A. Genocide: The Down-side of "Gun Control"
"Gun control" advocates cannot see any harm in "gun control".
But "gun control" has a down-side. A very nasty one. "Gun control" victims number in the tens of millions.
The down-side of "gun control" is genocide.
There have been at least seven major genocides in this century, involving 50-60 million victims, using conservative estimates.
In every case, a "gun control" law was in force before the genocide began. In five of these cases, the lethal law - the "gun control" law - was already in force when the "genocide regime" took control of the government.
B. Personal Safety: The False Promise of "Gun Control"
"Gun control" laws usually are enacted in a crisis: before or after a civil war, invasion, economic collapse, upsurge in terrorism, etc. People then put personal safety above all. In the long-run (and sometimes in the short-run) this deal - disarming in exchange for government "protection" - amounts to committing suicide for fear of death.
Thus, California banned a range of firearms in 1989, after an incident in January, 1989, which several school-children in Stockton, California were murdered, shot to death, by a man with a long record of criminal convictions (See below, pp. - ).
Even if protection actually is given during the crisis, the laws remain after the crisis ends. These laws clear the way for the murder of millions, sometimes decades later. "Gun control" has a fatal flaw. It can promote personal safety. But if - and only if - it is ruthlessly enforced. Governments with the power ruthlessly to enforce "gun control" laws can easily commit genocide. They have done so repeatedly - and increasingly often - in this century.
This flaw - that getting "gun control" to "work" involves giving government the power to commit genocide - is the reason that realizing at most short-term gains in personal security via "gun control" increasingly involves payment of a very high price: genocide. Yet, the link between "gun control" and the mountains of corpses resulting from "gun control" has been overlooked. For two good reasons.
C. "Gun Control's" Silenced Victims
First, few of those who have seen the nasty "down-side" of "gun control" talk about it. They don't bear witness before television cameras.
Most who have witnessed the down-side of "gun control" - tens of millions of them - are silent. They are silent because they are dead.
Those lucky enough to have escaped often do not know they have seen the down-side of "gun control". They may have been so brutalized that they have lost the desire to analyze what befell them: they just want to bury the memories and get on with their lives. Other victims may be so ashamed of having been victimized, that they claim there was no way to avoid it. They argue that the perpetrators were irrestibly powerful.
Those who:
1. Upholding a Discredited Faith
Those who have seen the down-side of "gun control", and have understood why they were victimized, usually have been ignored in America. Their testimony strikes at the heart of a century-old faith, now plainly invalid, but still widely-held. That faith centers on a belief in the basic goodness of government. Die-hard adherents to this faith believe their government is - or can be - an unfailing source of goodness in the World. They reject evidence to the contrary. A more balanced, sober view suggests that the same power which enables governments slowly to improve the human condition enables government officials to commit genocide, or at least quickly to do great harm to many people.
Government can only do good slowly because it takes time for government officials:
2. Has Lethal Impacts
On 28 February 1993, U.S. government agents went to arrest a suspect in a building on the outskirts of Waco, Texas. The 80-90 persons (including 15-20 children) known to be in the building were thought to have firearms, for some of which the occupants did not hold the permits required by "gun control" laws.
The raiding party lost the element of surprise. Those inside the house returned fire. In the ensuing shoot-out, there perished four Federal agents and perhaps six persons in the house.1 After a six-week stand-off on 19 April 1993 the government used military-type armored vehicles to force those in the house to come out. In the fire which erupted moments after armored vehicles were driven into the walls of the house, almost everyone in the house - about 80 persons - perished.2
E. "Gun Control" Subverts Limited Government
This imbalance, that government can do good only slowly but can do great harm quickly, is why the Framers of the Constitution:
To show beyond any shadow of doubt that "gun control" laws clear the way for genocide, we reproduce authentic original texts of "gun control" laws in force in countries where seven major 20th Century genocides occurred. We provide the original texts so that the source documents' authenticity will be clear. We provide facing translations into English, the accuracy of which is easily verified by reference to the originals.
So far as we know, this evidence - in six languages other than English (Russian, Turkish, German, French, Spanish, and Chinese) - has never before been brought together.
Even the prosecutors at the post-World War II Nürnberg Trials of Nazi War criminals did not realize that "gun control" is the key to genocide. They tried the Nazi Interior Minister, Wilhelm Frick. In Nazi Germany, the Interior Ministry controlled most aspects of law enforcement (except the Gestapo, the Secret Police).
Frick, along with Nazi Dictator Adolf Hitler, signed one of the lethal laws, the Nazi Weapons Law of 18 March 1938. This law appears to be the basis of the U.S. Gun Control Act of 1968 (GCA '68).3
But the Nürnberg trial prosecutors did not introduce that law into evidence against Wilhelm Frick. Frick was found guilty of many other evil acts. He was hanged.4
The Nürnberg prosecutors did not see that "gun control" is the linchpin of genocide because the Nazi genocide was then only the second known in the 20th Century. The actual extent of the genocide directed by Joseph Stalin, Soviet Communist Party General Secretary, after 1929, was not then known.
The facts of the Ottoman Turkish genocide against the Armenians during World War I also were not widely known. The few survivors spoke little of the horrors they had seen. And few Armenians in America were then in positions from which they were able to inform the wider public.
G. Missing the Link between "Gun Control" and Genocide
1. Overview
Despite mounting evidence - four major genocides in the post-World War II period - the link between "gun control" and genocide is still unrecognized. Only in one recent work on genocide, is the disarming of the Armenians mentioned as a contributive factor to their murder.5 But, as noted above, Professor Melson does not appreciate the importance of the Armenians being disarmed, and so does not investigate it.
