Over at lewrockwell.com, Laurence M. Vance has written a great rejoinder to President Joe Biden’s assertion, in a June 23 speech advocating a large expansion in suppression of the exercise of the right to bear arms, that gun dealers who sell pistols, rifles, and shotguns to Americans are “merchants of death.”

Writes Vance in his Tuesday article:

It is ludicrous that Biden would refer to gun dealers as ‘merchants of death.’ The phrase was originally applied to the armament industry during World War I.

Gun dealers are not merchants of death. Far from it. The real merchants of death are the defense contractors who suck at the federal teat and have most members of Congress in their pocket.

According to Bloomberg Government: ‘In fiscal 2020, defense contract spending hit a record high of $447 billion – representing nearly two thirds of overall federal contract spending. It’s an impressive growth trajectory that we’ve been tracking for years. Pentagon spending surged by $140.6 billion between fiscal 2016 and 2020, with a $42 billion increase in the last year alone.’

Here are the top ten merchants of death:

1. Lockheed Martin Corp.

2. Raytheon Co.

3. General Dynamics Corp.

4. Boeing Co.

5. Northrop Grumman Corp.

6. Analytic Services Inc.

7. Huntington Ingalls Industries Inc.

8. Humana Inc.

9. BAE Systems Plc

10. Harris Corp.

These merchants of death all have contracts worth billions of dollars with the biggest merchant of death on the planet: the U.S. government.

Read Vance’s complete article here.

Reprinted with permission from the Ron Paul Institute for Peace and Prosperity.