{"id":396,"date":"2018-02-28T23:15:20","date_gmt":"2018-03-01T04:15:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.gopplaybook.com\/?p=396"},"modified":"2018-03-02T23:29:59","modified_gmt":"2018-03-03T04:29:59","slug":"guns-could-have-saved-jews-from-the-holocaust-alaska-congressman-says","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.gopplaybook.com\/?p=396","title":{"rendered":"Guns could have saved Jews from the Holocaust, Alaska congressman says"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Dmitri Shein, a Democrat seeking Rep. Don Young\u2019s seat, recorded the comments at a conference last week in Juneau. A question about school safety preceded the statement.\u00a0<\/span>Dmitri Shein for Congress<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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BY DON SWEENEY<\/h3>\n<\/div>\n
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dsweeney@sacbee.com<\/a><\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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February 28, 2018<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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An Alaska congressman has argued that Jews could have averted the Holocaust if they\u2019d been armed.<\/p>\n

\u201cHow many millions of people were shot and killed because they were unarmed? Fifty million in Russia,\u201d says Rep. Don Young, R-Alaska on a recording made by a Democrat running for Young\u2019s seat. \u201cHow many Jews were put in the ovens because they were unarmed?\u201d<\/p>\n

Dmitri Shein, a Democrat seeking Young\u2019s seat,\u00a0recorded the comments<\/a>\u00a0at a conference last week in Juneau, reported Alaska Public Media. Shein asked Young about school safety, prompting the exchange.<\/p>\n

The argument that\u00a0gun control eased Adolf Hitler\u2019s rise<\/a>\u00a0in Germany before World War II has circulated among gun-rights advocates for years, even appearing in a National Review article.<\/p>\n

The Anti-Defamation League, however, has called the claim outlandish.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is\u00a0mind-bending to suggest<\/a>\u00a0that personal firearms in the hands of the small number of Germany\u2019s Jews (about 214,000 remaining in Germany in 1938) could have stopped the totalitarian onslaught of Nazi Germany when the armies of Poland, France, Belgium and numerous other countries were overwhelmed by the Third Reich,\u201d Jonathan Greenblatt, national director of the Anti-Defamation League wrote in a 2015 opinion piece for the Huffington Post.<\/p>\n

The Anti-Defamation League also posted to Twitter on Wednesday to denounce Young\u2019s remarks.<\/p>\n

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Rep. Nita Lowey, D-N.Y., who is Jewish, also condemned Young\u2019s comments Wednesday on Twitter.<\/p>\n

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Murphy McCollough, a Young spokesperson, told NBC News the congressman\u2019s remarks had been taken\u00a0out of context<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe was referencing the fact that when Hitler confiscated firearms from Jewish Germans, those communities were less able to defend themselves,\u201d McCollough said. \u201cHe was not implying that an armed Jewish population would have been able to prevent the horrors of the Holocaust, but his intended message is that disarming citizens can have detrimental consequences.\u201d<\/p>\n

Young, 84, who is Alaska\u2019s only member of the House of Representatives, was first elected to Congress in 1973. Young is a National Rifle Association board member.<\/p>\n

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