Sophie's Choice

It has been a while since I saw the 1982 film but was reminded of my thoughts on it by NEO-NEOCON's post on "Coco".

Spoiler Alert! (Is this really needed for a 30 year old film?)

Sophie arrives at a concentration camp with her two young children (a boy and a girl) and the camp doctor tells her that she can only bring one with her, the other will go to the gas chamber.

I won't say what she does, but here is what I thought she ought to have done:

Sophie: Why should I trust a man who will order a child to be killed?

Officer: I do not understand...

Sophie: You tell me that I can choose which one will live and you will honor that choice. Why should I believe you? It is in your power to kill none of us, all of us or some of us. Perhaps I would say, "Save the boy"! and out of perverse pleasure, you will kill him first.

Officer: I will kill both children if you do not pick one.

Sophie: I will not be complicit in your evil. You can choose to kill one, both or neither. This is your choice. I have no reason to believe anything you say and will not cooperate. Even if I did trust you, I think that you may believe that my playing along will dilute your guilt. I will not allow this! You are responsible for our fate.

5,000 Years

In my lifetime there have been two major genocides I would like to make a note of: 

Cambodia back in the mid 1970's, where 1/4 of the total population were killed 

AND 

Rwanda in the mid to late 1990's where 1/5 of the population was murdered.

To get some perspective, those who would ban the private ownership of firearms, trumpet the US murder rate*, which is, at this writing, 12,000/year. At this rate, it would take 5,000 years for common criminals to equal what was done in Rwanda in 100 days.

One could think of murder by criminals as analogous to side effects from vaccines. Each is tragic but far more lives are saved than lost. Could either of these genocides (or any genocide, ever) have been carried out in a well-armed society?  Let's say we lose 100 children/year to bad reactions to Smallpox vaccine.  This is tragic, but should Smallpox ever return, it would kill 1/3 of an unvaccinated US population, which is about 100 million people!

I used the above historical events because they happened in fairly recent times--if we go back a further 50 years, the National Socialists, Soviet and Chinese Communists, between them racked-up over 100 Million deaths. Criminals kill a paltry number compared to what governments can and have done to their own people.

Note to Reader: I had been noodling around with an analogy for some time but just couldn't quite get a grip on the scope. Finally I just decided to write it out and let the chips fall where they may.
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*The anti-gun folks are not even close to this honest. They will talk about "gun deaths" and never mention that 2/3 of these are suicide. Nor will they mention that in gun-free Japan, the suicide rate is twice that of the US.

Added: To give a feel for the span of time. It has taken only about 12,500 years for the Niagara Gorge to be formed from the origin of the falls to their present location. The gorge is close to 7 miles long.

Added:  A Reason article with a similar argument  https://reason.com/2020/09/22/gun-control-puts-your-life-at-risk/