In early 1900, just after World War I and leading up to the time that Germany was ruled by the Weimar Republic in 1928, the German people became convinced that their “bogymen” were “communists.” Efforts by some, during the chaos that surrounded the war and the rebuilding, convinced the German people that “communists” were going to gain control over the government and destroy them all. At times the political manipulators created events and/or blamed the “communists” for any and all gun violence, using this as a tool to further put fear into the minds of the German people. It worked.
The result was an all out eagerness to disarm the populace in order to make sure the “communists” couldn’t get their hands on guns. Did it work? No, we know that it didn’t. What it did do, which I believe was a well planned event, was to lay the groundwork for Hitler. Once taking office, he systematically disarmed anyone that opposed him and his fascist regime and murdered millions of people.
History is repeating itself, yet we deny it. The United States has bogymen. We have “mentally ill” people committing mass murder; “home-grown terrorists”; we have “bitter people, clinging to guns and religion”; we have “global warming deniers” that many believe should be prosecuted for; we have “ISIS” and “al Qaida”; if they are not here yet, they will be. Should we disarm the people to make sure these bogymen can’t buy our guns? All of this aimed at scaring American’s into giving up their rights in the name of safety.
All of these bogymen, lay the groundwork for disarmament of the American people. We are programmed to see guns as terribly bad things, while failing to see the reason it was important many years ago that our founders knew a citizenry not capable of defending themselves and preventing tyrannical government destruction of the people, meant slavery, oppression, repression, and murder.
Perhaps we can catch a glimpse of a couple of American citizens, and millions like them, programmed to live in fear and willing to give up to the wishes of government, ceding any ability they might have to fight against fascism and dictatorial rule.
We find one Letter to the Editor from someone asking that Congress pass a gun control law just like the one Australia has: “a law under which 700,000 guns were collected and retired from use.”
“A person wishing to buy a gun in Australia has to wait 28 days to get a license to own it, and family members in his household can be questioned by police before a license is granted.”
In a second letter, a writer mocks the efforts by two who support the Second Amendment in his attempt at demonizing anyone who would oppose “reasonable” gun control/human control. He suggests that these two politicians should take their strong support of the Second Amendment a step further and: “offer free guns to those who do not have them.”
What a great idea. Of course the writer says that the reason free guns should be given to those who don’t have them is so: “they can defend themselves from those who do have them.” Nobody needs to defend themselves from the millions of Americans who own millions of guns. What they need protection from are the criminals and that includes the criminals working in Washington. That is the purpose of the Second Amendment.
