Nazi Firearms Law and the Disarming of the German Jews

Gun control laws are depicted as benign and historically progressive.However, German firearm laws and hysteria created against Jewish firearm ownersplayed a major role in laying the groundwork for the eradication of German Jewry inthe Holocaust. Disarming political opponents was a categorical imperative of the Naziregime. The Second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution declares: “A well regulatedmilitia, being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keepand bear arms, shall not be infringed.” This right, which reflects a universal andhistorical power of the people in a republic to resist tyranny, was not recognized inthe German Reich.

This article addresses German firearms laws and Nazi policies and practicesto disarm German citizens, particularly political opponents and Jews. It begins withan account of post-World War I chaos, which led to the enactment in 1928 by theliberal Weimar republic of Germany’s first comprehensive gun control law. Next, theNazi seizure of power in 1933 was consolidated by massive searches and seizures offirearms from political opponents, who were invariably described as “communists.”After five years of repression and eradication of dissidents, Hitler signed a new guncontrol law in 1938, which benefitted Nazi party members and entities, but deniedfirearm ownership to enemies of the state. Later that year, in Kristallnacht (the Nightof the Broken Glass), in one fell swoop, the Nazi regime disarmed Germany’s Jews.Without any ability to defend themselves, the Jewish population could easily be sentto concentration camps for the Final Solution. After World War II began, Naziauthorities continued to register and mistrust civilian firearm owners, and Germanresistence to the Nazi regime was unsuccessful.