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> Did You Know:
>
> According to a letter dated 7-12-1968--shortly after passage
> of the Omnibus Crime Act, which contained most of GCA '68,
> but four months before enactment of the full law -- the Library
> of Congress provided Sen. Dodd(Dem) a requested translation
> of the 1938 Nazi gun control law and returned "the Xerox copy
> of the original German text which you supplied."
>
From: tsjwr@camelot.acf-lab.alaska.edu (John W Redelfs)
Subject: Who's Next, Mormons and Jews?
Date: 27 Nov 1994 18:22:59 -0600
I have been challenged to produce documentary evidence linking the
Nazi's with U.S. gun control law, to back up my claim that the Gun
Control Law of 1968 is a verbatim translation from a Nazi law passed
in Germany before the Second World War, the law that set up the
Jews for the Holocaust. Well, here it is, the first of several documents
I will post here to prove my claims.
Fortunately, the Jews for the Preservation of Firearms Ownership
(JPFO) have done all of my homework for me. The post below was
recently reproduced on SAMSBEST from another list.
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:: Volume 1, Post 18 SAMSBEST, ::
:: THE EMAIL LIST 21 November 1994 ::
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:: SAMSBEST is a read-only list. Post all followups to the original ::
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All followups to: talk.politics.guns
-----------------------------------------------------------------
GUN CONTROL'S NAZI CONNECTION!
Startling evidence suggests that the Gun Control Act of 1968
was lifted, almost in its entirety, from Nazi legislation. We must
call for a full investigation, and the repeal of GCA '68 -- NOW!!
By Jews for the Preservation of Firearms Ownership (JPFO)
+ + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +
Are you tired of being told that gun control is a chronic pain that
you have to accept because there's no cure? Do you -- a law-
abiding person -- want to be free: to own whichever firearms you
want to own, regardless of where in America you live; from waiting
periods, gun bans, magazine capacity restrictions, etc.; to spend
your time on the range or in the field, rather than fighting gun
control?
Are you tired of giving hard-earned bucks to efforts that have
at best only slowed the gun-grabbers' push toward firearms
registration and confiscation? If you have had enough of death
by a thousand cuts, you are ready to take action to wipe out
gun control -- now.
Members of Jews for the Preservation of Firearms Ownership
(JPFO) consider gun control to be an aggressive cancer. JPFO
has a cure, a way to destroy gun control. JPFO has hard evidence
that shows that the Nazi Weapons Law (March 18, 1938) is the
*source* of the U.S. Gun Control Act of 1968 (GCA '68). Adolph
Hitler signed the Nazi Weapons Law. The Gestapo (Nazi National
Secret Police) enforced it. In *Gun Control: Gateway to Tyranny*
we present the official German text of the Nazi Weapons Law and
a side-by-side translation into English. Even more deadly: a side-
by-side, section-by-section comparison of the GCA '68 with the Nazi
Weapons Law. If you have this in your hands, no one can tell you
that you're imagining things.
The clincher: JPFO knows *who* implanted into American law
cancerous ideas from the Nazi Weapons Law.
The likely culprit is a former senator, now deceased. We have
documentary proof -- see below -- that he had the original text
of the Nazi Weapons Law in his possession 4 months before the
bill that became GCA '68 was signed into law.
This former senator was a senior member of the U.S. team that
helped to prosecute Nazi war criminals at Nurnberg, Germany,
in 1945-46. That is probably where he found out about the Nazi
Weapons Law. He may have gotten a copy of it then, or at a later
date. We cannot imagine why any U.S. lawmaker would own
original texts of Nazi laws. To find out his name, read on.
With this hard evidence in your hands and in your head, you can
destroy cancerous gun control. You can challenge anyone who
backs gun control. You can show them the Nazi ideas, line by line.
