Jews for the Preservation of Firearms Ownership
Advocates cannot see any harm in gun control, but it has a nasty downside. Its victims number in the tens of millions. Its downside is genocide: the mass murder of civilians on account of religion, language or political views. Since 1900, at least seven major genocides have occurred worldwide involving 50 to 60 million victims (see table).
Gun-control laws are usually enacted in a crisis, be it war, economy, etc. Citizens then put personal security abvove all else.This deal -- disarming in exchange for government "protection" -- often amounts to comitting suicide for fear of death. Even if protection is given, the laws remain after the crisis ends.
Gun control has a fatal flaw: It can promote personal security, but to do so, it must be ruthlessly enforced. Governments with such powers can easily commit genocide. This flaw -- that for gun control to work the government must be given the power to commit genocide -- is the reason for the high price ultimately paid for temporary gains in security arising from gun control.
Government officials, not common criminals or hate group members, committed these genocides, but only the Nazi mass murderers have been prosecuted. In every case, gun-control laws were in force before the genocide began. In five genocides, the lethal law -- the gun-control law -- was in force before the "genocide regime" took power.
Despite four decades since 1945, the link between gun control and genocide has gone unrecognized. Jews for the Preservation of Firearms Ownership has published the authentic original texts of the gun-control laws as issued by the governments concerned, with English translations (Lethal Laws, JPFO, Inc., 2872 South Wentworth Ave., Milwaukee, Wl 53207. $24.95 post paid). These laws cleared the way for 50 to 60 million murders. This book is a powerful tool in fighting gun control.
Every government can become genocidal. Your best life preserver is personal ownership of a military-type semi-automatic rifle. Sadly, few Americans see any risk of genocide. Those who urge gun control suggest government forces are invincible or claim criminal abuse of firearms justifies regulation. These views often appear as, "It couldn't happen here" or "Assault weapons are the drug dealer's weapon of choice."
On December 7, 1941, Japan smashed the U.S. fleet at Pearl Harbor in a surprise attack. Subsequently, 125,000 Japanese-Americans were confined to concentration camps by the U.S. government. These victims were citizens, but President Roosevelt signed an executive order that they be imprisioned, Congress agreed, and the Supreme Court upheld the law.
These inmates,though ringed with barbed wire and armed guards, were not murdered like those in Nazi camps. In June 1942, American flyers sank four Japanese aircraft carriers at Midway. Japan could not hit U.S. territory again, and these inmates were freed after the war.
Some feel the government is all-powerful. They forget that government officials comprise a tiny minority of the population (about two percent in America in 1991). In 1991,there were 3.1 million federal civilian employees (Congress, all executive branch agencies and the judiciary) -- equal to 1.23 percent of the population. The armed forces (active duty Army, Navy, Marines, Air Force, Reserves and National Guard) totaled 1.986 million, about 0.8 percent of the population.
Moreover, America's police forces are small: In 1991, state and local governments employed 706,584 police officers. America's law-and-order forces -- military and police -- totaled 2.7 million persons (in 1991), about 1.1 percent of the whole population. Ordinary civilians outnumber these forces about 100 to one. (Statistical Abstract of the United States, 1993, U.S. Department of Commerce, Bureau of the Census, Government Printing Office, Washington, D.C.)
Moreover, America is the third most populous nation (258 million people in 1993) and the fourth largest (3.6 million square miles). Size limits a government's power. Because U.S. government forces are small, U.S. law has never imposed on a police force a duty to protect the average person (JPFO Special Report, Dial 911 and Die!, available from JPFO). In short, if most Americans do not want to obey a law or an illegal government order and they own military-type rifles, no one can make them do so.
When rioting erupted in Los Angeles in 1992, the police fled to avoid being overrun by mobs of looters. After the looters wrecked their neighborhoods, several days passed before the police returned, backed by Army and Marine troops.
Heavy weapons -- tanks, artillery, helicopters -- are of limited use in cities. A tank crew on city streets is in peril from a simple homemade weapon: a Molotov cocktail -- a gasoline-filled bottle with a wick in the top, lit just before use. In short, civilians armed with military-type rifles, by weight of numbers if by nothing else, can at least cripple an attacking military force.
Genocides can be prevented if civilians worldwide own military-type rifles and plenty of ammunition. Amnesty International, an organization aimed at freeing political prisoners, could prevent such threats if it promoted civilian ownership of military-type firearms.
An armed citizenry is close to being genocide-proof, and there is hard evidence at hand. In December 1979, the ex-Soviet Union invaded neighboring Afghanistan. Most of the 16 million Afghans are devout Muslims. They rejected the atheism of their Soviet-backed government. Afghanistan has never been "governed" by whomever held power in the capital, Kabul. Afghans look after themselves: Most adult males are armed. Armed Afghan civilians attacked the Afghan and Soviet armies. Afghanistan, a country about the size of Texas, is mountainous and has vast deserts. Of 13,000 miles of roads, only main ones are paved.
Afghanistan had no gun control before the Soviet invasion. Thus, armed Afghan civilians put the Afghan and Soviet armies on the defensive. These civilians' grit moved other countries, including America, to supply heavier arms (anti-aircraft missiles). In 1989, the war-weary Soviets withdrew their 115,000 troops.
The Afghans offer a shining example of how armed civilians without heavy weapons can wreck armies. The Afghans undoubtedly saved themselves from genocide.
Some argue that criminals' abuse of firearms justifies gun control, especially control of military-type firearms. While hard data prove that criminals rarely abuse military-type rifles, it is nevertheless unclear why criminal activity should define the civil rights of the law-abiding.
The Chicago Police Department (CPD) has backed gun control for at least 30 years. CPD published data documents 21,204 known murders in Chicago from 1965 to the end of 1992. No more than nine of these murders (four-hundredth of one percent) involved rifles that, by bullet size, could have been military-type rifles (Chicago Police Department, Murder Analysis Report, 1965-1992).
Some of these nine likely were not military-type rifles. It is clear that military-type rifles are not criminals' favorite firearms. This proof has long been known to those who make public policies (See "Control Criminals, Not Guns," J.E. Simkin, Wall Street Journal, March 25, 1991, P. A10). Even if criminals abused military-type firearms, this should not justify robbing the law-abiding of the only defense against genocide.
To prevent further genocides, we must destroy gun control. Genocide has increased in the 20th century. Universal firearms ownership by the law abiding is the only way to stop genocide. There are many ways to minimize abuse of firearms by criminals and the negligent. The vast law-abiding majority of Americans should put an end to regulation set forth by the standards of the criminal minority. The evidence set forth above proves that gun-control laws are the key to genocide. No stone should be left unturned to uproot gun control in America. Tens of millions of lives will be lost if we do not destroy gun control.
Posted with permission from Guns & Ammo magazine, March 1994, P. 24