There’s been a great deal of discussion about gun rights, gun confiscation, gun free zones, and the most controversial, if Jews had been armed in Germany during the Nazi Party’s rise to power, would it have made a difference?

Dr. Ben Carson wrote in his new book A Perfect Union, “Through a combination of removing guns and disseminating propaganda, the Nazis were able to carry out their evil intentions with relatively little resistance.”

The usual suspects denounced Carson, including the folks at the Anti-Defamation League.

In fact, the ADL actually made the case for Carson when National Director Jonathan Greenblatt said, “The small number of personal firearms available to Germany’s Jews in 1938 could in no way have stopped the totalitarian power of the Nazi German state.”

Exactly!

Notice that Dr. Carson did not say that Hitler would not have attempted to eliminate the Jews if the Jews had been armed, as some news outlets have claimed.

Instead of apologizing, as most conservatives would have done, Carson defended his comments: “I think the likelihood of Hitler being able to accomplish his goals would have been greatly diminished if the people had been armed. I’m telling you there is a reason these dictatorial people take guns first.”

A new book has been published that delves into the history of the period that will go a long way to clear up a great deal of confusion on the topic.

“Based on newly-discovered, secret documents from German archives, diaries and newspapers of the time, Gun Control in the Third Reich presents the definitive, yet hidden history of how the Nazi regime made use of gun control to disarm and repress its enemies and consolidate power. The countless books on the Third Reich and the Holocaust fail even to mention the laws restricting firearms ownership, which rendered political opponents and Jews defenseless. A skeptic could surmise that a better-armed populace might have made no difference, but the National Socialist regime certainly did not think so — it ruthlessly suppressed firearm ownership by disfavored groups.”

When it was too late for the Jews, many of whom were in shut-off ghettos so they could be easily controlled, attempts were made to procure weapons. The Warsaw Ghetto uprising also led directly to the Polish uprising against the Nazi regime, which forced massive redeployment of Nazi military resources. Similarly, revolts in death camps did redirect resources from the Nazi regime, allowed some fighters to escape, and in one case, even led to the Nazis razing a death camp.” (H/T: Breitbart).

Spend an evening watching The Pianist (2002), “based on the autobiographical book The Pianist, a World War II memoir by the Polish-Jewish pianist and composer Władysław Szpilman.” There’s a scene where Szpilman “takes part in the smuggling of weapons into the ghetto.”

There are several take-away lessons from the film: (1) the government is here to help and save you (why do we need guns to protect ourselves?); (2) it can’t happen here, (3) losing some of our freedoms isn’t the end of the world, (4) it won’t get any worse, (5), we still have time to get out.