The parallels between the Nazi law and GCA '68 will leap at you
from the page. For example, law-abiding firearm owners in Illinois,
Massachusetts, and New Jersey must carry identification cards
based on formats from the Nazi Weapons Law. Nazi-based laws
have no place in America. Thousands of Americans died or were
wounded in the war to wipe out the Nazis. They did not suffer and
die so that Hitler's ideas could live on in America and kill more
Americans. Gun control kills law-abiding Americans. Remember
Killeen, Texas! The 23 who died in Luby's Cafeteria there died
because they obeyed Nazi-inspired gun control laws. The law
forced them, unarmed, to face an armed madman.
======================>> INSET <<============
According to JPFO, evidence strongly suggests that the
late Senator Thomas J. Dodd personally implanted the
Nazi Weapons Law into U.S. legislation. What remains
unknown are his motives for doing so.
============================================
(Note: Gun control can ONLY take guns out of the hands of law-
abiding citizens and put them into the hands of criminals, and this
is why. A man is in his house at night and an armed criminal breaks
in and threatens his life and the lives of his wife and children. The
man of the house shoots the criminal dead... Another scenario
would be that the man of the house does not own a gun because of
"gun control" laws. A criminal breaks in and kills the man, his wife
and children dead. But how could this be? There are LAWS against
owning a gun, at least in THIS scenario. The only problem is that
"criminals" don't give a stink about "laws". If they want a gun, then
they will find one, somehow. So as I said, "gun control" takes guns
out of the hands of law-abiding citizens and puts them into the hands
of criminals, nothing more, nothing less... - Wol.)
To destroy gun control before more law-abiding Americans are
murdered by criminals or madmen helped by gun control, you need
to get hold of the evidence as presented in *Gun Control: Gateway
to Tyranny*. You can then challenge the media, the most aggressive
backers of gun control. Ask media personalities in your city or town
why they back Nazi-based laws. You can demand repeal of GCA '68
and the thousands of state and local laws based on it. You can help
to erase gun control, Hitler's last legacy.
GCA '68 puts your life at risk right now. You have a constitutional civil
right to be armed in order to protect yourself, because under U.S. law
the police have no duty to protect the average person:
(Note: Some would argue: "The First Amendment allowance for a
regulated state "Militia" is provided through the National Guard and
such para-military institutions. The National Guard is NOT a state
militia, it is a Federally-controlled militia that is not subject to indi-
vidual state control, otherwise National Guard units would not have
been ordered in the past to operate outside of the borders of the U.S.
as they have done during operations in Central America, and so on.
- Wol.)
"There is no constitutional right to be protected by the state
against being murdered by criminals or madmen. It is monstrous
if the state fails to protect its residents against such predators
but it does not violate the due process clause of the Fourteenth
Amendment, or, we suppose, any other provision of the Consti-
tution. The Constitution is a charter of negative liberties: it tells
the state to let people alone; it does not require the federal govern-
ment or the state to provide services, even so elementary a service
as maintaining law and order" (Bowers v. DeVito, U.S. Court of
Appeals, Seventh Circuit, 686F.2d616 [1982]).
(Therefore, the "state militia" must be made up of individual
citizens exercising their Constitutional rights to own firearms.
- Wol)
The Supreme Court last dealt with this issue in 1856; the 1982
decision states the position in modern language. The laws of
virtually every state parallel federal law (see JPFO Special Report
"Dial 911 and Die!" covered in *Guns & Ammo*, July 1992). This
has been so ever since the Constitution was adopted in 1791.
As a result, the framers of the Second Amendment deliberately
created an INDIVIDUAL CIVIL RIGHT to be armed. It is your only
reliable defense against criminals. GCA '68 ties your hands and
keeps you from carrying out your legal duty to ensure your own
self-defense. GCA '68 thus undermines a pillar of U.S. law and
helps criminals to kill law-abiding Americans. Hitler would be
pleased.
===============>> INSET <<================
The Library of Congress
Washington, DC July 12, 1968
Hon. Thomas J. Dodd
Chairman, Special Subcommittee to Investigate Juvenile
Delinquency, U.S. Senate, Washington, DC
Dear Senator Dodd: Your request of July 2, 1968,
addressed to the Legislative Reference Service, for the
translation of several German laws has been referred to
the Law Library for attention.
