Carson blames gun control for the Holocaust

[Phony Moderate]

http://www.slate.com/blogs/the_slatest/2015/10/08/ben_carson_tells_cnn_holocaust_could_have_been_different_if_jews_had_guns.html

[Mehmentum]

Gun control is one of the results of oppressive dictatorships, not the cause of them.

[Blair]

it's such bollocks, people seem to think that the Holocause just happened when the SS showed up at your door. Armed resistance isn't going to stop a 15 year long campaign to systemically destroy a race

[Comrade Funk]

Schmuck

[NeverAgain]

Gravity, No Muslims, and now the Holocaust. He's just tackling the real issues. Carson16

[Iosif]

Are the Republicans trying to outdo each other in who can say the craziest sh**t?

The scary thing is this won't touch him in the polls.

[Ljube]

The Democratic Hive mind is crazy. Carson is common sense.

[SillyAmerican]

Yet another example of folks wanting to twist what Dr. Carson says. The reason it has no effect on his numbers is that most of those same people know how to go about seeing what the candidate actually said, and distrust the media to report those statements correctly. Part of Dr. Carson's appeal is that he'll tell you what he thinks, regardless of how it will be spun by the politicos...

[bobloblaw]

What a dishonest headline. He didnt blame gun control for the Holocaust but said the Nazis would have had a harder time. And they did once Jews got armed. The Warsaw Uprising lasted 6 weeks, longer than France and Poland lasted. So yes, Carson is correct.

[DavidB.]

Carson is absolutely right. If we would have been able to defend ourselves with firearms, many lives would have been saved.

[Torie]

Carson is absolutely right. If we would have been able to defend ourselves with firearms, many lives would have been saved.

How would that have worked exactly? The Jews would have fought their way out of zones of Nazi control? My impression, is that Hitler made Jew killing his top priority. Sure, armed Jews would have killed more Nazis. But that does not mean that they would have survived. Interestingly, about 85% of German Jews did get out before it was too late (I think that is more or less the right percentage). But then they had the "advantage" of living under Hitler while it was still possible to get out.

[Landslide Lyndon]

The Democratic Hive mind is crazy. Carson is common sense.

Carson is absolutely right. If we would have been able to defend ourselves with firearms, many lives would have been saved.

What's wrong with you people?

[DavidB.]

How would that have worked exactly? The Jews would have fought their way out of zones of Nazi control? My impression, is that Hitler made Jew killing his top priority. Sure, armed Jews would have killed more Nazis. But that does not mean that they would have survived. Interestingly, about 85% of German Jews did get out before it was too late (I think that is more or less the right percentage). But then they had the "advantage" of living under Hitler while it was still possible to get out.

I know, I'm not talking about German Jewry in particular, it's more of a general point. In Eastern Europe (especially in the area now known as Ukraine), many Jews have simply been killed by "Einsatzgruppen" death squads and by anti-Semitic natives. If Jews would have been armed, trained and organized instead, it would have been possible to save quite some lives, and it would have helped people to flee nazi-occupied areas. What's more, if people would have been armed in rural areas in Western Europe, it would have been much harder for the Germans to make sure no Jews were hiding in houses, for there are many more dangers for an occupier when ordinary people are armed, which could have made it possible for more people to take in Jews into their homes.

So I'm obviously not saying the Shoa wouldn't have happened if we would've been armed - it would have happened anyway -, but every life makes a difference and I believe many lives could have been saved.

[OSR stands with Israel]

There's a difference between gun control and gun confiscation/ban

[pbrower2a]

Intensely stupid. Jews had also lost their access to the media and economic viability. Jews could be punished even for reflexive acts of self-defense. They even lost their right to keep dogs,  very good defenses against assaults and robberies and good warning against intruders.

It's the totalitarian state that stripped Jews of their rights and eventually killed them. The best hope that Jews had was that Hitler would come to his senses about them. He never did.   

[pbrower2a]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gun_legislation_in_Germany

Nazi Germany 'liberalized' the right to bear arms in 1938.

You must be logged in to read this quote.

Nazi Germany was surely awash in privately-held firearms... after 1938, Jews obviously excepted.

[Likely Voter]

Carson has taken a lot of flack this week from the MSM for all the crazy things he has said, so much so that he is now attacking the media as being unfair and Breitbart is defending him saying the media is trying to "lynch" him (no codewords there).

But I think in the end he isn't going to lose any support, and maybe he will even gain some. I have given up on trying to figure out Carson supporters. After watching those focus groups of people talking about how smart and amazing he is and how he is going to get Washington working again I realized there is really no way to understand the hardcore GOP base, especially the evangelicals.

[Torie]

Sure. The right to bear arms to defend against government tyranny, which is a real and present danger in America, is a powerful meme in some quarters of the Pub base. They really, really, believe that, and passionately so. The JBT's, are just around the corner. To argue with them is a fool's errand. It's totally futile. I know from personal experience, when I was so foolish as to engage in the exercise. All it generated was rather intense anger. I know better now.

[Intell]

There's a difference between Nazi Germany and 2015 America.

[Landslide Lyndon]

There's a difference between Nazi Germany and 2015 America.

BUT OBAMA IS WORSE THAN HITLER!!!

[○∙◄☻¥tπ[╪AV┼cVê└]

Nazi Germany didn't really have gun control, as long as they weren't trying to exterminate you.

[Ljube]

There's a difference between Nazi Germany and 2015 America.

Is there? Carson doesn't think so. He compared the 2014 America to Nazi Germany.

I tend to agree. The aspect in which 2014/2015 America and Nazi Germany are similar is the freedom of speech, or lack thereof. You couldn't speak your mind in Nazi Germany and you can't speak your mind in 2015 America.

[RI]

lol at gun nuts thinking their AR-15 will protect them against tanks and Apaches. Also, anyone who thinks Carson's right should watch the ghetto liquidation scene from Schindler's List.

[Famous Mortimer]

Whether guns could have dissuaded the Holocaust or not is a purely academic question. It's not what's outrageous about Carson's statement in my opinion.

What's outrageous is the implication that if not for guns, the American government would launch a Holocaust, and that's why we can't have gun control. It's ridiculous, inaccurate, and frankly shows he has a low opinion of America.

[Jerseyrules]

This whole site is poison