The Myth of Gun Control Under Hitler
by Dr. William L. Pierce
A COMMON BELIEF among defenders of the Second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution is that the National Socialist government of Germany under Adolf Hitler did not permit the private ownership of firearms. Totalitarian governments, they have been taught in their high school civics classes, do not trust their citizens and do not dare permit them to keep firearms. Thus, one often hears the statement, “You know, the first thing the Nazis did when they came to power was outlaw firearms,” or, “The first thing Hitler did in Germany was round up all the guns.”
One can understand why many American gun owners want to believe this. They see in the current effort of their own government to take away their right to keep and bear arms a limitation of an essential element of their freedom and a move toward tyranny, and they want to characterize the gun-grabbers in the most negative way they can. Adolf Hitler has been vilified continuously for the past 60 years or so by the mass media in America, and certainly no politician or officeholder wants to be compared with him. If the gun-confiscation effort can be portrayed convincingly as something of which Hitler would have approved, it will have been effectively tarred.
This identification of the inclination to deny citizens the right to keep and bear arms with National Socialism and Adolf Hitler has been strengthened recently by clever magazine advertisements which show Hitler with his arm outstretched in a Roman salute under a heading: “All in favor of gun control raise your right hand.” A Jewish group, Jews for the Preservation of Firearms Ownership (JPFO), quite noisy for its size, has been especially zealous in promoting the idea that the current gun-control effort in America has its roots in Germany during the Hitler period. This group has gone so far as to claim in several articles published in popular magazines read by firearms enthusiasts that the current restrictive legislation being proposed by the U.S. government is modeled on a gun-control statute enacted by Germany’s National Socialist government: the German Weapons Law (Waffengesetz) of March 18, 1938.
Again, one can understand the motivation of the JPFO. Many non-Jewish firearms owners are well aware that the movement to restrict their rights is led and promoted primarily by Jews, and anti-Jewish feeling has been growing among them. They know that the controlled news media, which are almost unanimously in favor of abridging or abolishing the Second Amendment, are very much under the influence of Jews, and they know that the most vocal anti-gun legislators in the Congress also are Jews. It is natural for a group such as the JPFO to mount a damage- control effort and attempt to prevent anti-Jewish feeling from becoming even stronger among gun owners. Their strategy is to deflect the blame from their kinsmen in the media and the government and direct it onto their most hated enemies, the National Socialists — or at least to create enough smoke to obscure the facts and keep the gun-owning public confused.
Unfortunately for those who would like to link Hitler and the National Socialists with gun control, the entire premise for such an effort is false. German firearms legislation under Hitler, far from banning private ownership, actually facilitated the keeping and bearing of arms by German citizens by eliminating or ameliorating restrictive laws which had been enacted by the government preceding his: a left-center government which had contained a number of Jews.
It is not just that the National Socialist firearms legislation was the opposite of what it has been claimed to have been by persons who want to tar modern gun-grabbers with the “Nazi” brush: the whole spirit of Hitler’s government was starkly different from its portrayal by America’s mass media. The facts, in brief, are these:
- The National Socialist government of Germany, unlike the government in Washington today, did not fear its citizens. Adolf Hitler was the most popular leader Germany has ever had. Unlike American presidents, he did not have to wear body armor and have shields of bulletproof glass in front of him whenever he spoke in public. At public celebrations he rode standing in an open car as it moved slowly through cheering crowds. Communists made several attempts to assassinate him, and his government stamped down hard on communism, virtually wiping it out in Germany. Between upright, law-abiding German citizens and Adolf Hitler, however, there was a real love affair, with mutual trust and respect.
- The spirit of National Socialism was one of manliness, and individual self-defense and self- reliance were central to the National Socialist view of the way a citizen should behave. The notion of banning firearms ownership was utterly alien to National Socialism. In the German universities, where National Socialism gained its earliest footholds and which later became its strongest bastions, dueling was an accepted practice. Although the liberal-Jewish governments in Germany after the First World War attempted to ban dueling, it persisted illegally until it was again legalized by the National Socialists. Fencing, target shooting, and other martial arts were immensely popular in Germany, and the National Socialists encouraged young Germans to become proficient in these activities, believing that they were important for the development of a man’s character.
