>>I think you'd find a lot of the 'gun nuts' in the US would not have a problem with the kind of system of registration and responsibility you describe. I have no problem whatsoever with registering my guns and being required to have a permit to carry. Good law. Distinguishes between those who plan to use their guns lawfully and those who don't. You can't get rid of privately owned guns in a culture like ours, but you sure can make life miserable for those who use them criminally.
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>>Arm good guys, jail bad guys. Not rocket science.
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>The point was that no matter how good the law and how many pieces are on the streets, when they come to get you, they will. That repetition of "were rounded up and executed" sounds like it was a p'ing match, and if the guys were just a bit stronger in the dickometry department, they'd have survived. Fat chance - the main reason so many people were caught was that they didn't run. Them having weapons would only help later, in case they wanted to organize a counter-rebellion or something. But shooting their way out of an arrest is ridiculous, and would only make the dark forces act with less restraint in the next case.

Point is well taken, in the face of grand State terror. But the terror only was able to happen because of the thousands of small terrors that preceded it, and went unopposed. Kristalnacht was an act of the bullying of the defenseless. A cossack charging down the streets of the shtetl knew he would not be shot off his horse. When the thug yanks open the door he doesn't expect a shotgun blast.

The plight of Europe's Jews was unique, in that there were a lot of cultural issues that factored in. A gun is only as effective as the will to use it. And the will is sometimes weakened by the failure of civilized, decent people to recognize that there is such a thing as evil beyond their imagining. But when the realization dawns - imagine the Warsaw ghetto with more than a few handguns. The outcome may have been the same, but the message may have been different.