The hypocrisy of 2nd Amendment champions

The tide is turning in America. Long-churning sentiments about guns and gun violence have finally erupted and people no longer accept the tired-old narrative of "let's not politicize this issue". No, let's actually do that for a change.

Democracy is a political system. Any issue that concerns democratic citizens is a political issue by default and this includes guns and gun control. People can grieve and respect the victims and the survivors while also calling out for change. These are not mutually exclusive. But whenever a call for change is heard, there's always another call from across the street calling for stagnancy. In this case, it's coming from the 2nd Amendment die-hards.

Let me be clear here, I'm not talking about the people who simply want to have a firearm or two for legitimate self-defense. The people I'm referring to are the ones who amass a stockade's worth of armaments as if they're expecting the Queen's forces to try and reclaim the empire's lost colonies. I'm talking about the ones that scream "Shall not be infringed" from the top of their lungs and swarm social media like roaches, trying to infest every corner with their zealotry.

Some appeal to conspiracies, denouncing the shootings as 'hoaxes' and the survivors as 'crisis actors' and 'government shills'. Some try to get the discussion boggled down to the technicalities of what constitutes a fully-automatic weapon and what really counts as an assault rifle; some outright refuse even the mildest forms of regulation, such as background checks, for fear of the tyrannical government infringing upon their freedoms. 'Don't tread on me' and all that.

Here's the thing, though -- regulation is part and parcel of the 2nd amendment. It's in the "well-regulated militia" bit. But I'm afraid the hypocrisy of these folks runs far deeper than this, and I'll try and illustrate this with a few questions directed at them:

Where were your great-grandparents when the US government illegally locked up Japanese-Americans in internment camps?

Where were your grandparents when black people -- your fellow Americans -- were being hosed down, beaten up, maligned and disparaged for decades on end just for demanding equal treatment under the law?

Where were your parents when the CIA flooded predominantly black neighborhoods with cocaine?

And lastly, where are you while scores of your fellow Americans keep being mowed down by police every day across the nation?

If you don't use your guns to protect the life, liberty and pursuit of happiness of your fellow citizens against the encroachment of government, then the 2nd Amendment is useless and you don't deserve it. Because you can't just appeal to the law when it suits you and disregard it when it doesn't.  If you don't want your rights -- or rather privileges -- to be infringed, then fight for them in principle, not just in word. Only then will you have earned the privilege of the 2nd Amendment.