It is in the gun controllers’ DNA to lie, repeat lies, double down on lies when called out, dissemble, cherry pick and inflate statistics, and then call YOU a liar for pointing out their lies. But they have no shame or remorse about lying because it’s for The Cause for disarming all of us.

They are really good at dredging up old tragedies, not as an honest and emotional remembrance of the victims, but to push The Cause. They did that last week with the Sikh Temple attack by a white supremacist. I called them out because they would not have made a squeak if the victims were killed by stabbing, arson, or mass vehicular homicide.

Today, they tried to exploit the 2017 white supremacist attack in Charlottesville. Thankfully, their dishonesty comes with a dollop of stupidity, and sometimes they let it slip without realizing it.

Six years ago today, a protest by white supremacists over the removal of a Confederate statue in Charlottesville, VA, escalated into violence, and a white supremacist killed 32-year-old counter-protester Heather Heyer. pic.twitter.com/co2OSpzrOO

— Moms Demand Action (@MomsDemand) August 11, 2023

The choice of the word “killed” speaks volumes here. Heather Heyer was tragically killed using a car. The attacker injured 35 people during his attack, including 5 critically. There’s no mention of the method of attack, and the generic catch-all “killed” is used. But just look back a week, and they don’t hesitate to mention the method of attack when it involved a gun.

Eleven years ago today, a man with ties to a white supremacist group fatally shot six people and wounded three others at the Sikh Temple of Wisconsin in Oak Creek. A seventh victim later died from his wounds. #StopAAPIHate pic.twitter.com/vM6Swsxcgw

— Moms Demand Action (@MomsDemand) August 5, 2023

So, having ignored the method of attack, what does Moms Demand do next? They pivot to #DisarmHate:

Six years later, white supremacists continue to attempt to silence those they disagree with through armed intimidation and threats of violence. We honor Heather and all whose lives have been taken by hate-fueled violence by continuing our work to #DisarmHate in all its forms.

— Moms Demand Action (@MomsDemand) August 11, 2023

It doesn’t seem to have dawned upon them that #DisarmHate in the context of Charlottesville would mean impounding the attacker’s car and forcing him to use ride share services or public transit. But we know that’s now what they’re after. I am yet to see anything from gun controllers asking for the removal of every object that can be used as a weapon — knives, axes, baseball bats, chemicals, gasoline, vehicles, etc. — from someone bent on committing violence. They dissemble because they’re after our guns.

This is also a common and valid criticism of red flag laws from the Second Amendment community. Red flag laws as written and implemented take away only the guns from people accused of being dangerous. If the target of a red flag confiscation is so dangerous that he or she cannot be in possession of a firearm, why are that person’s other potential weapons not taken away? 

Domestic violence restraining orders are thematically similar to red flag laws and often come with the relinquishment of firearms by the subject of the order. How many times have we seen someone murder a spouse or domestic partner using other methods while under a restraining order?

Besides the question of other potential weapons, the other important question to ask about red flag laws is why a person considered dangerous enough to be stripped of his or her firearms be allowed to roam free instead of being involuntarily committed or confined?

Gun controllers don’t care about those questions. They will take every inch they can take from our constitutionally guaranteed right to keep and bear arms, patiently wait a decade or five, and come back to take another inch. If the due process rights guaranteed by the Bill of Rights is collateral damage, they won’t hesitate to inflict it. If the erosion of privacy is the price to pay for attacking the Second Amendment, they will do it. If free speech gets in the way, they will kill it.

Every rule they break and every constitutional norm they destroy for The Cause will make all of us, our children, grandchildren, and generations unborn suffer for it.