Confiscating Liberty
Review of Gun Control in the Third Reich: Disarming the Jews and “Enemies of the State”
August 25, 2014
I first came upon Stephen P. Halbrook in 1984 when the University of New Mexico Press published his first book, That Every Man Be Armed: The Evolution of a Constitutional Right [subsequently published in a revised edition by The Independent Institute]. Since Halbrook had both a Ph.D. in philosophy and a law degree, my expectations were high. I was not disappointed. Moreover, by the time I had finished reading Halbrook, I was certain that he would become one of the leading authorities on the armed citizenry. Time has proved that assessment correct: Not only is Halbrook now one of the most respected of gun-rights scholars in America, but he has also successfully argued Second Amendment cases before the U.S. Supreme Court.
In Gun Control in the Third Reich Halbrook takes us overseas to see how the Nazis used gun-restrictive laws to oppress people they deemed “enemies of the state.” . . . Gun Control in the Third Reich reminds us what can happen to a people deprived of arms, but it should also remind us that in Germany it wasn’t the Third Reich that created the laws and machinery to confiscate firearms but the liberal Weimar Republic—and it was done in the name of protecting the people. Protecting them to death, as it turned out.”
