JM: The letter only says Dodd got a document translated. It doesn't equate to proof of "near verbatim" grafting of Nazi law into the 1968 Federal Firearms Act.
Some of the 1968 requirements you cite - record keeping, restrictions on types of firearm, restrictions on individuals, etc. - were in the U.S. National Firearm Act of 1934 (predating the Nazi law) and Federal Firearms Act of 1938 (contemporary with the Nazi law). Gun laws in Germany in the 1920s were far worse.
From the day he took power, Hitler had all the legal support he needed for confiscating any and every firearm in Germany. Gun registration and gun owner permits had already been required for years. The police and Gestapo were confiscating guns from Jews as early as 1934.
The 1938 Nazi weapons law was in some ways more liberal than the 1928 German weapons law under the Weimar republic (which, ironically, was intended to disarm the Nazis). Restrictions on long guns were dropped, persons holding a hunting license did not need a weapons permit, age of legal firearms ownership dropped from 20 to 18. The Nazis were strong promoters of firearm training, especially for young people. Their young people.
Sen. Thomas Dodd was a drunkard, a crook and a gun-grabbing fool. But he wasn't so stupid that he had to crib gun control laws from the most hated regime of the 20th century. It doesn't pay to underestimate your enemies.
