As @Nathan Cooper indicated, under Hitler, most of the civil weapons legislation was not actually Hitler's - he inherited strong gun control laws from Weimar Republic (aside from total prohibition for the Jews since 1938).

However, the laws were written in a way that allowed pretty much unlimited restrictions and limitations by people in power:

• Guns were required to have serial numbers

• anybody owning one without a serial number had to have one stamped on it.
• Permitting was mostly left up to the police.
• Permits were only given to people of "undoubted reliability" who demonstrated a "need" for a gun (Hello from New York City).

Note the laxensess of definitions. The last bullet point was such that pretty much anyone you didn't want to have a gun wouldn't have one.

A very detailed discussion is in the second half of the Straight Dope article here (the first half was mostly devoted to debunking an infamous Hitler's gun control "quote").

As @Nathan Cooper indicated, under Hitler, most of the civil weapons legislation was not actually Hitler's - he inherited strong gun control laws from Weimar Republic (aside from total prohibition for the Jews since 1938).

However, the laws were written in a way that allowed pretty much unlimited restrictions and limitations by people in power, within the framework of that legislation:

• Guns were required to have serial numbers

• anybody owning one without a serial number had to have one stamped on it.
• Permitting was mostly left up to the police.
• Permits were only given to people of "undoubted reliability" who demonstrated a "need" for a gun (Hello from New York City).

Note the laxensess of definitions. The last bullet point was such that pretty much anyone you didn't want to have a gun wouldn't have one.

A very detailed discussion is in the second half of the Straight Dope article here (the first half was mostly devoted to debunking an infamous Hitler's gun control "quote").