In compliance with your request and with reference to
several telephone conversations between Miss Frank of
your Office and Mr. Fred Karpf, European Law Division,
we are enclosing herewith a translation of the Law on
Weapons of March 18, 1938, prepared by Dr. William
Solyom-Fekete of that Division, as well as the Xerox
copy of the original German text which you supplied.
The translation of the decree implementing the Law on
Weapons of March 19, 1938, and the pertinent provisions
of the Federal Hunting Law of March 30, 1961, is in
preparation and will be sent to you as soon as
completed.
Sincerely yours,
Lewis C. Coffin,
Law Librarian
=========================================
Thus, GCA '68 marked a new approach to gun control. It replaced
the Federal Firearms Act (June 30, 1938), which was based on
the federal power to regulate interstate commerce. The 1938 law
required firearms dealers to get a federal license (which then cost
$1). Only dealers could ship firearms across state lines. Ordinary
people could receive shipments from dealers.
In GCA '68 the government required that in almost all cases only
dealers could send and receive firearms across state lines. This
ended "mail order" sales of firearms by law-abiding persons who
are not licensed dealers.
GCA '68 hits you even harder. Congress gave federal bureaucrats
in Washington, D.C., the power to decide what kinds of firearms
you can own.
The framers of GCA '68 borrowed an idea -- that certain firearms
are "hunting weapons" -- from the Nazi Weapons Law (Section 21
and Section 32 of the Regulations, page 61 and page 73, respectively,
of *Gun Control: Gateway to Tyranny*). The equivalent U.S. term,
"sporting purpose," was used to classify firearms. But it was not
defined anywhere in GCA '68. Thus, bureaucrats were empowered
to ban whole classes of firearms. They have, in fact, done so.
We wanted to know the source of these new ideas. On reading "Dial
911 and Die!" a JPFO member told us he had seen an article -- by
Alan Stang in *Review of the News*, October 4, 1967 (pages 15-20)
-- the author of which felt that the Nazi Weapons Law was the model
for GCA '68. We found the article. But Stang did not reproduce the
Nazi law, so we could not check his conclusions.
We started to hunt for the text of the Nazi Weapons Law. We
eventually found it, in the law library of an Ivy League university.
Until 1943-44, the German government published its laws and
regulations in the *Reichsgesetzblatt*, roughly the equivalent of
the U.S. Federal Register. Carefully shelved by law librarians,
the 1938 issues of this German government publication had
gathered a lot of dust. In the *Reichsgesetzblatt* issue for the
week of March 21, 1938, was the official text of the Weapons
Law (March 18, 1938). It gave Hitler's Nazi party a stranglehold
on the Germans, many of whom did not support the Nazis. We
found that the Nazis did not invent gun control in Germany. The
Nazis inherited gun control and then perfected it: they invented
handgun control.
The Nazi Weapons Law of 1938 replaced a Law on Firearms and
Ammunition of April 13, 1928. The 1928 law was enacted by a
center-right, freely elected German government that wanted to
curb "gang activity," violent street fights between Nazi party and
Communist party thugs. All firearms owners and their firearms
had to be registered. Sound familiar? Gun control did not save
democracy in Germany. It helped to make sure that the toughest
criminals, the Nazis, prevailed.
The Nazis inherited lists of firearm owners and their firearms
when they *lawfully* took power in March 1933. The Nazis used
these inherited registration lists to seize privately held firearms
from persons who were not "reliable." Knowing exactly who owned
which firearms, the Nazis had only to revoke the annual ownership
permits or decline to renew them.
In 1938, five years after taking power, the Nazis enhanced the
1928 law. The Nazi Weapons Law introduced handgun control.
Firearms ownership was restricted to Nazi party members and
other "reliable" people.
The 1938 Nazi law barred Jews from businesses involving firearms.
On November 10, 1938 -- one day after the Nazi party terror squads
(the SS) savaged thousands of Jews, synagogues, and Jewish
businesses throughout Germany -- new regulations under the
Weapons Law specifically barred Jews from owning any weapons,
even clubs or knives.
