In Germany, before the Jews and other "undesirables" were rounded up into the camps, gun registration was in place. To quote Aaron Zelman, president of the Jews for the Protection of Firearms Ownership, "If you were to study the Weimar Republic example, you'd see that do-good, feel-good folks felt that if they registered and created a permit system, they could make sure that criminals didn't have guns. The Nazis came to power and took over the registration lists. You can't have confiscation without registration. You have to know where the guns are." THen they passed a law banning those firearms - and came collecting. The people being disarmed, the Nazis started the ghettos and work camps. They did the same thing with the Poles, finding their gun owner registry and confiscating firearms. I would note, however, that Hitler left the Swiss alone. Not by politics, or a respect for their neutrality, but of fear of their citizens - who were all firearms owners, and trained in their use. The prospect against fighting not just an army but every man, woman, and child in Switzerland kept them free, fat, and happy - and enormously prosperous. In 1918, the Communists in the new Soviet Socialist Republics also began a gun-registration plan, and soon came knocking.

Ah, you say, but those are facist, communist, EVIL pig-dog regimes, and that things like that cannot happen in the west?

Canada, our dear neighbors to the north, passed registration laws for handgunners in 1934. They promised that confiscation was never the goal - and for a time, people believed it. Alas, in the mid 1990s, the Canadian government banned nearly half the firearms in the country. And going about it slowly, as the firearms owners die the guns must be turned in. No passing to your children or family or friends. The Canadian Firearms Act of 1995 requires licensing for long guns as of Jan 1 this year, and registration in 2K3. And the Canadian Supreme Court upheld the law. Here's the interesting thing - the central provinces of Saskatchewan, Alberta, and Manitoba are refusing to enforce the law. This is unprecedented in Canadian history, and hopefully it will spread - but don't count on it.

Australia, a fine fine country, was well known for its access to firearms and relatively low crime rate because of it. However, the Port Arthur massacre of 1996 quickly changed that. The basics - a mental patient was released from a state-run hospital, for unknown reasons. He quickly went to gun stores in the area, trying to buy any kind of firearms he could. The store owners refused to sell him anything, threw him out, and reported him to the Tasmanian PD - which did nothing. Eventually, he did acquire two guns, and went on a rampage in a park in Port Arthur, killing 32 people. There are reports from Australia that the police spent two hours watching him through sniper scopes before he was finally arrested - during this time, they watched him kill 3 more people. The police were warned. The police watched him kill. What happened to this man? He's back in a mental hospital. Two weeks after this shooting, the politicians promised to keep Australia safe from evil criminals. Laws were passed banning many firearms, and with the gun licensing and registration that had been enacted by anti-gun politicians previously, the government simply posted notices to turn in firearms in two more weeks. Law abiding citizens, knowing that the government had registration lists of what guns they had, did - 640,000 firearms were destroyed. Criminals, for whom guns come unregistered, did not turn in their guns, nor did they need to - and the government did not know that they had it. In one month, homicides were up 8%, and assaults were up 44%. The crime rate continues to rise fairly quickly - but the government refuses to remove it.

In England, gun licensing and registration went into effect. Over time, slowly, the Tommies had the screws tightened. Just a little here, and a little there, but now it's virtually illegal to own any kind of firearm - even a single-shot shotgun. A polite, elderly (70+) English gent still had his, hidden away when the bobbies came knocking. It's fortunate, because a little while later his house gets broken into in the middle of the night. He used the shotgun to defend his life from an armed man (his weapon escapes me, I believe it was a knife) and protect his home from a lethal threat. He will now die in prison, being convicted for the crime of murder for trying to save his life. That may be an isolated case, but go look up crime reports in England - it's pretty shocking.

And even here in the United States, where firearms ownership OF ALL KINDS is not only a law, but framed in the constitution tantamount to a God-given right, the process has begun. In 1967, the city of New York passed a rifle and shotgun registration act, promising it would not lead to confiscation. In 1991, the city passed an assault rifle ban, with no grandfathering. Send in the cops. One man in Staten Island refused to comply with the city ban, and his house was raided and he was arrested. Simply for refusing to follow an unconstitutional law. Spot-checks of random homes are planned now, to ensure compliance. California, another fine democratic stronghold and liberal Mecca, also passed an "assault weapons" registration, then very quickly banned them. In fact, the new ban on CA handguns is to the point where, out of each shipment of guns that the gun store purchases (with their own money), they must give some to the government to "test" for public safety. They also cannot buy, sell, or trade any firearm that does not have a manual safety(eliminiating effectively all revolvers, some H&K guns, and glocks). There's also a huge laundry-list of firearms that you cannot buy, sell, or transfer either. And the registration of assault weapons I mentioned? Whoops, the CA government changed its mind, this year they're illegal. You also cannot buy, sell, or transfer any magazine that carries more than 10 rounds. And, as I mentioned before, "high power" ammunition is banned in Los Angeles. AGAIN - I point to the crime rates - how many of you in the big cities don't find it to be very strange when nearly every night there's a report of someone gunned down or another robbery at such-and-such a store, because it's so passe now?

Just to prove once and for all that guns DO NOT cause crime - in Massachusetts, they're slapping themselves on the back over the latest gun laws to go in. But, the police are left scratching their heads over a very, and I quote, "surprising side effect" - a huge surge in the sale of knives on the street and an increase in knife-related assaults/crimes, to the point where more than HALF of Boston homicides last year were done by the blade. There's a city law in Boston that prohibits sale of knives of any kind to people under 18, but there are still school stabbings - including a fatal assault on an 11 year old Springfield boy. Had it been a gun, it would be the top news story, again. What does the city council want to do? Make those knife sales illegal. But aren't they already?

Your government wants you disarmed. There is no other explanation for the consistent denials of truth and spreading of lies from certain well-known Congressmen and -women. Charles Schumer of New York and "Auntie" Dianne Feinsten of San Diego, CA lead the charge to strip you of your God-given, constitutionally-protected rights as a free human being. My only question, one which they refuse to yet give an honest answer to, is WHY.