Letter to the Editor: Right to bear arms necessary for freedom

By LARRY WILLIAM BRADBURY Reseda
Calif.

Editor,
“Right to keep and bear arms preserves freedom and life.”
Mankind’s greatest threat is war waged against the unarmed citizen by his or her own government. That is the main reason a person needs a gun. This was the thinking of the Founders when they established our nation. Furthermore, 20th century history clearly proves this very remarkable fact.
Professor R. J. Rummel of the University of Hawaii provides the needed evidence to support this fact. He coined the word “democide” to describe the intentional murder of people by government. It includes genocide, political and terror killings, and massacres.
Rummel is perhaps the world’s foremost authority on this horror. In his fourth book on the subject, “Death by Government” (New Jersey: Transaction Publishers,1994, 496 pages) he documents nearly 170 million victims of democide from 1900 to 1987. That is more than four times the 38 million battle deaths from all civil and international wars during this period. He points out that democide has been inflicted “on unarmed, helpless citizens and foreigners” and has killed over 200 million in the 20th century.
Rummel also establishes that the more freedom in a nation, the fewer people killed by their government. He shows that communist and other police state governments-that don’t allow their citizens to have guns-account for most of the democide.
Obviously, too much government is more deadly than war. Freedom, which includes the right to keep and bear arms, preserves life. Guns help to preserve both freedom and life. It is important to remember this when government officials threaten to enact laws to restrict our weapons.