Yes, war is hell, but government without restraint, murder by government can be more hellish than any combat. At least in combat you have a chance. With guns, we are ‘citizens’. Without them, we are ‘subjects’.
Democide: The murder of unarmed, helpless men, women and children by a government, including genocide, politicide, and mass murder. This does NOT include combatants killed during times of war.
In all of history, the most prolific mass murderers are not the Jeffrey Dahmers, Jack the Rippers, movie-theater crazies or insane campus shooters. By far, it is government, much more common than war.
Prior to the 20th century (30 B.C. - 1900AD), murder by government, or democide, accounts for, by the best hypothetical estimates, a conservative 133 million people dead. That figure includes: China, the Mongols, Iran (Persia), slavery of Africans (1451-1870), India, The Ottoman Empire, Japan, Russia, Aztecs, French Revolution, Spanish Inquisition, etc.