Given the parallels between the Nazi Weapons Law and the GCA
'68 [Gun Control Act, 1968], we concluded that the framers of the
GCA '68 -- lacking any basis in American law to sharply cut back
the civil rights of law-abiding Americans -- drew on the Nazi Weapons
Law of 1938.
Finding the Nazi Weapons Law whetted our appetite. We wanted
to know who implanted this Nazi cancer in America. We began by
probing the backgrounds of lawmakers who championed gun control.
We focused on those whose bills became part of GCA '68. GCA '68
as enacted closely tracks proposals dating to August 1963. We felt
that if the culprit were a lawmaker -- or a congressional staffer -- he
or she would know Germany, German law and possibly even speak
German. He or she probably would have spent time in Germany on
business or during military service. Alternatively, if the culprit were
not a member of Congress or a staffer, there would be testimony
at the hearings to that effect.
Most potential suspects were quickly eliminated: they had no
apparent ties to Germany. But one lawmaker caught our attention.
An old *Who's Who* entry showed he had been a senior member
of the U.S. team that 'prosecuted' German war criminals at Nurnberg
in 1945-46. Thus, he had lived in Germany just after the Nazi period.
His official duties required him to look at Nazi records, including Nazi
laws. In 1963 he led the effort to greatly expand the Federal Firearms
Act of 1938.
We then got a break. We told a legal scholar of our findings. He
was intrigued. He sent us an extract from the record of hearings
held a few months prior to the enactment of the GCA '68. At the
end of June 1968, the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee to Investigate
Juvenile Delinquency -- chaired by Thomas J. Dodd (D-CT) -- held
hearings on bills: (1) "To Require the Registration of Firearms"
(S.3604), (2) "To Disarm Lawless Persons" (S.3634) and (3) "To
Provide for the Establishment of a National Firearms Registry"
(S.3637), among others.
U.S. Representative John Dingell (D-MI) testified at these Senate
hearings on gun control. Senator Joseph D. Tydings (D-MD)
chaired some of these hearings, in Dodd's absence.
Rep. Dingell expressed concern that if firearms registration were
required, it might lead to confiscation of firearms, as had happened
in Nazi Germany. Tydings angrily accused Rep. Dingell of using
"scare tactics":
"Are you inferring that our system here, gun registration or
licensing, would in any way be comparable to the Nazi regime
in Germany, where they had a secret police, and a complete
takeover?"
==================>> INSET <<===================
Senators Strom Thurmond and Edward Kennedy are the only
members of the original (1968) Senate Judiciary Committee
who remain in the Senate, and on the committee
===============================================
Rep. Dingell backed away.
(Hearings before the Subcommittee to Investigate Juvenile
Delinquency of the Committee on the Judiciary, 90th Congress,
2nd Session, June 26, 27 and 28 and July 8, 9 and 10, 1968,
pp. 479-80, 505-6 cited as Subcommittee Hearings.)
Tydings later inserted into the hearing record various documents,
"concerning the history of Nazism and gun confiscation."
Exhibit No. 62 (see reproduction [see inset, CN 2.81]) is fascinating.
This letter -- dated July 12, 1968 -- is to Subcommittee Chairman
Dodd from Lewis C. Coffin, Law Librarian at the Library of Congress.
Coffin wrote:
"...we are enclosing herewith a translation of the Law on Weapons
of March 18, 1938, prepared by Dr. William Solyom-Fekete of [the
European Law Division] *as* *well* *as* *the* *Xerox* *of* *the*
*original* *German* *text* *which* *you* *supplied*" (Subcommittee
Hearings, p. 489, emphasis added).
This letter makes it public knowledge that at the end of June 1968
-- 4 months before GCA '68 was enacted -- Senator Thomas J. Dodd,
now deceased, personally owned a copy of the original German text
of the Nazi Weapons Law.
Why did Dodd own the original German text of any Nazi law? Why
did he make known that he owned it?
The Library of Congress then had (and still has) the *Reichsgesetzblatt*
in its collection. The Library of Congress translator, Dr. Solyom-Fekete,
could easily have used the Library of Congress' own copy.