- Gun registration and licensing (for long guns as well as for handguns) were legislated by an anti-National Socialist government in Germany in 1928, five years before the National Socialists gained power. Hitler became Chancellor on January 30, 1933. Five years later his government got around to rewriting the gun law enacted a decade earlier by his predecessors, substantially ameliorating it in the process (for example, long guns were exempted from the requirement for a purchase permit; the legal age for gun ownership was lowered from 20 to 18 years; the period of validity of a permit to carry weapons was extended from one to three years; and provisions restricting the amount of ammunition or the number of firearms an individual could own were dropped). Hitler’s government may be criticized for leaving certain restrictions and licensing requirements in the law, but the National Socialists had no intention of preventing law-abiding Germans from keeping or bearing arms. Again, the firearms law enacted by Hitler’s government enhanced the rights of Germans to keep and bear arms; no new restrictions were added, and many pre-existing restrictions were relaxed or eliminated.
- At the end of the Second World War, American GIs in the occupying force were astounded to discover how many German civilians owned private firearms. Tens of thousands of pistols looted from German homes by GIs were brought back to the United States after the war. In 1945 General Eisenhower ordered all privately owned firearms in the American occupation zone of Germany confiscated, and Germans were required to hand in their shotguns and rifles as well as any handguns which had not already been stolen. In the Soviet occupation zone German civilians were summarily shot if they were found in possession of even a single cartridge.
Jews, it should be noted, were not Germans, even if they had been born in Germany. The National Socialists defined citizenship in ethnic terms, and under Hitler Jews were not accorded full rights of citizenship. National Socialist legislation progressively excluded Jews from key professions: teaching, the media, the practice of law, etc. The aim was not only to free German life from an oppressive and degenerative Jewish influence, but to persuade Jews to emigrate. The German Weapons Law of March 18, 1938, specifically excluded Jews from manufacturing or dealing in firearms or munitions, but it did not exclude them from owning or bearing personal firearms. The exclusion of Jews from the firearms business rankled them as much as any other exclusion, and in their typically ethnocentric fashion they have misrepresented the law involved as an anti-gun law in an effort to cast their enemies in a bad light.
It should be noted in passing that the restrictions placed on Jews by the National Socialists had the intended effect: between 1933 and 1939 two-thirds of the Jews residing in Germany emigrated, reducing the Jewish population of the country from 600,000 when Hitler became Chancellor in 1933 to 200,000 at the outbreak of the Second World War in 1939. Jews in the United States, looking at this period from their own narrowly focused viewpoint, have described these peacetime years of the National Socialist government as a time of darkness, terror, and regression, whereas for the German people it was a time of hope, joy, and spiritual and material renewal.
Much the same type of distortion is seen in the portrayal of the United States in the early 1950s: the so-called “McCarthy Era.” Senator Joseph McCarthy (Republican, Wisconsin) used his position as chairman of the Senate’s Government Operations Committee to expose the widespread communist infiltration of the U.S. government and other U.S. institutions which had taken place during the Second World War. A substantial majority of the communists who were dragged reluctantly out into the light of day by his efforts were Jews. As a result, the controlled media always have portrayed the period as one of terror and repression, when everyone was frightened of Senator McCarthy’s “witch-hunt.” Of course, it was nothing of the sort to non-Jewish Americans, who were not intimidated in the least. History viewed through a Jewish lens — i.e., through media controlled by Jews — always is distorted in a way corresponding to Jewish interests and concerns.
Both the German Weapons Law of March 18, 1938, enacted by the National Socialists, and the Law on Firearms and Ammunition of April 12, 1928, which was enacted by an anti-National Socialist government, are given below in full, first in facsimile and then in English translation. A little background information first, however, may help the reader to understand their significance. After Germany’s defeat in the First World War (a defeat in which Germany’s Jews played no small part, demoralizing the home front with demonstrations and other subversive activity much as they did in America during the Vietnam war), the Kaiser abdicated, and liberals and leftists seized control of the government in 1918. Hitler, recovering in a military hospital from a British poison-gas attack which had blinded him temporarily, made the decision to go into politics and fight against the traitors he felt were responsible for Germany’s distress.
