Ben Carson is sticking to his guns that the Holocaust would have been limited if more guns were available to the victims. This shows his ignorance of both the Holocaust and the low value of small firearms.
The nonsense of limiting the Holocaust with small arms.
The first flames of the holocaust kindled on Kristallnacht (Night of the broken glass) in 1938 sparked by a Jew using a gun to shoot a German ambassador for the persecution of Jews.
The Nazis retaliated. They burned Jewish businesses (the broken glass littering the streets) and synagogues. They killed hundreds and arrested tens of thousands of Jews. If the victims had guns they would have been reluctant to use them for fear of worse brutality on them and their families. The use of guns would have given the Nazi Storm troopers and mobs a green light to massacre more Jews.
After the conquest of Poland, hundreds of thousands of Jews were herded into the Warsaw ghetto. If the German Army could destroy the Polish army with over a million troops, what could those Jews do with handguns and rifles if they had them? Their families were hostage to suffer retaliation. Not knowing just how bad things would get, these victims had to choose between cooperating and hoping to survive to sure suffering and deaths fighting hopeless odds.
On June 22, 1941 when the Nazis attacked the Soviet Union, everyone knew the German Army and Air Force had destroyed the Polish and French armies. They started to do the same to the Soviet armed forces.
Hitler formed “Special Action Squads” to follow the conquering armies for the mass shooting of Jews. Hitler later made the “Final Solution” official in February, 1942 building highly efficient death camps.
Guns would have done the victims no good for these reasons:
Victims did not know what was planned. Who could imagine that modern humanity could descend to such evil? Germany was an advanced nation and a Christian nation. Christianity preaches to “love thy neighbor”. Wasn't Christ a Jew?
If they were warned what was coming, they would probably have thought it was anti-German propaganda. How could anything like mass extermination of hundreds of thousands to millions of people be true?
The Nazis could have ordered all firearms turned over within 24 hours. Those who were caught keeping them would be shot with their families.
Rewards could have been offered to Jews and non Jews to inform on those keeping any firearms.
The sellers of guns and ammunition would have to reveal who had firearms or be shot themselves. So would those who didn't turn in their neighbors.
The Nazis would do mass executions of hundreds of people for every German soldier killed. This was routine. In 1942, they wiped the village of Lidice, Czechoslavakia off of the map in retaliation for the assassination of Reinhard Heydrich.
Small arms were used in the Warsaw ghetto uprising in April, 1943. This was a gallant act of desperation, but didn't stop the killing.
At the Treblinka death camp uprising in October, 1943 by those forced to run the camp, they used captured weapons and knew full well what was going on. They also outnumbered the SS guards. This is hardly comparable to privately owned guns.
It is easy to see how small civilian guns would not have limited much of anything. There was only hope to somehow survive another persecution. That failed for millions.
The false sense of security from small firearms.
What is pathetic and dangerous about the thinking of Ben Carson and gun lovers is the false sense of security owning guns creates.
For matters of self defense and home security, guns can create more dangers than they protect from. Stories of family members shooting other family members or themselves are common. The guns for mass shootings often come from the home.
The 2nd Amendment was written when we had no standing army. Citizens wanted guns to hunt, fight native Americans for their land; keep down slaves and fight a possible tyrannical government.
In 1776, it was possible to revolt against a government with pistols and rifles when they were among the most powerful weapons. Even then, the American revolution succeeded because France supported it with warships and cannon after a long dragged out war.
Today, handguns, rifles and even assault weapons are no match for a government's tanks, armored personnel carriers, machine guns, helicopter gunships and attack aircraft. A real tyranny with a secret police would be able to round up guns and terrorize the population.
Too many gun lovers don't understand this.
Real defense against domestic tyranny.
We have only one domestic defense against tyranny. It is citizens reading and studying issues(not just watching the watered down TV news) and doing something.
All that is necessary for evil to triumph is that the good do nothing.
This means working within the parties all year long and voting in the primaries and general elections. It also means keeping after our elected representatives. Eternal vigilance!
With all of our guns, we have all but lost our democracy. Corruption from campaign contributions and the Citizens United court ruling are turning our government into a corporate state tyranny. A small elite is plundering us with things from outrageously expensive healthcare to the destruction of the planet. What good are the guns doing? This new tyranny gets around the guns.
Democracy doesn't work. We have to make it work.