WINNER: TOP 25 LIBERTARIAN DOCUMENTARIES
An examination of the global history of gun control laws reveals their dark side, how they have been commonly used to disarm targeted groups in advance of organized genocide, and to victimize women and minorities. [ Innocents Betrayed credits: Dir: Aaron Zelman/ 58 min/ Documentary/ Democide, Second Amendment]
Note: the full documentary can typically be found online via YouTube or Online search.
“This film won’t change the closed minds of hardcore gun control types, but for everyone else – it’s a hell of an eye-opener.”
“What happens when self-defense is against the law? What happens when the protectors become the predators? What happens when innocents are betrayed?” Those are the questions this persuasive documentary asks and then answers, by examining a series of historical examples.
The film briefly covers some of the better-known democides of the last century, in chronological order. In each case it cites the laws used to first disarm these populations, underscoring that democide is a two-step process. First, populations are legally disarmed, sometimes deliberately with ill intentions and sometimes out of simple naivete. And second, a predatory government is either already in power or comes to power and takes advantage of the unarmed vulnerability of its enemies to kill them.
Nailing that point, case by case, is the film’s strength and purpose: gun control, well-intended or not, is a necessary precondition for democide. Despite all the controversy, it’s not very complicated. Armed people fight back; unarmed people don’t.
One fact stated in the film may startle you. It cites a key statistic that 170 million people were deliberately killed by governments in the last century (not including war). That might seem impossibly high, but it’s actually the mid-point of academic estimates. The actual death toll may well have been higher. If you’ve never heard that, you’re not alone. It’s a remarkable failure of modern education that so few have. It’s a statistic worth remembering, as it illustrates just how high the stakes are on this issue. Men have not become angels with the dawn of the new century, and there is nothing to say that what decades ago no one believed could happen in civilized societies — and yet did happen — could not do so again.
This film was produced by Jews for the Preservation of Firearms Ownership, a group that has reason to care and be informed on this subject, and their passion for the topic shows in the persuasive character of the film. It’s well organized, uses historical footage to good effect, and is professionally narrated.
Current-day gun control advocates like to deny that there was ever any connection between gun control and democide, or ever could be. That’s a bit silly, given the numerous times that dictators have made a point of disarming their enemies (1,2,3,4). Even in the US, it’s simply a matter of documented fact that gun control restrictions were used to disarm blacks in the days of lynchings (1,2,3). What aggressor wouldn’t want to disarm their victims? But gun control advocates don’t dare concede an inch on this point, or they will have to concede as well that gun control, intentionally or not, strips away the last line of defense against potential democides and lynchings yet to come.
This film won’t change the closed minds of hardcore gun control types, but for everyone else – it’s a hell of an eye-opener.
External Reviews
“The documentary takes viewers though historic footage, much of it very graphic, on genocidal examples of regimes that disarmed their people, then murdered them.”
–Examiner.com
“All the gun-control geeks who mindlessly applauded Michael Moore’s dishonest Bowling for Columbine should be duct-taped to metal folding chairs and forced to watch Innocents Betrayed, a powerful new DVD documentary produced by Jews for the Preservation of Firearms Ownership…In 58 minutes, Innocents Betrayed shows how, in the last century, civilian disarmament led to the slaughter of more than 100 million people at the hands of their own governments.”
–LewRockwell.com
“Innocents Betrayed is a riveting, heartbreakingly powerful documentary that clearly links gun control and registration with genocide time and time again. I don’t see how any rational person could see it and fail to be moved.”
–Sunni Maravillosa
How to See It
Amazon (DVD)
YouTube Video Search
Online Video Search