Controversial gun comments involve religion, Hitler and the Holocaust

The gun control debate in Washington State now involves religion, Hitler and the Holocaust. Jewish groups are angry because the N-R-A compared local gun control to the Nazis.

The remarks come from National Rifle Association lobbyist Brian Judy. They were captured by the HA Seattle blog as Judy spoke at a gathering of people opposed to Initiative 594, which requires expanded background checks for gun buyers in Washington state. Judy criticized billionaire financier Nick Hanauer, who is Jewish, for supporting 594.

“He's put a half million dollars toward the same policy that led to his family getting run out of Germany by the Nazis,” Judy said in video posted on the website.

Judy sounds astonished that any Jews would support gun control, after the Nazi holocaust killed 6 million Jews.

“It's like any Jewish people I meet who are anti-gun...” Judy says in the video, “Why did that happen?  Because they registered guns and then they took them.”

There was no response to the phone and email messages we left for Judy, but we were able to talk to the locally based leader of the Second Amendment Foundation, another large national gun rights group.

“I don't see anything wrong with those remarks,” said Alan Gottlieb, who is Jewish.  “It's a historical fact that Adolf Hitler registered people's firearms and then confiscated them.”

Last year The Associated Press reported that Hitler actually loosened gun laws for most Germans, but did move to confiscate the weapons owned by Jews.

“Gun owners don't like the idea that Jewish people had to have, you know, numbers tattooed and registered on their arms. They don't like the fact that they have gun owners get registered either, they feel put in the same position,” Gottlieb went on to say.

The Jewish Federation of Seattle renewed its call for Judy to resign Tuesday.

“The Holocaust happened because of a culture of hate, because of ignorance,” said Keith Dvorchik, CEO of the Federation. “The belief that 'if only the Jews had guns they could have stopped it' doesn't hold water."

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