Congress has repeatedly declined to establish a national gun registry, despite periodic calls to create one. (Rep. Bobby Rush of Illinois is the latest to introduce such legislation.) This collective ambivalence is partly because many Americans sense the grave risks a federal gun (and gun-owner) database would entail, a concern justified by the historical record. In an op-ed to accompany his new book, Gun Control in Nazi-Occupied France: Tyranny and Resistance, Independent Institute Senior Fellow Stephen P. Halbrook notes the horrific results of French Prime Minister Pierre Laval’s decree of firearms registration in 1935.
“The registration records were critical to the Nazis who overran France in 1940, imposed the death penalty for not turning in guns, and conscripted the French police to ferret out violators,” Halbrook writes at Townhall. Fortunately, many gun owners defied the order, retained their firearms, and became the basis for the Resistance. “After D-Day, they engaged in open armed resistance,” Halbrook writes.
If France’s otherwise lawful gun owners were willing to defy gun registration at the risk of death, why would American criminals submit? Answer: They wouldn’t. The call for a national gun registry is therefore a phony substitute for effective law enforcement. “Maybe it’s time to pursue real solutions to criminal violence and forget about a war on law-abiding gun owners,” Halbrook concludes.
Time for a History Lesson about Gun Control, by Stephen P. Halbrook (Townhall, 6/22/18)
Gun Control in Nazi-Occupied France: Tyranny and Resistance by Stephen P. Halbrook
Gun Control in the Third Reich: Disarming the Jews and “Enemies of the State”, by Stephen P. Halbrook
Audio: Stephen Halbrook discusses Gun Control in Nazi-Occupied France on Breitbart.com Podcast (5/17/18)
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