eat guns (not that they could afford them anyway), so... not sure what your point bringing up Mao was.
Really the theme here is un-equal application of the law creating two distinct classes of citizenry, not blanket controls.