Summary: When Americans demand accuracy from their reliable sources, reform will become possible for America. The Left cannot correct the Right on this flaw, nor vice versa. So long as we (Left and Right) accept lies from our friends and fellow partisans, then our leaders will lead us by lies. So long as we remain sheep, they will treat us like sheep. Here we have yet more examples.
Adolph Hitler said:
This year will go down in history! For the first time, a civilized nation has full gun registration! Our streets will be safer, our police more efficient, and the world will follow our lead into the future!
Like so many quotations circulated by the Right in America, it’s fake. In fact, the “Hitler confiscated guns” story is largely fake. For details, Chase Mader refers us to this great paper: “On the NRA, Adolph Hitler, Gun Registration, and the Nazi Gun Laws: Exploding the Culture Wars”, Bernard E. Harcourt (Prof Law, U Chicago), Fordam Law Review, November 2004 (pdf of draft here; image of final here). Also, Hitler was quite popular in Germany until he lost the war.
For a history of this fake quote, for those of you who want the non-scholarly version, see this entry at The Straight Dope.
More wonderful pro-gun quotes: fake advice from the Founders
Fake quotes about gun rights could fill a book. Repeatedly debunked, still widely circulated — and believed. The frequency of lies in our public debates reveals us much about 21st century America — and the educational value of the Internet.
(a) This quote sounds definitive! Too bad Jefferson never said it.
“Laws that forbid the carrying of arms … disarm only those who are neither inclined nor determined to commit crimes. Such laws make things worse for the assaulted and better for the assailants; they serve rather to encourage than prevent homicides, for an unarmed man may be attacked with greater confidence than an armed one.”
It’s from Cesare Beccaria’s Essay on Crimes and Punishments (1764). Jefferson’s disagreed. See his note on this: “False ideas of utility”. See the details here.
(b) But I’ve heard this fake quote one a thousand times! How sad people lie to us so often.
“No freeman shall be debarred the use of arms. The strongest reason for the people to retain their right to keep and bear arms is as a last resort to protect themselves against tyranny in government.”
The actual quote is “No freeman shall be debarred the use of arms within his own lands.” It’s from the second and third drafts of the Constitution for Virginia of June 1776. It was not in the adopted version. See the details here.
(c) This is my favorite. A powerful quote, although not by one of the Founders. It’s also fake.
See Factcheck.org for details.
Other Posts about Gun Ownership
- The Founders talk to us about guns for a well-regulated militia,24 July 2012
- Yet another mass killing in America. Watch the reactions on the Right, and learn., 17 December 2012
- “The right to shoot tyrants, not deer”, 11 January 2013
- But Hitler confiscated guns, leaving Germans helpless!, 11 January 2013
- Guns do not make us safer. Why is this not obvious?, 14 January 2013
- Let’s look at the Second Amendment, cutting through the myths and spin, 15 January 2015
- Myth-busting about gun use in the Wild West, 16 January 2013
- Second amendment scholarship (using money to reshape America), 19 January 2013
- Do guns make us more safe, or less? Let’s look at the research., 23 January 2013
- Guns in the wild west: regulated, with no fears about ripping the Constitution, 25 January 2013
Hitler was a great conservationist and believed in animal preservation. Hitler had the Nazis plant over 10,000,000 trees before the war. Hitler also funded an animal conservation center in Germany. The fuhrer saved over 25,000 turtles before his death. The Hindenburg was used on two occasions for moving endangered animals to safety.
How sad that Hitler had no interest in preserving human life. The turtle and trees vs. millions of dead people…
Hitler named Abortion and Kosher slaughter. Mothers with 5 children received medals.
But he also banned fiat money so bankers declared war.
Scott,
Hitler financed German’s recover from the Depression just like everybody else – by going off the gold standard and lavish deficit financing.
