By: Teresa Mull

In 2013, Red Sox right-fielder J.D. Martinez posted to Instagram an image of Hitler doing the Nazi salute alongside a quote that read, “To conquer a nation, First disarm it’s (sic) citizens.”

“This is why I always stay strapped! #thetruth,” Martinez added as a caption.
Now, more than five years later, Martinez is feeling the heat for expressing his opposition to gun control. But he’s not backing down.

“I saw it and I posted it,” Martinez said. “I had no intent to offend anyone, but it was mostly just to state a point — a political point at the time that I believe in. … I stand by the Constitution and the Second Amendment. It’s something that I take pride in, and it’s something that I’ll back up.”


“Martinez, who is Cuban-American, said most of his family was forced to flee their country under Cuban dictator Fidel Castro, and it was with that experience in mind that Martinez shared the ominous quote on social media,” ESPN reported.

“As most of you guys know I’m Cuban-American, and most of my family was run out of Cuba because of a brutal dictator,” Martinez said. “It’s terrible. It’s one of those things where I’ll never get to meet some of my family because of it.”

As a reminder, and as National Review reported in 2013, “In 1933, the ultimate extremist group, led by Adolf Hitler, seized power and used the [gun registration] records to identify, disarm, and attack political opponents and Jews. Constitutional rights were suspended, and mass searches for and seizures of guns and dissident publications ensued. Police revoked gun licenses of Social Democrats and others who were not ‘politically reliable.’”

Teresa Mull is editor of Gunpowder Magazine. Contact her at [email protected].