What was the civil weapons legislation under Hitler?
Upvote:2
Germany had very tough gun laws after WWI, which were gradually relaxed during the Weimar Republic and the Nazi regime. I'll paraphrase German Wikipedia:
Immediately after WWI, private gun ownership was outlawed, however this was impossible to enforce because guns were not registered. Especially post Freikorps right wing militias (Schwarze Reichswehr) were well armed
In 1928, Germany got its first unified gun law. Private gun ownership was allowed. However, prospective buyers had to prove their "reliability" and an actual need for the weapon. Weapon owners needed a Waffenbesitzkarte and a Waffenschein (a license to be carried on the person)
After 1933, the Nazis used the existing laws to harass Jews and political enemies: the police would withdraw the permit and use this as a pretext to search someones premises for weapons. This was targeted widely at Jews (in '33, Berlin's police chief withdrew all weapons permits from Jews) but also at other political enemies.
Later, the Nazis would control who gets a gun: gun laws were relaxed for party members (a license was no longer necessary to carry a handgun, starting at certain ranks within NSDAP, SA, SS or Hitler Youth among others), while "Gypsies" and other were banned from gun ownership. Jews were excluded from gun or ammunition manufacture and sale. at the same time, the restrictions on longarm ownership were relaxed, permits were only required for handguns. A specific goal of this law was Wehrhaftmachung des Deutschen Volkes, to ready Germans for war.
Later in 1938, after the November pogroms, a bylaw specifically forbade Jews guns or any other form of weapon ownership
Another element of gun politics where gun clubs - I have not found much information, but in 1936 all gun clubs where gathered under the roof of the *Deutscher Schützenverband," in 1938 they were put under control of the SA. Contemporary historiography looks more closely at the politics of the individual clubs (many of which, especially the more sport oriented ones, submitted quite willingly). It appears however the politics re. gun clubs was also motivated militarily - train Germans to shoot.
So you certainly can say that in the 20ties, Germany increased gun rights - from none at all to legal gun ownership, based on permits. To answer the the question if gun ownership in certain groups where "prohibited, encouraged, allowed", I think we can identify three broad trends.
- allowed, maybe encouraged: handgun ownership for "reliable" Nazis
- allowed, maybe encouraged: longarm ownership for most Germans, in the hope that a population that practices shooting makes better soldiers. I think the regimes interest in gun clubs could point to "encourage" but this would require more research
- prohibited: potential political opponents, Jews and Gypsies, gun laws and bylaws where also used to harass these groups
I don't know if the Nazi or Hitler ever systematically laid down their thoughts on private gun ownership, I don't think there were coherent pro- or anti-gun views in place. Rather it was general Nazi-politics that also shaped gun policies:
- Antisemitism, in that Jews where excluded from gun cliubs, gun ownership and gun making
- disarming political opponents
- militarization of society that called for broad training with and accessibility of longarms
- Nazis wanted the tools to terrorize their opponents, or protect themselves
- (mostly) the (usually local) police that used the laws passed on a federal level to harrass Jews, Gypsies
Upvote:8
As @Nathan Cooper indicated, under Hitler, most of the civil weapons legislation was not actually Hitler's - he inherited strong gun control laws from Weimar Republic (aside from total prohibition for the Jews since 1938).
However, the laws were written in a way that allowed pretty much unlimited restrictions and limitations by people in power, within the framework of that legislation:
- Guns were required to have serial numbers
- anybody owning one without a serial number had to have one stamped on it.
- Permitting was mostly left up to the police.
- Permits were only given to people of "undoubted reliability" who demonstrated a "need" for a gun (Hello from New York City).
Note the laxensess of definitions. The last bullet point was such that pretty much anyone you didn't want to have a gun wouldn't have one.
A very detailed discussion is in the second half of the Straight Dope article here (the first half was mostly devoted to debunking an infamous Hitler's gun control "quote").
More post
- 📝 Has there ever been litigation over a salvaged shipwreck between a European country and a former ex-colony?
- 📝 What does this acronym and the symbol in the middle represent?
- 📝 Did Victorian parents raise their children "sexless" to prolong innocence?
- 📝 Looking for a documentary on history of communication
- 📝 Was Islam really responsible for the Italian Renaissance?
- 📝 History of native cultures in America
- 📝 Is there any country where the founder of the nation is no longer respected?