The tendency of Germany’s new rulers after the First World War was much the same as it is for the liberals in America today: they promoted cosmopolitanism, internationalism, and egalitarianism. By 1923 economic conditions in Germany had become catastrophic, and there was much public unrest. The communists had made major inroads into the labor movement and were a growing threat to the country.
Hitler had indeed gone into politics, and his National Socialists battled the communists in the streets of Germany’s cities and gradually came to be seen by many patriotic Germans in the working class and the middle class as the only force which could save Germany from a communist takeover and total ruin. Hitler’s National Socialists continued to win recruits and gain strength during the 1920s. The communists, with aid from the Soviet Union, also continued to grow. The political situation became increasingly unstable as the government lost popular support.
The government’s response was to substantially tighten up restrictions on the rights of German citizens to keep and bear arms. The Law on Firearms and Ammunition of April 12, 1928, was the most substantial effort in this regard. This law was enacted by a left-center government hostile to the National Socialists (the government was headed by Chancellor Wilhelm Marx and consisted of a coalition of Socialists, including many Jews, and Catholic Centrists).
Five years later, in 1933, the National Socialists were in power, Hitler headed the government, and the communist threat was crushed decisively. The National Socialists began undoing the social and economic damage done by their predecessors. Germany was restored to full employment, degeneracy and corruption were rooted out, Jews and their collaborators were removed from one facet of national life after another, and the German people entered a new era of national freedom, health, and prosperity.
Finally, in 1938, the National Socialist government got around to enacting a new firearms law to replace the one enacted by their opponents ten years earlier. The highlights of the 1938 law, especially as it applied to ordinary citizens rather than manufacturers or dealers, follow: Handguns may be purchased only on submission of a Weapons Acquisition Permit (Waffenerwerbschein), which must be used within one year from the date of issue. Muzzle- loading handguns are exempted from the permit requirement. [The 1928 law had required a permit for the purchase of long guns as well, but the National Socialists dropped this requirement.] Holders of a permit to carry weapons (Waffenschein) or of a hunting license do not need a Weapons Acquisition Permit in order to acquire a handgun. A hunting license authorizes its bearer to carry hunting weapons and handguns. Firearms and ammunition, as well as swords and knives, may not be sold to minors under the age of 18 years. [The age limit had been 20 years in the 1928 law.] Whoever carries a firearm outside of his dwelling, his place of employment, his place of business, or his fenced property must have on his person a Weapons Permit (Waffenschein). A permit is not required, however, for carrying a firearm for use at a police-approved shooting range. A permit to acquire a handgun or to carry firearms may only be issued to persons whose trustworthiness is not in question and who can show a need for a permit. In particular, a permit may not be issued to:
- persons under the age of 18 years;
- legally incompetent or mentally retarded persons;
- Gypsies or vagabonds;
- persons under mandatory police supervision [i.e., on parole] or otherwise temporarily without civil rights;
- persons convicted of treason or high treason or known to be engaged in activities hostile to the state;
- persons who for assault, trespass, a breach of the peace, resistance to authority, a criminal offense or misdemeanor, or a hunting or fishing violation were legally sentenced to a term of imprisonment of more than two weeks, if three years have not passed since the term of imprisonment.
The manufacture, sale, carrying, possession, and import of the following are prohibited:
- “trick” firearms, designed so as to conceal their function (e.g., cane guns and belt-buckle pistols);
- any firearm equipped with a silencer and any rifle equipped with a spotlight;
- cartridges with .22 caliber, hollow-point bullets.
That is the essence. Numerous other provisions of the law relate to firearms manufacturers, importers, and dealers; to acquisition and carrying of firearms by police, military, and other official personnel; to the maximum fees which can be charged for permits (3 Reichsmark); to tourists bringing firearms into Germany; and to the fines and other penalties to be levied for violations.
The requirements of “trustworthiness” and of proof of need when obtaining a permit are troubling, but it should be noted that they were simply carried over from the 1928 law: they were not formulated by the National Socialists. Under the National Socialists these requirements were interpreted liberally: a person who did not fall into one of the prohibited categories listed above was considered trustworthy, and a statement such as, “I often carry sums of money,” was accepted as proof of need.
The prohibitions of spotlight-equipped rifles and hollow-point .22 caliber ammunition were based on considerations that the former were unsporting when used for hunting, and the latter were inhumane.
