Joe the Plumber on the Holocaust

Ohio Congressional candidate Samuel Wurzelbacher, aka “Joe the Plumber,” uploaded a controversial YouTube video Monday linking the Holocaust and the Armenian genocide to gun control.

“I’m just stating the fact that history is very important — people need to understand what happened. Different countries around the world have tried to disarm their citizens, and then have tried to exterminate their own now-unarmed citizens,” Wurzelbacher told POLITICO, citing Turkey, Russia and Germany as examples.


“In 1911, Turkey established gun control,” Wurzelbacher says in the video, while obliterating fruit with shotgun blasts. “From 1915 to 1917, 1.5 million Armenians, unable to defend themselves, were exterminated. In 1939, Germany established gun control. From 1939 to 1945, six million Jews and seven million others, unable to defend themselves, were exterminated.”

To conclude the 40-second video, he says to the camera, “I love America.”

Wurzelbacher told POLITICO he has no sympathy for those who might be offended by his message.

“If people are looking to be offended by this video, they are probably serving a political agenda. Unfortunately there are a lot of whiners out there,” the Ohio Republican said in an interview. “The Second Amendment essentially allows us Americans to make sure that we keep our rights. It’s very important to make sure we sustain it.”

Wurzelbacher is running against Rep. Marcy Kaptur (D-Ohio) for a seat in Congress.