The John Birch Society :: Truth Freedom Leadership

That depends on who you ask.

"Democide" is a term coined by political scientist R.J. Rummel to describe the phenomenon of murder by government - the 20th Century death toll from which was roughly four times greater than the combined body count of all that century's wars.

Rummel estimates that during the 20th Century at least 262,000,000 people were killed by their own governments. The roster of what he calls "Mortacracies" (killing regimes) is led by "deka-mega-murderer" regimes that killed tens of millions; at the top of that infamous roster is Communist China, which slaughtered at least 76,000,000 people between 1949 and 1987; the Soviet Communist regime follows close behind, with a body count of at least 61,000,000 between 1917 and 1987. Adolf Hitler's German National Socialist regime comes in a distant third, with a death count of roughly 21,000,000.

All of those monumentally murderous regimes, as well as the "mega-murderers" responsible for the deaths of millions, systematically disarmed their victims before liquidating them.

There is no recorded instance of a democide that has not been preceded by civilian disarmament.

So, if you are a would-be tyrant, the answer to the question ("has 'gun control' been effective") is a resounding yes.