Now read the German firearms laws for yourself, either in the original German exactly as they were published by the German government in the Reichsgesetzblatt or in the complete English translations which are provided here. If you want to skip over most of the legal gobbledygook and go directly to the most pertinent part of the National Socialist Firearms Law — the part pertaining to the purchase, ownership, and carrying of firearms by private citizens — turn to page 35 (Part IV of the Law). Note, as already mentioned above, that two separate and distinct types of permits are referred to: a Weapons Acquisition Permit (Waffenerwerbschein), required only for purchasing a handgun; and a Weapons Permit (Waffenschein), required for carrying any firearm in public. Interestingly enough, as also mentioned above, a hunting license could take the place of both these permits.
When you have read the two laws mentioned here, you will understand that it was Hitler’s enemies, not Hitler, who should be compared with the gun-control advocates in America today. Then as now it was the Jews, not the National Socialists, who wanted the people’s right of self- defense restricted. You will understand that those who continue to make the claim that Hitler was a gun-grabber are either ignorant or dishonest. And you will understand that it was not until 1945, when the communist and democratic victors of the Second World War had installed occupation governments to rule over the conquered Germans that German citizens were finally and completely denied the right to armed self-defense.
* * *
Source: Introduction to Gun Control in Germany, 1928-1945, available from Cosmotheist Books, transcribed by Solar General
That Roman salute means “I am unarmed and come in peace!”
The Roman salute is : Iberian.
https://historiacientifica.wordpress.com/2018/02/23/el-saludo-romano-es-ibero-o-iberico/
Greetings signasuper.
Thanks for the information about its origin. I was aware that the salute was used by the court about to try Martin Luther in the 1500s.
Hitler originally reserved the salute for peaceful purposes and forbade its use by the military.
He relented after soldiers were confined to barracks for two weeks after they used the salute to welcome him. He said he did not want any more soldiers punished for using it.
Adolf Hitler was the greatest man who ever lived. He knew what had to be done to “CLEAN UP” his country from the vile and foul parasites who were working around the clock to wreck it. Of course, those same entities have been vilifying Hitler every single day since WW2 ended because Adolf scared the living hell out of them all. He put a permanent dent in the armor of their psyches for eternity. How dare ANYONE ever question the most nefarious mob that ever was ? How dare you try to kick us out of your country before we suck it completely dry of every last dollar ? HOW DARE YOU ? Well . . . . we DO dare, you lowlife bottom-feeding slime, you futureless fateless snobs and… Read more »
The Trump family is Jewish. Trump is the Judeo-Christian showman.
He never been part of the Tribe. He respects the Jewish people – he did not bring them in the USA, neither facilitated their monstrous wealth accumulation.
He acts as a decent Christian (to me, the sects faith is merely cultural then spiritual).
His family is part of the Tribe and so is he even if he is not originally “Jewish” persay. He’s an adopted Jew and the middle man between the Jews and their even more favored Jared Kushner who is more of a pure Jew. It is obnoxious and dishonest to still be defending Trump, there is no excuse for such ignorance.
Greetings geo. Trump is a descendant of Christ – Elizabeth Christ, New York real estate entrepreneur..
http://themillenniumreport.com/2017/04/kushners-belong-to-jewish-supremacist-doomsday-cult/
Khazarian Ashkenazi scum and muslims are destroying this world.
Imagine comparing that Zionist shill to one who completely remade his country anew and rid Germany’s society of the degenerate Bolsheviks and the Jews pulling their strings.
What has the pawn and his ZOG done that was beneficial to this country or the white race as a whole? I’ll give you a hint, NOTHING
I don’t like the demonization of the communists. They were a significant political party, and becoming a threat to the established order, so they had to be neutralized. The severe witch hunt that ensued, ruined a lot of people and demonized a name that in actuality, brought much needed reforms for woking people. Roosevelt probably never would have done the new deal and the Great Depression would have been even worse without the communist influence. Censorship of all kinds is bad. The answer to bad speech is better speech. The root of the problem is our rule by wealth system that is enabled by our system of legalized bribery. Ending that would be the revolution to end all revolutions. Move to Amend has a 28th amendment that will clearly state… Read more »
Greetings Steven. The main problem is that the same people who created grasping capitalism also created super-grasping communism.
