The Right to Carry
Posted By shirley on January 7, 2010
As a California native, this pending bill pertains a lot to me. And as an Armenian, it also means a lot to me. Armenians were not allowed to carry guns in Turkey and in fact, there was a time right before the genocide started that the Turkish government demanded they turn in all weapons. Armenians were so frightened that they borrowed weapons to turn them in so as to show good faith. But it was all for naught as the government was only ensuring the soon to be orders to take Armenians from their homes and march them into the desert would be accomplished with little or no resistance. The plan worked and the deserts filled with the bones of Armenians prove it.
Therefore, I ask Californians to call their congresspeople to approve this bill:
Right-to-Carry Bill Scheduled to be Heard Next Week!
Please Contact the Members of the Assembly Public Safety Committee Today!
Assembly Bill 357 is scheduled to be heard by the Assembly Committee on Public Safety on Tuesday, January 12.
AB357, sponsored by Assembly Member Steve Knight (R-36), would create a “shall issue” concealed handgun permit system in California. Under current law, an applicant must show cause as to why they should be issued a permit to carry a concealed handgun for self-defense. AB357 would remove that stipulation and require sheriffs to issue the license if all other mandated criteria are satisfied.
Please contact the members of the Assembly Committee on Public Safety TODAYand respectfully urge them to support AB357. Contact information can be found below.
Assembly Member Jose Solorio (D-69) – Chair
(916) 319-2069
Assemblymember.solorio@assembly.ca.gov
Assembly Member Curt Hagman (R-60) – Vice Chair
(916) 319-2060
Assemblymember.Hagman@assembly.ca.gov
Assembly Member Warren T. Furutani (D-55)
(916) 319-2055
Assemblymember.Furutani@assembly.ca.gov
Assembly Member Danny D. Gilmore (R-30)
(916) 319-2030
Assemblymember.Gilmore@assembly.ca.gov
Assembly Member Jerry Hill (D-19)
(916) 319-2019
Assemblymember.Hill@assembly.ca.gov
Assembly Member Fiona Ma (D-12)
(916) 319-2012
Assemblymember.Ma@assembly.ca.gov
Assembly Member Nancy Skinner (D-14)
(916) 319-2014
For Christmas my son gave me a history of the Ottoman Empire. I’ve been skipping around and reading different sections, including the one on the Armenian genocide.
During WWI the Ottomans disarmed their Armenians combat units. Fighting was raging along the Ottoman-Russian border which runs through the Armenian heartland. The Tsarists Russian called on the Ottoman Armenians to rise up even though the Russians were utterly incapable of providing support or protection for the Armenians.
The Ottomans decided they could no longer trust their Armenian troops, disarmed them, and sent them to the rear as support troops.
Those Armenian soldiers would have been the few Armenians who could have offered effective armed resistance to the genocide.
That also exposes the lie that the Ottomans only wished to evacuate the Armenians from the zone of conflict. Had they really cared about the Armenians, they could have rearmed the Armenian troops and assigned them as an armed escort for the evacuees and to provide armed protection when they were relocated in other parts of the Ottoman Empire. Armed Armenian soldiers and police would have been the only ones who could be trusted to have protected Armenian civilians from other Ottomans, mostly Muslim Turks and Kurds, who were committing violence against Armenians.
The tragic recent history of the Kurds is another example of the ineffectiveness of small, light weapons against modern military with heavy weapons, armored vehicles, and combat aircraft and helicopters. The Iranians, Iraqi, and Turkish militaries have repeatedly massacred Kurds after crushing uprisings by the lightly armed Kurds.
Only when the United States military provided a shield did t he repeated massacres of the Iraqi Kurds cease.
One of the reasons some Jewish-Americans consider the United States a second homeland of the Jewish people is that Jewish-Americans feel safe. While there are occasional tragic lapses by local police, the American military and police are loyal to the Constitution and can be trusted to protect all Americans. That is why there never has been an anti-Jewish pogrom in the United States.
If our nation deteriorated to the point that genocide was being committed on our citizens, almost everyone who would use their guns to resist would be immediately killed. A very few might be able to use their guns to escape into safe hiding or exile.
The tragic lessons of history are that individual gun ownership will not be able to prevent or effectively resist a Holocaust against Jewish-Americans or genocide against Armenian-Americans. The rule of law enforced by our trustworthy police and military will.
Thank you for your interesting comments. Leonard, I would be interested in knowing what book you are reading and who the author is.
As far as the Ottoman government arming the Armenian soldiers to protect other Armenians, it would not have been feasible to the Turkish government. It is my understanding that there were, in fact, several armed resistance groups desiring autonomy that were actively involved in fighting the government for their independence. Of course this would not have been a widespread act amongst all the Armenian people throughout the empire.
Russia had already stepped in and helped facilitate an independent Armenia. The Turkish government considered these resistance groups as an annoyance and an impediment to their grandiose plans of restoring the seventh-century Caliphate. See: http://tinyurl.com/y8vyex7
Ottoman Turkey was already in a tailspin downfall and they feared losing even more of their conquered lands. Previously, Armenians were not allowed in the Turkish army. Why they were suddenly inducted is a curiosity. Although, the report from my grandfather’s own account, along with others, that there were orders given to kill all the Armenians in the army could very well have been part of the plan of extermination.
My grandfather stated that he escaped from the army on 3 occasions when he was informed of the orders to kill all Armenians.
You are correct to state that this proves the Ottoman government’s statement to be false, that they were only trying to relocate the Armenian people.
Thank you for your comments.
For Christmas my son gave me “Osman’s Dream: the history of the Ottoman Empire” by Caroline Finkel written in 2005.
More on that later.
I imagine the Ottomans finally decided to draft the Armenians and all other non-Turkish minorities because of the growing crisis they faced in WWI . The Turks were fighting the British and French at Gallipoli outside of Istanbul,fighting the British along the Suez Canal and later in Palestine and in what is now Iraq, and fighting the Russians along their common border in the Armenian heartland.
Did the Ottomans also use their Armenian troops against the Russians? I imagine the Russians also had Armenian troops as Armenians live on both sides of the border. That may have led to tragic confrontations as were occurring in further west where Polish troops in the German and Austrian armies face Polish troops in the Tsarist Russian army.
The Turks with German support defeated the Russians and drove them back.That was what I was referring to when I said the Russians encouraged Armenian independence but were unable to support and protect those who rose up.
Germany was Turkey’s closest ally and made possible Turkey’s defeat of Russia. Many German officers were advisingor commanding Turkish troops in the areas where the genocide occurred
Do you think the Germans have been avoiding their share of responsibility for the Armenian genocide? German officers had to have witnessed it. Did they do nothing to stop or did they go as far as to have taken part in it? As the Germans proved a few years later, they were very capable of genocide.