On Occasion, the Hitler Comparisons are Valid

I rarely refer to people I disagree with as Nazis or compare them to Adolf Hitler.  Usually, those comparisons are hyperbolic and not all that analogous.  Today an exception will be made: There are legitimate parallels to be drawn between Donald Trump and Hitler.

Trump has repeatedly cultivated the support of white supremacists.  He re-tweets them with alarming frequency, including glaringly inaccurate crime statistics that cater to the worst prejudices of white people with a sense of victimization.

Much like Hitler, who played to nationalist sympathies promising to restore Germany to former glory, Trump is promising to "make America great again".

Trump is undoubtedly an authoritarian.  He has openly advocated the commission of war crimes in debates, advocating for torture and the killing of terrorists' families.  He has cheered on violence at his rallies and casually suggested that he wished he could "rough up" journalists.  He has even quoted Mussolini.

For Hitler, the demonized outsiders were Jews, democratic socialists, homosexuals, communists, and the mentally retarded amongst others.  For Trump, the "others" are Muslims and immigrants saying:

"When Mexico sends its people, they're not sending their best," he said. "They're sending people that have lots of problems...they're bringing drugs, they're bringing crime. They're rapists. And some, I assume, are good people."

Trump is often laughed at and not taken particularly seriously (including by myself).  Here's the thing:  Hitler wasn't taken very seriously either.  From my Western Civilization textbook, "...To most, Hitler was simply a right-wing rabble-rouser whose views were not worth taking seriously (p924 Nobel et. al.)."

No, the Nazis Didn't Enact Gun Control to Seize Power

A common theme among the selective-interpretation-of-the-Second-Amendment-enthusiasts is that the Nazis imposed gun control on the German people so they could assume power and rule with an iron fist.  Strictly speaking, Hitler and the Nazis did affect gun control; they made it easier to get guns, with the notable exception of the Jews whom they didn't exactly extend a whole lot of other rights towards.

There was gun control in Germany in 1919 in response to the Treaty of Versailles, which was vehemently opposed by Hitler in Mein Kampf:

Today our left-wing politicians in particular are constantly insisting that their craven-hearted and obsequious foreign policy necessarily results from the disarmament of Germany, whereas the truth is that this is the policy of traitors [...] But the politicians of the Right deserve exactly the same reproach. It was through their miserable cowardice that those ruffians of Jews who came into power in 1918 were able to rob the nation of its arms. 

Then in 1928 Gun Control was addressed again by the Weimar government with the Law on Firearms and Ammunition, which eased some of the restrictions on private gun ownership while simultaneously enacting strict licensing requirements.  It wasn't until 1938 after Hitler had been in power for three years that gun control was addressed again.

The German Weapons Act of 1938, continued to ease many restrictions on firearms in Germany including:

• Gun restrictions only applied to handguns and were removed from long rifles.
• Expanded the groups of people allowed to own guns including lowering the age of firearm possession to 18.
• Gun permit renewal was extended to three years instead of one.
• Jews were forbidden from obtaining a permit to manufacture weapons and ammunition (Forham Law).

The regulations were then extended later in 1938 with the Regulations Against Jews' Possession of Weapons.  That seems self-explanatory.

It never ceases to amaze me how in the age of the internet, with more information accessible to anyone then at any other time in human history, that people can so easily use quasi-factual arguments without being challenged.  Confirmation bias is a bitch.

If you think that gun control is what allowed the Nazis to seize and maintain power then a gun won't help you defend against tyranny, because you're too easily manipulated to begin with.

Sources:
Fordham Law http://ir.lawnet.fordham.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=4029&context=flr

Treaty of Versailles http://web.archive.org/web/20080509145908/http://history.sandiego.edu/gen/text/versaillestreaty/ver159.html