Regarding “Jews, it should be noted, were not Germans, even if they had been born in Germany. The National Socialists defined citizenship in ethnic terms, and under Hitler Jews were not accorded full rights of citizenship.”, note that ethnic Germans were not regarded as ‘full citizens’ until they had performed a period of national service.
This article is full of lies. The author knows not what she talks of. US Senator Thomas Dodd was a lead Nuremberg prosecutor. He was exposed to German gun laws throughout the trials. German gun laws divided guns into “sporting” and “military” guns. No one could have “military” guns. Since there was literally no difference (all were bolt action Mauser rifles), everyone was effectually prohibited from owning rifles and later, shotguns and pistols. Dodd brought back to America an English translation of the German weapons laws. Those laws were used as the basis for much of the Gun Control Act of 1968 (GCA 68). In particular, the term “sporting purposes” was introduced for the first time ever in America. This gave the gun haters the opening they needed. For the… Read more »
Colter: This article is full of lies. The author knows not what she talks of. US Senator Thomas Dodd was a lead Nuremberg prosecutor. He was exposed to German gun laws throughout the trials… — She? Do you really trust anything that came from an American prosecutor in the fraudulent Nuremberg show trial? Really? High school graduate Robert Jackson was the lead prosecutor at Nuremberg, not Dodd, who was a trial counsel. He was a drunk and as a U.S. Senator was censured for diverting campaign funds to his own pockets. Read about your Mr. Dodd’s participation in the “high-grade lynching,” here: https://nationalvanguard.org/2017/01/did-the-germans-get-a-fair-trial-at-nuremberg/ Go here and purchase William Pierce’s carefully researched book for $10. Then you can read the entire texts in both German and English of gun laws enacted… Read more »
Okay I am trying to find clarification here. Here is an English translation I was able to find. I do not know German or how accurate is but I’m assuming it’s close. Jews were pretty much banned from possession of ammo or guns but exceptions could be granted to ‘foreign nationals’. 11 NOVEMBER 1938With a basis in §31 of the Weapons Law of 18 March 1938 (Reichsgesetzblatt I, p.265), Article III of the Law on the Reunification of Austria with Germany of 13 March 1938 (Reichsgesetzblatt I, p. 237), and §9 of the Führer and Chancellor’s decree on the administration of the Sudeten-German districts of 1 October 1938 (Reichsgesetzblatt I, p 1331) are the following ordered:§1 Jews (§5 of the First Regulations of the German Citizenship Law of 14 November… Read more »
[…] Originally appeared at: National Vanguard […]
So if Jews support the right to bear arms and own guns, it really means Jews don’t support the right to bear arms and don’t own guns? I don’t quite get the logic of the article.
Jews aggressively support their right to own guns but not others, especially whites.
If you were a member of the Nazi party and adhered to and embraced their ideological beliefs you were allowed to keep and bear arms but if you were not your guns were forcibly taken from you.
In Westdeutschland war das liberale Waffengesetz der Nationalsozialisten bis zum Anfang der 70er Jahre des letzten Jahrhunderts in Kraft. Es erlaubte jedem mündigen Bürger, ein Gewehr – und Munition – völlig frei zu erwerben. Für Pistolen und Revolver mußte ein Waffenschein beantragt werden, der praktisch fast jedem Bürger zugesprochen wurde, sofern er ihn nur beantragte. Diese Fakten machen das Waffengesetz der Nationalsozialisten gewissermaßen zu einem deutschen Second Amendment.
Das liberale Waffengesetz der Nationalsozialisten wurde 1974 durch die Machthaber der BRD stark eingeschränkt. Seit dem ist der Waffenbesitz nur für Waffensammler, Jäger und Sportschützen erlaubt. Als Begründung für die waffengesetzlichen Restriktionen nannten die BRD-Machthaber den Kampf gegen die RAF.
The “liberal” politicians always fear their own people and always try to impose additional restrictions on guns and freedom of speech. It is the same inversion as with “socialists” who are supposedly fight for workers rights. But each time they gain power the workers are the first who suffer.
Wolf Stoner! It’s an honor for me that you responded to my publication. I would like to add something, namely: The National Socialists’ weapons law is better known as the Reichswaffengesetz von 1938.
