Rep: How Many Jews 'Put Into Ovens' Because They Were Unarmed?

ANCHORAGE, AK — An Alaska congressman's comments that Jewish people were slaughtered by Nazis during the Holocaust because they weren't allowed to have guns has drawn swift condemnation from a national anti-Semitism group and at least one Jewish lawmaker.

Republican U.S. Rep. Don Young was asked a question by Democrat Dimitri Shein — who is running for Young's seat — how he and the government planned to keep kids safe in schools. After Young expressed his support for arming teachers, he had this to say:

"How many millions of people were shot and killed because they were unarmed?" he asked. "Fifty million in Russia because their citizens were unarmed. How many Jews were put into ovens because they were unarmed?"

Young said those who disagreed with his stance were welcome to vote against him. When Shein — who only identified himself at the time as an Anchorage father of six — spoke up and said he would, in fact, vote against the congressman, Young emphatically responded: "That's good!"

Young's comments were roundly condemned, both by Shein and on social media.

Shein told USA Today that Young tried to deflect and avoid answering the school safety question by faulting gun violence on violent video games and referencing the Holocaust. Shein, a Russian immigrant, also told the outlet he found Young's comment that Russians could've avoid mass slayings if they had guns "just insulting."

The Anti-Defamation League, a national organization dedicated to fighting anti-Semitism, challenged Young's assertion about the Holocaust on Twitter.

"Guns, or lack of them, did not cause the Holocaust," the organization said. "The Holocaust was the product of anti-Semitism & other forms of hate. It’s offensive for anyone to manipulate the history of the Holocaust to score political points."

Democratic Rep. Nita Lowey of New York, who is Jewish, called Young's comment "disgusting" and "reprehensible" — not to mention one of the "dumbest things" she has ever heard.

Young, 84, has been in Congress since 1973 and is the longest-serving member in the U.S. House of Representatives. His spokesperson told NBC News the comments were "taken entirely out of context."

"He was referencing the fact that when Hitler confiscated firearms from Jewish Germans, those communities were less able to defend themselves," spokesman Murphy McCollough told the outlet. "He was not implying that an armed Jewish population would have been able to prevent the horrors of the Holocaust, but his intended message is that disarming citizens can have detrimental consequences."

Young also discussed a possible AR-15 ban and seemed to imply such a ban was a slippery slope and could lead to more prohibitions.

"What else you going to ban?" he asked. "The pistol? The shotgun? Then long rifles? Then sling shots? Bows and arrows?

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