Jews For The Preservation of Firearms Ownership, Inc.
P.O. Box 270143
Hartford, WI 53027
Phone (800) 869-1884
Fax (425) 451-3959
NAZI STRATEGY SUMMED UP IN 2 WORDS: "SPORTING PURPOSE"
by Richard Stevens
JPFO Firearms Sentinel Editor
"Gun control" is political strategy, not policy. President Clinton's administration proved it again on April 6 when he announced a broader ban on the importation of certain semi-automatic rifles because they did not meet the requirements for "sporting use." These rifles weren't for "sporting use," according to the administration, because they could be fitted with "large" magazines or clips.
This "sporting use" strategy was used before. The Nazi Weapons Law (18 March 1938) forbade importation of weapons under substantially the same test. Section 25(1) of that Law proclaimed: "It is forbidden to manufacture ... and to import: Firearms which fold-down, break-down, are collapsible, or are speedily dismantled -- beyond the common limits of hunting and sporting activities -- ..." Section 21 of the Nazi Law (and its enforcing regulations) employed the "sporting use" exception also where they permitted licensed persons to carry "firearms, designed for -- and usually used for -- the hunting of fair game."
Clinton cleverly dovetailed his autocratic gun ban with fear of crime, played on urban Americans' ignorance of firearms, and distanced ordinary people from gun owners, saying:
[O]ur administration has concluded that the import of assault weapons that use large-capacity military magazines should be banned. As everyone knows, you don't need an Uzi to go deer hunting. You don't need an AK 47 to go skeet shooting. These are military weapons, weapons of war. They were never meant for a day in the country, and they are certainly not meant for a night on the streets.
Clinton's announcement achieved several "gun control" goals as explained here:
TACTIC
1. Characterize ban as another anti-crime law.
EFFECT ON "GUN CONTROL" DEBATE
(a) Supports the view that guns are a cause of crime;
(b) Gives credit for the recent drop in crime to "gun control" laws (rather than conceal- carry, citizen action, or harsher penalties).
TACTIC
2. Sustain power of federal agency to define "sporting use"
EFFECT ON "GUN CONTROL" DEBATE
(a) Declares right of government to define what Americans consider "sports;"
(b) Teaches people to accept government agency as protective nanny (rather than a "necessary evil"),
TACTIC
3. Repeat the message that citizens should expect to have guns only for hunting
EFFECT ON "GUN CONTROL" DEBATE
(a) Drives wedge between city-dwellers and country-dwellers;
(b) Links gun rights with hunting privileges, thus devaluing the rights (and hunting, too, is increasingly unpopular);
(c) Weakens public understanding of legitimate self-defense and militia uses of firearms.
To understand how the "sporting use" definition led to the Holocaust, how the same language was imported into the U.S. Gun Control Act of 1968, and how that language is bearing its vicious fruit now, get and read "Gun Control:" Gateway to Tyranny, available from JPFO at http://www.jpfo.org/GCA_68.htm
When they brand us as "gun nuts" and "wackos" for standing up for our rights, remember an old friend whom nobody called a "right wing crazy." Among the most loved and popular liberal Democrats in modern American politics was the late Senator Hubert H. Humphrey. Senator Humphrey said:
"Certainly one of the chief guarantees of freedom under any government, no matter how popular and respected, is the right of the citizens to keep and bear arms. This is not to say that firearms should not be carefully used and that definite safety rules of precaution should not be taught and enforced. But the right of the citizens to bear arms is just one guarantee against arbitrary government and one more safeguard against a tyranny which now appears remote in America, but which historically has proved to be always possible."
And isn't that what the Second Amendment means, MR. CLINTON?
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