The goal of gun-grabbers in 6 sentences
In 1573 the warlord Oda Nobunaga became shogun of almost all Japan. Upon his assassination a decade later, one of his leading officers, Toyotomi Hideyoshi (“Old Monkey Face”), took his place, and, determined to consolidate his control throughout the empire, sought to eliminate all private arms. On July 8, 1588, he issued his famous “sword hunt” edict: farmers were forbidden “to keep swords, short swords, spears, firearms and other military weapons.” Were they allowed to keep such “unnecessary implements,” the document continued, they would be tempted to “evade their taxes” or even “plot uprisings.” Political spin was then applied: “The swords thus collected will not be wasted. They will be used as nails and bolts in the construction of a Great Image of Buddha.”

Within two years the entire peasantry had been disarmed (although no great statue of Buddha was raised). The measures helped support the new barrier between farmer and warrior, so that the two most important social groups of society were differentiated not only economically, but also by social status, as symbolized by the wearing of swords.

Richard Cohen: “By the Sword” page 142, Random House, New York 2002

Why don’t the sheeple get it?