Whitney
Regular Member
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/holocaust/peopleevents/pandeAMEX103.html
(April 19 - May 16, 1943)
-- Summary--
The uprising of the Warsaw ghetto in April 1943 came as a complete surprise to the Nazis. A small number of young Jews armed mostly with pistols and a few rifles, hand grenades, and fire bombs offered a strong and desperate resistance to crack SS troops. Many German soldiers were killed or wounded, and only after days of hard fighting and the use of heavy weapons did the Nazis take control of the ghetto. Only a few Jews escaped through the canals; the others, many hundreds, either died during the fighting or were executed in the concentration camps.
Years later, during a TV show commemorating the uprising, one of the few Jewish survivors remarked, "There is one thing I regret very much; I didn't have a sub-machine gun."
To resist tyranny or to make a contribution to the liberation of his own occupied country, a human being, as courageous as he may be, is helpless without weapons.
Even in countries where there is little danger of invasion or foreign occupation and oppression, a new threat is escalating; that of violent crime. In many towns and countries in the most advanced parts of the word, ordinary citizens are at the risk of being assaulted, raped, and often killed. In many regions the police are no longer able to protect the people. Worst of all, many countries forbid ordinary citizens from owning firearms. Criminals, who by definition don't respect laws, have no problem arming themselves and can therefore act with the abandon of a fox in an unguarded hen house.
~Whitney
(April 19 - May 16, 1943)
-- Summary--
The uprising of the Warsaw ghetto in April 1943 came as a complete surprise to the Nazis. A small number of young Jews armed mostly with pistols and a few rifles, hand grenades, and fire bombs offered a strong and desperate resistance to crack SS troops. Many German soldiers were killed or wounded, and only after days of hard fighting and the use of heavy weapons did the Nazis take control of the ghetto. Only a few Jews escaped through the canals; the others, many hundreds, either died during the fighting or were executed in the concentration camps.
Years later, during a TV show commemorating the uprising, one of the few Jewish survivors remarked, "There is one thing I regret very much; I didn't have a sub-machine gun."
To resist tyranny or to make a contribution to the liberation of his own occupied country, a human being, as courageous as he may be, is helpless without weapons.
Even in countries where there is little danger of invasion or foreign occupation and oppression, a new threat is escalating; that of violent crime. In many towns and countries in the most advanced parts of the word, ordinary citizens are at the risk of being assaulted, raped, and often killed. In many regions the police are no longer able to protect the people. Worst of all, many countries forbid ordinary citizens from owning firearms. Criminals, who by definition don't respect laws, have no problem arming themselves and can therefore act with the abandon of a fox in an unguarded hen house.
~Whitney
Unfortunately, it seems our "representatives" must not have paid attention in history class.
