Did Hitler ban gun ownership?
Dear Straight Dope: I’ve seen references to, and bumper stickers stating, that Hitler took all the guns away from law abiding Germans in 1936. The inference is that this led to the disarming of the populace and its fall into a dictatorship. I’ve read extensively about the Third Reich and have never seen a mention of this. Did he effect total gun control in Germany, or is this a bit of modern fiction to lend weight to the gun-lover crowd? — John Greenwood, Jacksonville, Florida The quote you are talking about is something along the lines of the following: This year will go down in history! For the first time, a civilized nation has full gun registration! Our streets will be safer, our police more efficient, and the world will follow our lead into the future! The reference is usually given as a speech by Adolf Hitler–alternatively, some say it was in Mein Kampf, but that is easily checkable and proven false–with citation information as follows (all parenthetical material in the origina