Any member of Congress who wanted to read the Nazi Weapons Law
need only have asked for it to be produced from the shelves of the
Library of Congress and for it to be translated by Library of Congress
experts. Why should any member of Congress ever have owned the
original German text of the Nazi Weapons Law?
Without access to Tom Dodd's personal papers, archived under his
heirs' control, we unfortunately cannot offer definite answers.
Dodd could have acquired the German text of the Nazi Weapons
Law during his time at Nurnberg. But he had no need to do so.
Dodd did not personally handle the prosecution of Nazi Interior
Minister Wilhelm Frick, who signed the Nazi Weapons Law. The
case against Frick was presented by Robert M. W. Kempner,
Assistant Trial Counsel for the United States (see *Trial of the Major
War Criminals before the International Military Tribunal*, cited as
TMWC, Vol. V, pp. 352-67, Nurnberg, Germany, 1947).
Nor should the Nazi Weapons Law otherwise have come to Dodd's
attention. The Nazi Weapons Law was not used as evidence against
Frick (see Kempner's speech, TMWC, Vol. V, pp. 352-67 and *Index
of Laws, Decrees, Orders, Directives, and the Administration of
Justice in Nazi Germany and Nazi-Dominated Countries*, TMWC,
Vol. XXIII, pp. 430-33). The Nazi Weapons Law is not listed among
documents submitted as evidence to the Tribunal by the American
prosecutors (see Vol. XXIV, pp. 98-169).
The prosecutors at Nurnberg doubtless knew of the Nazi Weapons
Law. They probably saw it in the *Reichsgesetzblatt*. On the same
day that Nazi Interior Minister Frick signed the Weapons Law, March
18, 1938, he signed another law governing security measures in newly
annexed Austria. This law concerning Austria appeared in the *Reichs-
gesetzblatt* -- directly in front of the Weapons Law -- and was intro-
duced into evidence at Nurnberg (*Reichsgesetzblatt* 1938, I, p. 262;
the Nazi Weapons Law was published in the same volume, p. 265;
see TMWC, Vol. V, p. 358 for reference to law concerning Austria).
Thus, the Nazi Weapons Law appeared to have no historical merit
at Nurnberg and should not have attracted anyone's notice, certainly
not to the extent of causing anyone to want to keep a copy of it as
a separate document.
If Dodd got his copy of the original German text of the Nazi Weapons
Law during his time at Nurnberg, it likely was part of a collection of
documents, for example, issues of the *Reichsgesetzblatt*.
But if he acquired the original German text of the Nazi Weapons
Law after his service at Nurnberg, he must have done so for a very
specific reason. The Nazi Weapons Law plainly did not figure at
Nurnberg.
We may safely conclude it had little, if any, interest for those
interested in the history of the Nazis' rise to power. For example,
the Nazi Weapons Law is not mentioned at all in William L. Shirer's
very thorough study of Nazi Germany, *The Rise and Fall of the Third
Reich* (Simon and Schuster, New York, 1950).
At the hearings held by Dodd's subcommittee at the end of June
1968, Rep. Dingell had objected to the firearms registration provision
then being discussed. Dodd may have offered his copy of the Nazi
Weapons Law to show that the specific proposal did not resemble
anything in the Nazi law.
He may not have realized that he was revealing a broader truth:
that the whole fabric of GCA '68 was based on the Nazi Weapons
Law, even if the specific registration proposal was not so based.
Alternatively, Dodd may not have cared whether or not anyone knew
that he had the German text of the Nazi Weapons Law. He doubtless
knew that months would pass before the hearing record was printed
and so generally available for scrutiny. Thus, even if anyone then
noticed the parallels between the two laws, the bill would already
have become law.
Rep. Dingell does not appear to have pursued the matter: the firearms
registration provision was not included in GCA '68. The Congress was
stampeded on gun control by public enthusiasm. Martin Luther King
had been murdered on April 4, 1968, and Robert F. Kennedy had been
murdered on June 6, 1968.
We are not the first to have seen this hearing record. But we appear
to be the first to have recognized its importance. This hearing record
suggests strongly that the late Senator Thomas J
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