“An Illinois state senator wants a gun advocacy group to apologize for comparing alleged attacks on gun owners to the actions of Nazi Germany,” chicagotribune.com reports. “In the April issue of GunNews, publisher Guns Save Life uses a gold Star of David with an article that compares the treatment of Jews during the Holocaust with that of Illinois gun owners battling to keep their names private.” Lee Williams at the Illinois Policy Institute penned the piece in question: Foid Card Lunacy. Since the controversy blew up, Williams’ peeps pulled the article from gunsavelife.com. It’s still on the IPI’s site, with the Nazi reference edited out . . .
The the Champaign County Rifle Association runs the website that published the piece with the reference to Nazi gun control. President John Boch told TTAG “the story’s gone nuclear.” But Boch will not be moved. He’s replaced the article with an Oleg Volk image [above].
“There’s a clear link between disarmament and genocide,” Boch asserted. “The Supreme Court’s McDonald decision made that point . . . To condemn the article as ‘trivializing the Holocaust’ is to trivialize the importance of the Second Amendment . . . It’s high time Illinois fully restored our gun rights.”
[Click here for an explanation of Godwin’s law]
Referring to your opponents as Nazis is an excellent barometer for someone who has nothing left to argue.
That’s clearly not the case here, as there are plenty of good arguments to make regarding Illinois gun rights. Seems like a stupid tack to take.
That is a very popular defense among those who are advocates of Nazi-like policies which are very common in our fascist nation as we decline into a totalitarian police state.
Nevertheless, it’s usually true. This is an unusual case of someone on the right playing the Nazi card. The vast majority of Nazi accusations are hurled by those on the left trying to demonize righties. They seem to forget that the Nazis were otherwise known as the National Socialists.
In any case, I choose to take the charitable view that you weren’t also accusing me of “advocating Nazi-like policies.”
A false charge of a Godwin’s law violaton is often used to discredit a legitimate argument. Godwin’s law does not apply when you compare someone’s position with an actual Nazi policy. It seems to me in this case it’s a wash. Armed Israelis do successful defend their lives while disarmed Jews perished in the Holocaust. Armed Jews in the Warsaw Ghetto held off the SS supermen for a month.
Dumb move. There are so many other instances in history where a dictatorship has disarmed its populace to retain power. I was at the History of the Horse exhibit at the Chicago Filed Museum, and in one of the first parts, they talked about a Japanese dynasty disarming the public and staying in control for another 300 yrs. Bringing up Nazis and WWII instantly frames the argument as an emotional, mud slinging when it ought to be about infringement of our rights, and the ability of the law abiding to protect themselves from the lawless.
Additionally, the IL house is voting next week. This is what the anti-right to carry have been waiting for and the IL MSM will probably run with this. Very bad timing
All of this is needless blah, blah, blah….no way Lyin’ Quinn would ever sign the bill. No way.
71 votes in the House, and it won’t matter. If it passes the Senate, it will become law without Quinn’s signature.
Jews For the Preservation of Firearms Ownership consistently makes the same point and doesn’t mince words while doing so. I’m fine with this approach. Truth is truth and shouldn’t be sugar-coated.
Truth is truth and shouldn’t be sugar coated.
Straight from the TTAG bible.
Well, it’s kind of true, and it’s nice to see someone use gun-grabbers’ and the like’s usual rhetoric against them for a change. Heck, I would have probably found some way to get a “think of the children!” in there somewhere, too.
You took the words right out of Mrs. Lovejoy’s mouth.
A classic. 🙂
It’s exciting times right now, to say the least. The story is now in its third newscycle/day and continues to grow exponentially.
Just a couple of points before I have to get back to work:
I’ve had close to a dozen calls of support, mostly from people either I don’t know or have never spoken with before, including Mr. Farago. Many thanks to him for giving me feedback after I sounded a couple of ideas off him.
The Sun-Times has now hosted our April 2011 issue of GunNews, adding to the big (BIG) spike of hits our website has gotten. Tons of people are downloading the issue and reading it for themselves. A couple of the callers have said their check for membership is in the mail… they had no idea we existed before now, but they are delighted to have found us. Thanks Sun-Times. And thanks Senator Silverstein.
I remarked to one fellow that we couldn’t have bought this kind of coverage for $100,000. Thank you Lord. Everything happens for a reason.
I think the next turn is going to be a two-pronged attack: first, I’m going to ask why the media gives a pass to the Brady Campaign for the imagery in their advertisement that suggests gun owners are out to murder little schoolgirls and second, how the mantra of survivors and those who care deeply about the Holocaust should be “Never Forget” and “Never Again”, not “Stick your head in the sand and whimper when you see Holocaust imagery”. Silverstein’s own words that he finds the image “scary” does NOT speak for the courage that Holocaust survivors have exhibited for over seventy years.
Thanks and all the best.
John
Hitler was a lowlife madman who disarmed anyone he hated and then he murdered them. These morons don’t like the truth so they have to invent excuses to prove their point.
I don’t think Godwin’s law applies when the analogy actually applies. In that case, I think it’s just an analogy.
Ah, Champaign County; fun times. I went to college there, and never really worried about King Barry pushing draconian gun laws because he knows his own state (sans Chicagoland) would be first in line to secede.
I kind of agree with a couple of commenters that this campaign would have been better served avoiding the Nazi thing in favor of another “disarm them, then oppress the hell out of them” situation like feudal Scotland or Japan, OTOH most people don’t know jack about history and wouldn’t get the joke. One of the reasons Godwin is so ubiquitous is it’s one of the few well-documented historical conflicts in the public consciousness. So, eh.
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