He also financed German’s rearmament with debt. It was not possible by any other method.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economy_of_Nazi_Germany
https://historyofyesterday.com/how-the-nazis-financed-an-economic-miracle-and-prepared-a-war-3e60b3e5d9d8
As for the gold standard:
“{Keppler] was duped by the charlatan of Dusseldorf. In this way we wasted nine months. All the scientists had asserted that something would come of it. This was the period when every charlatan had some project to put before me. I told the alchemists that I had no interest in gold — either natural or synthetic.
“Our opponents have not yet understood our system. We can be easy in our minds on that subject; they’ll have terrible crises once the war is over. During that time, we’ll be building a solid State, proof against crises, and without an ounce of gold behind it. Anyone who sells above the set prices, let him be marched off into a concentration camp ! That’s the bastion of money. There’s no other way. The egoist doesn’t care about the public interest. He fills his pockets, and sneaks off abroad with his foreign currency. One cannot establish a money’s solidity on the good sense of the citizens.”
— Adolf Hitler, as recorded in Hitler’s Table Talk, 1941 – 1944: His Private Conversations pp. 98 -99.
Exhibits A and B are not “fake quotes” whatever that is. Rather, A is a simple misquote. The underlying message is still valid whether written by Cesare Beccaria or copied and republished in a book by Thomas Jefferson. And B, is a misquote which only allows for the point to be taken out of context. The full quote includes “in his own lands” which only narrows the scope of the right. Nevertheless, the same sort of loose use of language permiates your own writing. Fake they are demonstrably not. Inaccurate at their worse, though still potentially valid in their basic underlying point. I leave it to someone else to look into the last one.
Patriot,
I do not believe that you do not understand the meaning of the phrase “fake quote”. Few people are that stupid. It is a quote not said by the person it is attributed to. Both of those are fake quotes.
People fake quotes to lend authority to assertions. It is a form of propaganda. To say that the statement is true even if the attribution is false is missing the point. I very much doubt you would defend such statements by Leftists in support of laws you disagree with.
I am requesting that WordPress send a higher quality of troll.
Just a quick comment from someone who family came from Germany.
Hitler was not popular till he lost the war.
Most just were to afraid by then to even speak up.
Maybe you have heard this one:
First they came for the Socialists, and I did not speak out—
Because I was not a Socialist.
Then they came for the Trade Unionists, and I did not speak out—
Because I was not a Trade Unionist.
Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out—
Because I was not a Jew.
Then they came for me—and there was no one left to speak for me.
Sorry, by the way that was stated as being from:
Martin Niemöller (1892–1984) was a prominent Protestant pastor who emerged as an outspoken public foe of Adolf Hitler and spent the last seven years of Nazi rule in concentration camps.
Pingback: How gun control is causing another European Holocaust | New York City Guns
Perhaps here is your higher quality troll.
Nearly every totalitarian state has banned gun ownership by ordinary citizens, concentrating the arms in the hands of the police/army/state apparatus. In Hitler’s Germany, laws were passed not banning guns, but banning Jews from having guns. The initial laws banned Jews from owning the means to manufacture or sell guns, and finally Jews were banned from ownership. These are facts.
The same occurred in the Soviet Union, Mao’s China (you may recall Mao’s statement that “political power comes from the barrel of a gun”?) Even as recently as this decade, Venezuela banned gun ownership by their citizens ( http://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-18288430 ) , however they placed arms in the hands of their local “citizens militias” which were used to support Chavez and his “reforms.” If you want to represent “the facts” then perhaps you should research the facts prior to denying them. Thanks.
Barry,
“These are facts.”
It’s always entertaining to see how people react to facts. This post links to an exhaustively researched, thoroughly footnoted, 27 page long paper by a Professor of Law at Fordham. The rebuttal is to repeat the urban legend that the paper disproves. Yours is even better, replying to the paper’s documentation by asserting that your claims are “facts” but providing no evidence.
“Perhaps here is your higher quality troll.”
That’s not troll behavior. An internet troll posts “inflammatory, extraneous, or off-topic messages“.
Facts and definitions! Get those right and you are on track to make a difference in the world.