In other sources, only exceptionally and in the briefest way are the terms,
"firearms", "weapons", "arms", "guns", "'gun control'", "armed resistance",
etc. mentioned. Virtually every aspect of genocide is examined:
sociological, psychological, psychiatric, historical, political, economic,
legal, and moral/ethical.6
These scholars appear to accept genocide as part of the human condition.
To them, genocide is a nasty human failing. It is to be regretted when
it occurs, but it is not preventable. They also appear to accept unquestioningly
the concept that government necessarily is irrestibly powerful.
Yet, this belief —— that government is all-powerful —— perpetuates genocide. Potential victims who believe this do not even consider resisting. A government official whose conscience tells him/her to refuse to commit murder can justify an action by arguing that resistance to orders is useless: they will save no one, not even themselves.
Prevention is discussed by Kuper (Part IV), in the form of punishment, an "after the fact" approach.7 He presupposes that those who commit genocide would be deterred by punishment. Perhaps. But most who perpetrate genocide are rarely punished after they pile up mountains of corpses. Punishment may be a deterrent if it is imposed.
Therefore, none of these scholars of genocide - even those who survived genocides - has considered whether or not there is a way to deter genocide, and thus to eradicate it.
Because the linkage between "gun control" and genocide has gone unrecognized, several governments are moving quickly to bar private ownership of handguns and self-loading long firearms using detachable box magazines (military-type firearms).
For example:
The U.K. government enacted the Firearms [Amendment] Act 1988 & The Firearms Acts (Amendment) Regulations 1992, which took effect on 1 January 1993. The Canadian government banned ownership of a wide range of semi-automatic firearms and imposed severe restrictions on private ownership of firearms in general.8
These firearms - such as the AR-15, M1-A, AK-S, FAL-type, HK-type, Uzi-type, etc. - are precisely the firearms most effective in deterring, or stopping, those who would commit genocide.
2. Eye-Openers
That policy-makers and firearm-owners still do not see that "gun control" is the key to genocide is the result of the way in which the private ownership of firearms is discussed.
The discussion has usually focussed on:
important, though short-term, issues which affect many people, but have few long-range impacts; long-term side issues which touch relatively few people and/or which have few long-range impacts; things that are simply irrelevant.
Among important short-term issues, or long-term side issues are:
Use of firearms for self-defence against criminals, or for hunting, is time-honored, lawful, and praiseworthy. But such uses cannot be the main reasons that:
The Framers of the Constitution did not waste words. They did not
state the obvious. They did not deal with trivial matters.
If the Second Amendment had been written:
The last reason that discussion of private firearms ownership has missed the point —— that "gun control" is the key to genocide —— is that the debate often focusses on irrelevancies. Some of these are amusing, e.g., the search for ways to classify firearms according to appearance (i.e., does a bayonet lug [a metal stud welded to a rifle barrel onto which a bayonet may be secured] make a rifle, an "assault rifle").
Such discussions are as absurd as the Nazis' measurement of faces to try to find out if someone were Jewish.10 That adults can try to apply such nonsensical concepts to firearms is simply sad. It suggests extreme intellectual poverty, or, perhaps dishonesty.
These debates —— some of which have lasted for decades and which have often involved seemingly bright people —— have obscured "gun control's" bloody trail.
H. "Gun Control's" Bloody Trail
"Gun control's" bloody trail - genocides involving tens of millions of victims - is now so wide it cannot easily be overlooked.
The number of those murdered by government officials - once they have been disarmed pursuant to "gun control" laws - almost certainly far outweighs any savings of lives arising from any impact "gun control" laws have on ordinary criminals' access to firearms.
Between 1933 and 1945, the Nazis murdered 13,000,000 persons: 1,000,000 persons per year, or about 2,700 persons/day. Every day, including holidays and weekends.
At Auschwitz (in Poland), the Nazis' main murder camp, Nazi officials mainly used poison gas to murder as many as 500-800 persons per hour, in August 1944.11 It must be emphasized that this daily toll of Nazi murders excludes combatants - soldiers, sailors, and aviators - who died in Hitler's War.
This is a huge number. Consider the following example. The 12 European Union member countries' population is now 330,000,000.12 If, between 1951 and 1991:
these people had ready access to firearms; and if an American style murder rate (10 per 100,000) had prevailed; then 1.3 million persons would have been murdered between 1951 and 1991. This total - over a period of 40 years - would equal just 10% of the number of people the Nazis murdered in just 13 years.
With an American-style murder rate it would take 400 years for Europe's common criminals to murder as many people as the Nazi government murdered in just 13 years. That assumes:
"Gun control" only helped the Nazis to wreak havoc in Germany and, later, throughout Europe. "Gun control" helped to clear the way for the Nazi genocide.
"Gun control" and "genocide" go hand-in-hand. Major genocides do not appear to have occurred in the 20th Century without the prior enactment of "gun control" laws.
J. A Challenge for YOU!
We think that after reviewing these lethal laws:
no one can or should support "gun control", a policy that is the key to "genocide"; those seeking more "gun control" - or who accept existing "gun control" laws - need to consider whether or not they still can support a policy that promotes genocide; those who say they uphold the law-abiding person's Second Amendment civil right to be armed - but who say they can accept "reasonable 'gun control'" - probably see the "gun issue" as a career, not a matter of life-and-death for millions of law-abiding Americans; those who back "gun control" - after reading the lethal laws presented within - must be recognized as supporting genocide.
Read our list of organizations whose members (or officials) in public statements - in speeches or in writing:
The burden of preventing a future genocide - in America and in other countries - rests on your shoulders. We have given you a powerful tool with which to uproot "gun control" from America.
You owe it to your children, grandchildren, nephews and nieces to use this
tool. Their lives depend on you!
"LETHAL LAWS" TABLE OF CONTENTS
