Year: 2018

Gun Control in the Third Reich

Cover of the first edition (paperback)
Author	Stephen P. Halbrook
Cover artist	Denise Tsui
Country	United States
Language	English
Genre	Non-fiction
Publisher	The Independent Institute
Publication date	Paperback-November 2013, Hardcover-January 2014
Media type	Print (Paperback, Hardcover) & ebook
Pages	364 pp
ISBN	978-1-59813-161-1

Gun Control in the Third Reich is a non-fiction book from the Independent Institute that describes the gun control policies used in Germany from the 1918 Weimar Republic, through the Third Reich in 1938. The book aims to substantiate the Nazi gun control theoryof gun politics in the United States by referencing German archives, diaries, and newspapers that attest to restrictions on firearm ownership for Jews and enemies of the state.

The book is written by Stephen Halbrook, a lawyer who has argued and won three cases before the US Supreme Court^[1] and is well known for his involvement in Second Amendment and gun control litigation.^[2][3]

In an interview in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Halbrook said that he decided to research the topic because “Nobody has ever researched it. I first heard about it when I was an undergraduate in college in 1968, and there were these gun registration bills proposed in Congress. […] The proponents of the bill challenged that and said they actually had commissioned a Library of Congress study saying there was no use of gun registration lists by the Nazis, either in Germany or in occupied countries, which was blatantly stupid. When (the Nazis) took power in 1933, they immediately used the (gun registration) records to disarm political enemies.”^[4]

In a November 2013 review of the book in The New Republic, senior editor Alec MacGillis said Halbrook told him that he wanted the book to be seen as a scholarly work. As for analogies between Nazi gun laws and today’s gun control debates, Halbrook said: “The Nazis thought it was really important to disarm political enemies and Jews, but as far as contemporary comparisons, I’m very aware of how loosely people use these comparisons, and it does a disservice to the victims of the Holocaust.”^[5]

Critical reception

A Washington Times review said, “It is the most extensive history to date of Nazi Germany’s policies on firearms, drawing largely on original documents.”^[6]

The New Republic wrote, “…the book’s marketers, who are not shy at all about framing the Nazi’s disarming of Jews and other political enemies as a giant, .950 caliber warning shot amid efforts in Washington and some states to pass new regulations on firearms.” and “[…] surely this book, now selling fairly briskly on Amazon, will have no impact whatsoever on the number of people making those loose comparisons [between contemporary gun control and the Nazis]”.^[5]

The Daily Caller said, “the famed Second Amendment attorney attempts to take a scholarly look at gun control in Germany before-and-after Hitler took power. But Halbrook doesn’t shy away from pointing out what he sees as parallels, if not comparisons, between what happened then with what is happening in America now.”^[7]

American Thinker wrote, “Would armed resistance on German soil have made a difference? No one can answer that with any certainty, but clearly it was a formidable concern for Werner Best and his Gestapo henchmen. Without arms there was no hope of meaningful resistance. [… the book] analyzes the manner in which the Nazis capitalized on the strict gun control policies of the Weimar Republic and used those policies to consolidate power and render the political opposition defenseless and the Jews hopeless.”^[8]

See also

• Gun legislation in Germany

References