- 📝 Why did almost every ancient civilization have a found religion?
- 📝 Why did Napoleon divide his army during the retreat from Smolensk?
- 📝 Matchsticks were invented in 1805 . How did humans get fire in everyday lives before then?
- 📝 Did Diaochan really love Lü Bu?
- 📝 how did the Cynics of Greece and Rome eat
- 📝 "Madam" in formal titles
- 📝 What was life like for Australian convicts in the last few decades of transportation?
- 📝 Where are the agrarian reforms of Basil II codified?
- 📝 Was there any sort of medieval defensive contraption which dropped rocks on attackers?
- 📝 Can anyone identify this sword?
- 📝 Were the names of the 10 months in the ancient Roman Calendar originally named after ordinal numbers?
- 📝 Why does Sugar Island belong to USA?
- 📝 Does the HMHS Britannic wreck still have a grand staircase or any staterooms?
- 📝 What is the origin of the Danish dough whisk?
- 📝 Where can I find documents from the Nuremberg trials about war crimes of the Wehrmacht in the Soviet Union?
- 📝 Did any of these artists ever meet?
- 📝 Were the first African Americans in Jamestown slaves or indentured servants?
- 📝 What information would be contained on an Ottoman Tapu deed in the 1830s?
- 📝 What attempts were made to limit Roman-era water pressure/flow 'theft' by code, pipe length, and expanders and by whom?
- 📝 Can the University of Bologna be considered the first university in the world?
- 📝 Worth of an old 1/4 tanka coin when it was active 1516-1526
- 📝 Who won the wrestling match between Lincoln and Jack Armstrong?
- 📝 Why did Denmark, unlike in other 'rich' nations, favour agriculture in the 1920s?
Source: stackoverflow.com
Search Posts
Related post
- 📝 What was the civil weapons legislation under Hitler?
- 📝 To what degree is Simone Weil correct in arguing that the third Reich under Hitler was merely a revival of imperial Rome?
- 📝 Did Adolf Hitler ever address the fact that his own appearance was almost an exact opposite of what he considered the ideal Aryan appearance?
- 📝 What led some people to (correctly) believe that there was no land under the ice cap at the North Pole?
- 📝 What is the evidence to claim that political order in ancient Rome was sufficiently different under "kingdom", "republic" and "empire"?
- 📝 What was the planned line of succession for the Nazi Party in the event that Hitler died?
- 📝 What was the role of Indian princes and aristocratic landowners under British colonial rule?
- 📝 From 1936-45 what was the prescribed punishment in Nazi Germany for failing to join or participate in the Hitler Youth?
- 📝 What was the size of the Chola Empire's navy under Raja Raja Chola I?
- 📝 What was the social status of a man who failed the civil service exams in Imperial China ( 1200 - 1800 AD )?
- 📝 What was the South actually afraid Lincoln or Congress would do that precipitated the Civil War?
- 📝 What was the maximum percent of the Soviet territory that was under Nazi control?
- 📝 Considering what was known about Hitler in 1933, why would German bishops declare that Catholics could cooperate with the new State?
- 📝 What was the first instance of native Americans using gunpowder weapons in battle and did they ever make their own powder?
- 📝 What was Yugoslavia doing in the Angolan Civil War?
- 📝 What was the English Civil War called during the Protectorate?
- 📝 What was the effect of the Civil War on the cost of cotton?
- 📝 What was the first recorded use of Aerial Weapons in warfare?
- 📝 What was the general breakdown of casualties per their cause during American Civil War?
- 📝 What was the attitude of Brazil's government towards the Spanish Civil War?
- 📝 In American Civil War era paper cartridges, what was taking up the space between powder and bullet?
- 📝 What was the significance of the Mississipi River on the Civil War and Westward Expansion?
- 📝 What was the experience level of officers during the American Civil war?
- 📝 What happened to people who lived outside a castle when the castle was under siege?
- 📝 What was the attitude of the Scientific community when Hitler accessed power?
- 📝 What was the fate of the planters and their plantations following the American Civil War?
- 📝 What was the opinion of Hitler regarding p**nography?
- 📝 Why did Hitler attack the Soviet Union when he was still busy fighting the United Kingdom?
- 📝 What was the historical context of the 2nd amendment to the US Constitution?
- 📝 During the breakup of the Soviet Union, on what basis was citizenship granted or withheld for each of the fifteen new republics?