Wednesday, March 13, 2013

Death by Government

And the men who spurred us on
Sit in judgment of all wrong
They decide and the shotgun sings the song
--The Who

Nice little video on the perils of surrendering guns to government. It cites data from University of Hawaii professor Rudolph Rummel who has spent much of his research career studying murder committed by government (what he terms 'democide').

In the 20th century, leading democidal regimes included:

Communist China 76.6 million killed
U.S.S.R. 61.9 million
Nazi Germany 20.9 million
Nationalist China 10.0 million
Imperial Japan 5.9 million
Sino Soviet China 3.5 million
Cambodia 2.0 million

The video cites that in the 20th century 4x as many people (290 million) were murdered by government than those who died in all international and domestic wars combined. Of course, most of those ~60 million casualties of war can also be attributed to lethal government aggression as well.

As aptly stated in the video, "It's time to realize that when government takes your guns, people die."

1 comment:

dgeorge12358 said...

Besides the advantage of being armed, which the Americans possess over the people of almost every other nation, the existence of subordinate governments, to which the people are attached, and by which the militia officers are appointed, forms a barrier against the enterprises of ambition, more insurmountable than any which a simple government of any form can admit of. Notwithstanding the military establishments in the several kingdoms of Europe, which are carried as far as the public resources will bear, the governments are afraid to trust the people with arms.
~James Madison, Federalist Paper 46