Yes, deaths by war and criminal gun violence are bad—but governments are worse offenders

George Weigel writes that the 19th century ended in August 1914 with the start of WWI and ended in August 1991 with the collapse of the Soviet Union. That was the bloodiest 8 decades in the history of the world, he says.

Yes, there were a lot of wars in the 20th century, but most of the millions who suffered the massacres, tortures and deaths died from governments killing their own people--Soviets starving the Ukrainians, Turks killing the Armenian Christians, Communist Maoists wiping out millions of Chinese, Nazis killing German Jews, the genocide by Pol Pot in Cambodia, Saddam Hussein killing the Kurds and fellow Muslims, genocidal mass slaughter of the Tutsis by the Hutu lead government in Rwanda  and so forth. Their common thread for ruling was statism, sometimes with some ethnic or religious hatred used on the side to make their case.

It comes in many names and versions, but the state owns the people and knows best. In the United States, “we the people” are supposed to control the government.  We have documents that insure this.  So the next time a 9-12 group or a Tea Party gathering demands a smaller government, at least give it some thought.