Yes, I know MSNBC is a network of low-hanging fruit. It’s a cesspool of American progressivism, but what Martin Bashir said during the January 14th broadcast of his show is nothing short of despicable. Scott Whitlock of NewsBusters wrote that “Bashir, the man who compared Rick Santorum to Stalin, on Monday declared that the National Rifle Association ‘deserved to be equated with Hitler.’ The arch-liberal cable anchor highlighted NRA Vice President Wayne LaPierre’s contention that disarming the Jews partly contributed to the Holocaust. A horrified Bashir asserted, ‘And so with that theory being promoted by the NRA, we’ve seen the most abject and abhorrent suggestion that the President of the United States is somehow the equivalent of Hitler’ on the issue of firearms.”
No, Mr. LaPierre is demonstrating the perilous risk society takes when it is disarmed by government. As Whitlock aptly pointed out, “not that all societies with gun control become genocidal, but that genocidal societies have an easier time when parts of the populace don’t have guns.” Below is a portion of the transcript during Bashir’s broadcast, which is fraught with the insufferable knowingness he – and most liberals – exude in public discourse.
BASHIR: Unfortunately, Monsieurs. LaPierre and Jones are being historically inaccurate, because the suggestion that Hitler promoted gun control is actually pretty wide of the mark. In fact, gun control was forcibly imposed upon Germany following the treaty of Versailles after the first World War. In 1919, the Reichstag enacted regulations which asserted that “all firearms as well as all kinds of fire ammunition are to be surrendered immediately.” But thereafter the German government began to liberalize these Draconian laws. In 1928, the law explicitly revoked the 1919 law, introducing permits and a licencing scheme for weapons and ammunition
And then in1938, Hitler and the Nazis produced new law that is really loosened the regulation. The weapons law of March 18, 1938, completely deregulated the acquisition and transfer of rifles, shotguns and ammunition. It extended those who could be exempted from an acquisition permit to include hunters and all members of the Nazi Party. It lowered the age at which firearms could be acquired from 20 to 18. And it also extended the life of gun permits from one year to three. Of course, for a nation hell bent on genocide, Hitler did not allow the Jews to possess firearms, but virtually everyone else was free to do so, which I guess turns this story on its head. Because if anyone deserves to be equated with Hitler on the issue of firearms, then it’s not the President. It’s the NRA.
* Full Disclosure: I’m an NRA member.
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