Perhaps if you read your own reference, it would have been clear that while the Nazi’s loosened gun control for their population, Jews were explicitly excluded, and restrictions on not only ownership, but participating in any business where any weapons were allowed were increasingly restricted for Jews. That fact is in YOUR reference, which it seems you have conveniently neglected to read in its detail. I referenced the removal of guns from non favored groups (essentially all of the unprotected) citizenry in Venezuela, and the rest are known facts. All one must do is look them up. Pretty much any history book will confirm the removal of weapons in the Soviet Union, Vietnam, Cambodia (Pol Pot), China after the “revolution.” Guns were not included in the bill of rights for personal protection from criminals, although that was a frequent side effect- they were included to protect the citizenry from their government. Ask any Venezuelan today how that is working out for them.
Barry,
Let’s see what the paper actually says. The study says that the Germans were effectively disarmed not by Hitler, but by the Weimar Republic.
“Now, much of the rhetoric is questionable as a historical matter. It turns out, for instance, that Hitler’s infamous statement, rehearsed in so many newspapers, is probably a fraud and was likely never made. … no one has been able to produce a document corresponding to the quote. It has been the subject of much research and has entered the annals of urban legends. …
Following Germany’s defeat in World War I, the Weimar Republic passed very strict gun control laws essentially banning all gun ownership, in an attempt both to stabilize the country and to comply with the Versailles Treaty of 1919. The Treaty of Versailles itself imposed severe gun restrictions on German citizens. …
“But even before the Treaty was signed, the German parliament of the Weimar Republic enacted legislation prohibiting gun possession: on January 13, 1919, the Reichstag enacted legislation requiring the surrender of all guns to the government. This law, as well as the August 7, 1920, Law on the Disarmament of the People passed in light of the Versailles Treaty, remained in effect until 1928, when the German parliament enacted the Law on Firearms and Ammunition (April 12, 1928) — a law which relaxed gun restrictions and put into effect a strict firearm licensing scheme.
“The licensing regulations foreshadowed Hitler’s rise to power — and in fact, some argue, were enacted precisely in order to prevent armed insurrection, such as Hitler’s attempted coup in Munich in 1923, as well as Hitler’s later rise to power. “Gun control was not initiated at the behest or on behalf of the Nazis — it was in fact designed to keep them, or others of the same ilk, from executing a revolution against the lawful government. In the strictest sense, the law succeeded—the Nazis did not stage an armed coup.”
That’s what this post says, and the paper supports. Facts — get to know them. They can be your friends!
Also note: the word “Jews” does not appear in this post. It’s not the subjects of the fake claims, nor this facts given in rebuttal.
Those denying Hitler confiscated guns from the Jews (as well as others) and then turning around and babbling out of their lying rear-end that this B.S article was “well researched” are full of crap!!!!
HITLER DID CONFISCATE GUNS FROM THE JEWS! The psychotic pukes denying this reality are almost as bad as those who deny that the Holocaust happened at all.
in fact an article written by Stephen P. Halbrook, Ph.D., J.D. ‘Registration: The Nazi Paradigm’ was obviously far better researched AND he was NOT trying to push some sick little political agenda the way the bold-faced lying puke of this little fantasy driven piece was.
Butt-heads keep babbling about the 1928 laws but conveniently ignore the 1938 law (cutting and pasting):
Finding out which Jews had firearms was not too difficult. The liberal Weimar Republic passed a Firearm Law in 1928 requiring extensive police records on gun owners. Hitler signed a further gun control law in early 1938.
Other European countries also had laws requiring police records to be kept on persons who possessed firearms. When the Nazis took over Czechoslovakia and Poland in 1939, it was a simple matter to identify gun owners. Many of them disappeared in the middle of the night along with political opponents.