Thank you for appreciation. Do you live in Germany? The German culture is the core of White racial identity. Therefore, the preservation and promotion of German culture is one of the most important tasks for our people. The Jewish Hollywood-style Americanism intentionally destroys it. Judging by what I have seen on internet, the modern German society is thoroughly americanized. People abandoned their ethnic pattern and follow this pernicious Hollywood trend. It is the main problem. The culture war is much more important than any political struggle. We must listen Bach’s music, not Beetles and other pop-trash. Being a German, you have a unique status of representing the greatest cultural legacy on Earth. It is both a great honor and great responsibility.
Yes, German culture is under attack. I live in Germany and can of course confirm that. German nationalists actually bear a great deal of responsibility. This is a matter I will reflect on over the Christmas season. At the moment I have little time due to work reasons.
When you do your reflecting on that, please do so in English for those of us who don’t read German. Thanks.
Warum nutzen Terroranschläge demokratischen Regimen? Deutschland: Als sich Ende der 60er Jahre linke Wohlstandskinder gegen das System auflehnten, wäre das keine wirkliche Gefahr für die BRD-Machthaber gewesen. Die BRD-Machthaber fürchteten die damit verbundene Unruhe im Volk, das damals noch mehrheitlich aus Angehörigen der Kriegsgeneration bestand. Zu schnell hätte das Volk die Verlogenheit der von den USA abhängigen Regimen erkennen – und eine Wende herbeiführen – können. Zudem galt bis zum Anfang der 70er Jahre das liberale Waffengesetz der Nationalsozialisten, das einem mündigen Bürger erlaubte, ein Gewehr – nebst Munition – völlig frei zu erwerben. Millionen Männer waren bewaffnet und an der Waffe ausgebildet – ein großer Angstfaktor für jede Regierung, die ein Volk unterdrücken und ausplündern will. Daher mußte die Rote Armee Fraktion (RAF) geschaffen werden, die übrigens von dem… Read more »
German Nationalist wrote: “Why do terrorist attacks benefit democratic regimes? Germany: When left-wing children of affluence rebelled against the system at the end of the 1960s, that would not have posed a real threat to those in power in the Federal Republic of Germany. The FRG rulers feared the resulting unrest among the people, the majority of whom at that time still consisted of members of the war generation. The people could have recognized the mendacity of the regimes dependent on the USA – and brought about a change – all too quickly. In addition, the National Socialists’ liberal gun law was in effect until the early 1970s, allowing a responsible citizen to purchase a rifle – along with ammunition – completely freely. Millions of men were armed and trained… Read more »
Yes, the anti-national systems in all European countries fear armed citizens. But at present this factor isn’t so important as 50 or 100 years ago. Back then a handgun or rifle had given great potential for their owners. It is worth to remember how Marxist/socialist terrorists in Russia in years 1900-1907 successfully terrorized society by using hand guns and bombs. Utilizing the newly invented Browning model 1900 and Mauser K-96, terrorists undertook the most brazen attacks against state officials, police offices and banks. Police, armed with Nagant M1895 revolvers, could do very little against them. Similar situation was with American gangsters who were better armed than police. It allowed them to have substantial local advantage in any particular firefight. But after proliferation of informational technologies and video monitoring, the value… Read more »
Years ago , an organization published a phamphlet concerning gun laws in Germany under Hitler. It was said that after the war , American soldiers were amazed at the number of guns the German citizens owned.
Yes Eugene, that organization is the National Alliance and still publishes the book “Gun Control in Germany 1928-1945.” It is highly recommended reading for those who are interested in the truth that counters Jewish lies regarding gun confiscation. I have personally sold this book to gun show attendees in many places, one time a Jew came up to me and noisily bought one himself hoping to debunk the book. He was never heard from again and no debunking has taken place to this date.
It’s interesting you bought that up! My Dad was a World War Two veteran who mentioned that fact in the diaries he wrote during the war. Being naturally gifted with languages, including German, during and after the war while on occupation duty, he had to tell local Germans to turn in their weapons. He was shocked by what the Germans had, as he was told various lies about Germany, including the myth that they were not allowed to have any weapons. Incidentally, my Dad hated Roosevelt as long as he lived.