By Major Van Harl USAF Ret
Wisconsin –-(Ammoland.com)- Do you remember Sgt. Rock and Easy Company with the WWII era comic book heroes, that as far as I can tell never lost a battle with our nation’s enemies?
I can remember reading Sgt. Rock comic books as early as 1961. The Sgt. Rock character was first introduced in 1959. In 1964 we moved to Scotland and American comic books were harder to come by so I started to read British WWII era comic books. Their soldiers also always won.
Sometime in 1965-66 I read a British WWII comic book with a Sci-Fi twist that really got my attention. The comic book story starts at the end of WWII in defeated Nazi Germany. A “mad scientist” puts a large group of German soldiers into some sort of state of suspended animation and sealed the hibernating Nazis, along with all their weapons and ammunition, inside a cave.
Twenty years later all of Europe has disarmed to include England. There are no firearms for the military, police and of course the civilian population to defend themselves with. The cave is accidently opened and the sleeping German soldiers awake to discover a completely disarmed world.
So you guessed it, the slightly sleepy Nazis immediately melted down their weapons into plows and shovels and became outstanding German farmers. Well, not exactly.
In the comic book the English Channel Tunnel was thirty years ahead of schedule and when the Nazi soldiers found out, they mounted their Tiger tanks and drove all to London to finally finish WWII with Germany winning after all. The hero of the story is a young English lad who has a keen interest in weapons. Even in a totally disarmed country some good people still want firearms. The boy has an older friend who has (unbeknownst to the British government) a private weapons collection. He gives the lad access to the museum quality weapons and explosives and the young boy starts his own personal battle to stop the invading Nazis, twenty years after they were supposed to be completely conquered and pacified.
Because everyone else foolishly believes the world is free of the violence of firearms, even grown adults do not know how to defend themselves.
Just as in liberal anti-gun politics of today, the fictional characters of the 1965 gun-free utopia believe all is well, and if not, the “government” will come and save you. All you had to do in 1965 England was dial 999. Where do you think the US got its 9-1-1 system idea from? Never go to a gun fight with a knife; never go to a knife fight with an empty hand. So I guess going to a gun fight against well-armed Nazis, who are battle hardened soldiers, using your cricket bat will most likely not work very well.
The comic book was fiction, but the unarmed citizens in some African village can do little with sticks and rocks against Muslim violence as they kill who they want, and drag off the women for later “sport.”
Why do you think there is so much violence in Mexico? The average good citizen of Mexico cannot own a firearm. This rule of course does not apply to the drug cartels. So Mr. Gomez is prohibited from stopping at a Mexico City Wal-Mart and buying a shotgun to defend his family and home. If every good Mexican citizen or African village member owned a long-gun, terrorists and drug lords would have to work a lot harder to subjugate or destroy the innocent masses.
As I recall in the end of the comic book the machine gun toting young English lad saves the day and stops Nazi aggression once and for all. It has been 50 years since I read the comic book so I do not remember what they did with all the firearms after the fighting stopped. Something tells me they did not create an English 2nd amendment and implement open carry of firearms for all law abiding citizens of Great Britain.
Add up just the deer hunting licenses sold in 4-5 U.S. states, and assume there is a long-gun to go with each licensed hunter and you now have the largest army in the world.
Reading that 1965 English comic book at my young age of ten, was a “teachable moment” that I have never forgotten. It did in fact shape my early life and later attitude on the subject of private ownership of weapons. I say weapons not firearms, because in many counties it is automatically assumed and accepted “no guns,” but what some in the US do not understand is “weapon” is almost as dreaded and “bad” as the idea of citizens owning firearms.
Pick up a knife, a club, or even a broom stick to defend yourself from evil, and you are perceived as being the real evil in a gun-free country. Pray you wake up first before old Nazis or new terrorists rise up ahead of you.
Major Van Harl USAF Ret. / [email protected]
About Major Van Harl USAF Ret.:Major Van E. Harl USAF Ret., a career Police Officer in the U.S. Air Force was born in Burlington, Iowa, USA, in 1955. He was the Deputy Chief of police at two Air Force Bases and the Commander of Law Enforcement Operations at another. He is a graduate of the U.S. Army Infantry School. A retired Colorado Ranger and currently is an Auxiliary Police Officer with the Cudahy PD in Milwaukee County, WI. His efforts now are directed at church campus safely and security training. He believes “evil hates organization.” [email protected]