The cause that sent 170 million to their graves

The online statistics site Necrometrics estimates that the Congo civil war, World Wars I and II, the Russian Civil War, Stalin's regime in the Soviet Union and Mao's regime in China may have cost as many as 157 million lives.

Another source, Scaruffi, estimates the death tolls from Mao, Stalin, Hitler, the Congo civil war, Japan's Hideki Tojo, Pol Pot, North Korea's Kim Il Sung, Menghistu in Ethiopia, Biafa and Turkey at about 133 million.

Notably, that resource offers the estimate that Osama bin Laden cost 3,500 people their lives.

But what about a campaign that is being pursued around the globe today that cost 170 million lives in just the 20th century and is growing at an increasing rate even today?

That's the subject to the stunning new documentary "Innocents Betrayed."

The project directed by Aaron Zelman is not for the faint of stomach. And neither is a trailer, seen below, suitable for children:

Be warned: There are graphic images in the video:

The film describes how government demands that its subjects be disarmed and kept without a way to defend themselves has cost lives numbering roughly the equivalent to the population of Germany, France and Spain.

The gun control agenda is called the worst serial killer ever, because the victims depend on their killer to protect them.

"In the end, using laws, edicts, propaganda and finally sheer force, the killer renders millions powerless. And destroys them. Horrific persecution, slavery and mass murder engulf nation after nation," states a review.

The documentary recounts victims found in Germany, China, Cambodia, the Soviet Union, Guatemala, Uganda, Turkey, Rwanda and even the United States.

According to the video makers, the story never before has been told in a documentary.

The proof is in the seeing, they say.

"You'll see the photos, the footage, the people, the faces. You'll read the laws and hear the proclamations. You'll witness just enough horror to understand how easy it is for armed killers to slaughter the disarmed, the powerless, the innocents," a reviewer said.

"Innocents Betrayed" presents the entirely true accounts of how civilian disarmament made possible the killing of millions. The point is made sharply, clearly, unforgettably. It's the factual counterpoint to the lies in Michael Moore's "Bowling for Columbine."

Citizens of the United States benefit from the wisdom of the Founding Fathers, who defined citizens' rights, including self-defense, as inalienable, because, "They knew that the process of rendering citizens defenseless is what allows dictatorships to come into power."

Among the stories:

Consider the case of Rwanda in 1994, when hundreds of thousands were killed with knives and farm implements. In one instance, a single gun left by a departing soldier was used to protect 5,500 people for a full week.
Or in California, where two children were chopped up by a madman with a pitchfork – because the family's handgun was locked away as required by law.
Without the legal right to self-defense, civilians can be subdued by any simple-minded class of thugs and by the crudest of methods: tools, knives ... even box-cutters.

The message of the documentary is simple: Disarmed people are neither free nor safe – they become the criminals' prey and the tyrants' playthings.

Professor R.J. Rummel, one of the world's top authorities on genocide, said: "Concentrated political power is the most dangerous thing on earth."

His estimate is that 170 million were killed in the 20th century by hostile regimes, which, when averaged, amounts to a toll higher than the 9/11 attacks every day for a full century.

"Innocents Betrayed" graphically shows that concentrating power in the hands of government while reducing the power of the people sets the stage for stupendous human misery.