Only two months before the Japanese sneak attack on Pearl Harbor, Congress enacted legislation to authorize the President to requisition broad categories of property with military uses from the private sector on payment of fair compensation, but also provided:
Nothing contained in this Act shall be construed–
(1) to authorize the requisitioning or require the registration of any firearms possessed by any individual for his personal protection or sport (and the possession of which is not prohibited or the registration of which is not required by existing law), [or]
(2) to impair or infringe in any manner the right of any individual to keep and bear arms
Meanwhile Hilter unleashed killing squads called the Einsatzgruppen in Eastern Europe and Russia. As Raul Hilberg observes, “The killers were well armed . . . . The victims were unarmed.” The Einsatzgruppen executed two million people between fall 1939 and summer 1942. Their tasks included arrest of the politically unreliable, confiscation of weapons, and extermination.
Typical executions were that of a Jewish woman “for being found without a Jewish badge and for refusing to move into the ghetto” and another woman “for sniping.” Persons found in possession of firearms were shot on the spot. Yet reports of sniping and partisan activity increased
Armed citizens were hurting the Nazis, who took the sternest measures. The Nazis imposed the death penalty on a Pole or Jew: “If he is in unlawful possession of firearms, . . . or if he has credible information that a Pole or a Jew is in unlawful possession of such objects, and fails to notify the authorities forthwith.
Out of all the acts of armed citizen resisters in the war, the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising of 1943 is difficult to surpass in its heroism. Beginning with just a few handguns, armed Jews put a temporary stop to the deportations to extermination camps, frightened the Nazis out of the ghetto, stood off assaults for days on end, and escaped to the forests to continue the struggle. What if there had been two, three, many Warsaw Ghetto Uprisings?
So guns DO SAVE LIVES! And Hitler DID confiscate guns! So much for the psychotic, self-serving LIES of the pukes on the far-left who want to bully, harass and intimidate Americans into disarming so that it will be easier for the sociopathic, morally bankrupted worthless pukes known as Communists can take over our country. Of course this CAN’T happen so long as honest, loyal, God-Fearing Americans continue to exercise their right to bear arms.
Now cue a bunch of snickering, half-witted, bold-faced lying pukes to laugh, mock and snort like pigs about the idea of communists taking over. Just one problem. The psychotic far-left ALWAYS mocks realty in order to bully and silence those who might oppose them. Just look at assisted suicide! For years and years and years the psychotic, bold-faced lying pukes on the far-left kept denying and denying and denying, year after year after year……………that this would “NEVER HAPPEN” and that we Pro-Life Christians (et, al) were paranoid and were “worrying for nothing”…………….FAST FORWARD 25 years and LO AND BEHOLD! What happens? SUDDENLY helping people commit suicide is now considered a right and that it is heartless and cruel to force people to stay alive. (Never mind that the majority of people with a terminal illness when placed on strong anti-depressants no longer want to die but the far-left pukes don’t want anyone to know about that) And in fact, it turns out that the far-left were actively planning ALL ALONG to make this barbaric act legal. WHICH MEANS, that those little pukes on the far-left were lying their butts off! Probably with the psychotic notion of delusional barbaric megalomaniacs that somehow the end justifies the means. NEVER MIND that history has repeatedly proven this to be 100 FALSE!!!
This is WHY we Conservatives can no longer trust the far-left! At all! They’ve proven themselves to be bold-faced lying, sneaky little pukes time and time again. So no! we WON’T trust the pukes on the far-left not to try and confiscate our guns and if some nasty little low-life communists try to take over our government then we The American People WILL throw their butts out of our country or at least into jail for High Treason!!!!
Pamela,
That’s quite a rant! Pretty much fact-free as well. Do you think anyone will read it?
Owning a firearm that is registered to you is relatively worthless if the authorities turn to the dark side. Everybody knows this. For a long time now, alert people have taken steps to keep what they need the most off their radar. Sure, let them know about a few guns of the same calibers that one stock piles ammo for, but that is about it.
Look at the civil wars in the old Yugoslavia in the 1990s. Technically, no one then could own a useful gun. But when the lights went out, it turns out that no one had turned in anything from the civil wars in the 1940s.
France created a registration scheme in the 1930s that the Germans gleefully exploited when they moved in. It was, “Turn those in or get in the truck.” Of course that happened.
I don’t get why anyone would dispute the hazards of registration unless they thought being personally disarmed was desire-able.