I'm not yet done with the first section of the book, dealing with the Weimar Republic that was established right after WWI.
WWI left a power vacuum, with many groups trying to move into positions of power. There were multiple groups that fought gun battles in the streets, trying to consolidate power.
The Weimar Republic passed laws allowing the various "provinces" to register and seize firearms. The urbanized areas were a lot more excited about that than the rural areas were. One worry was keeping the registration records safe, so they "didn't fall into the wrong hands".
When Hitler came to power, officials of the old Weimar Republic were probably just a little regretful. The Nazis then inherited all those registration records, and the first people they disarmed were officials of the old Weimar Republic.
Overall, it's not a pretty picture: political gun battles in the streets, systematic destruction of private firearm ownership (which did nothing to quell the violence), and Bavaria actually being a Communist republic for several months.
While I'm still pretty confident in our country, I also have to realize that there is nothing magical about it that would prevent such events here given the right circumstances.
