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Samizdata, derived from Samizdat /n. - a system of clandestine publication of banned literature in the USSR [Russ.,= self-publishing house]

Samizdata quote of the day

Last century over 170 million people were murdered by their own governments, and your government doesn’t want you to have a gun. Doesn’t that bother you just a little?
– Unknown

26 comments to Samizdata quote of the day

  • RayP

    May I borrow that for use as a tagline on the N.E. Shooters page?

  • Verity

    Very succinct.

  • Source? Attribution?

    I know it is anonymous, but you must have found it somewhere.

  • permanent expat

    Oh yes!

  • How could they truly keep track to get that number, since I’m sure those same governments keep those kind of things hidden?

  • Curious,

    It’s an estimate. I’ve heard 200M+. Studies like this one are how people find the numbers.

  • RAB

    I have a gun.
    Lot’s of people do.
    We are not that stupid as to tell the Government about it though.
    My father in law did the whole registration/ Police/Bisley thing. And they still took his guns away from him.
    The next generation has had to be a bit more sly unfortunately.

  • veryretired

    It’s even worse than the numbers you cite. Solzeneitzin (sp?) refers to a scientific study by a Russian demographer which finds that the population of the SU was missing 100 million people who should have been there but weren’t.

    At any rate, we all know, from watching nearly every movie and TV show made over the past half century, that the really dangerous guys are those corporate evildoers who all have guns in their desks and a loyal crew of toughs sitting in the outer office just waiting to be given orders to rub somebody out, preferably a noble conservationist type.

    But seriously, we all know that truly inchoate, indiscriminate evil is ugly and monstrous, wears a hockey mask or some other strange attire, or is possessed by telepathic aliens or supernatural demons.

    Why, the murderers of millions and millions could never look and sound like mild-mannered clerks, lead popular political movements, or look like someone’s grandpa.

    Everybody knows that. We don’t need any guns. The Glorious, (or is it Beloved this generation?), Leader will protect us.

    There is nothing to fear, unless your hovercraft is full of eels.

  • Chris Harper

    170 million? I didn’t know it was that low.

  • The Black Book of Communism says 100 million were killed by Communist governments. That leaves 70 million to account for (unless BBoC is off).

  • The Black Book of Communism says 100 million were killed by Communist governments. That leaves 70 million to account for (unless BBoC is off).

    That just leaves Nazi Germany, the Croatian Ustasha, the Armenian Genocide, Rwanda, Chile, Argentina, Baathist Iraq, Baathist Syria, Algeria… etc. etc. etc.

  • permanent expat

    Er…………….RAB. Perhaps I’m being a tad naïve but……didn’t you just TELL the gumment?

  • rosignol

    I daresay ‘RAB’ is unlikely to be the name on his (?) tax forms.

  • permanent expat

    I was under the impression that much of the posting here had to do with gummen omniscience & RAB certainly has an e-mail address. Identification would be child’s play.

  • RAB

    Well if they turn up, they will have to find them first.
    It’s a big house.
    Perhaps I could just show them photos.
    Seems to work for the IRA.

  • syn

    We can add those formerly alive in Darfur, Sudan to the list.

  • Christ knows how many died in China under Mao during the famine caused by the failed Great Leap Forward. 70 million is the median – and most commonly quoted – figure. Many estimates put it higher than 100 million. We’ll never know. I think Mao liquidated 2-3 million through purges and other political machinations during his career, and the Cultural Revolution caused the death of a similar number.

    Mao’s China certainly claims over half the lives lost in that number.

  • permanent expat

    RAB: Didn’t know you’d visited since my last post, mea etc.

  • His Voice

    Just can’t figure out the obsession with guns on this site. The other posts are normally quite reasonable, but guns… jesus, they can kill people.

  • but guns… jesus, they can kill people.

    Er, yeah… that is like saying cars can transport people. You don”t say!

    Anyway, we are not obsessed with guns, we are obsessed with people being able to defend themselves. Do you have a problem with people being able to defend themselves?

  • RAB

    Rosignol,
    Tax forms! Tax forms!! We don’t need no stinking Tax forms!

  • Verity

    His Voice – Yes, and when only criminals have guns, only criminals can kill people. We believe in getting in first.

  • Denise

    His Voice

    Guns don’t kill people. People kill people. It takes a person to pull that trigger.

  • Winzeler

    Just can’t figure out the obsession with guns on this site. The other posts are normally quite reasonable, but guns… jesus, they can kill people.

    Would you say the same thing on an abortion clinic thread? cooking knives? prescription drugs?

  • The Wobbly Guy

    I am tempted to quote,

    ‘Guns don’t kill people. I kill people.’

    Hey, anybody remember who said that?