It is a common, global, historical trend for older generations to “dunk” on the inexperience and immaturity of the youngest generation. The “kids these days” complaint goes all the way back to Aristotle, who in Rhetoric, said this about the young in the 4th century BCE:

They are high-minded, for they have not yet been humbled by life nor have they experienced the force of necessity; […] And they think they know everything, and confidently affirm it, and this is the cause of their excess in everything.

Of course, the feeling is mutual and each young generation, including mine, has tended to think of the older generations as out of touch, discounting their wisdom built from experience. I grew up in India in a culture that’s highly deferential to your elders, but even there, it’s not uncommon to hear a son say, “Arey Papa!” (“Oh, Dad!”), expressing his incredulity to his father.

When it comes to guns, there is a generational gap as expected. In the wake of the murder of a UNC professor that resulted in a lockdown, there were the usual demands for gun control and even some theatrics from UNC students, especially the editors of the UNC student newspaper, the Daily Tar Heel. A couple of weeks later, there was an unrelated brandishing incident on campus involving a housekeeper that resulted in another lockdown. There were even more histrionic demands for gun control after that.

Some of that is understandable, but what doesn’t compute is the demand for gun control that has repeatedly proven to be ineffective. Gen Z should look at the recent past and see the numerous failures, from Orlando in which the assailant had been interviewed three times by the FBI, the Charleston massacre in which the FBI dropped the ball on the attacker’s background check, Sutherland Springs in which the US Air Force failed to submit a disqualifying domestic violence record to NICS, the Parkland attacker who could have been stopped on several occasions, the Buffalo white supremacist, or the countless incidents of criminals, likely including the UNC murderer, acquiring guns illegally through theft, straw purchases, or other circumvention or willful violation of the law.

When — not if — a criminal or a maniac acquires a gun and proceeds to commit a crime, what would you like to do? Be a sitting duck, locked down in a room with your classmates like fish in a barrel, hoping that the attacker doesn’t breach the door before the police find him? Or would you like to have a chance to fight back, whatever the odds of your success maybe?

The charlatans among Gen Z like David Hogg want to deprive the rest of Gen Z the opportunity and the choice to fight back. The entire gun control movement is lying and dissembling about how they want to make the country safe from violence, let alone “gun violence.” It’s not going to happen, period. They know it and lie about it, because stopping “gun violence” is not their end goal. Aristotle also said this about younger generations, which can be interpreted as a warning to not trust liars and charlatans:

For the most part they live in hope, for hope is concerned with the future as memory is with the past. For the young the future is long, the past short; for in the morning of life it is not possible for them to remember anything, but they have everything to hope; which makes them easy to deceive, for they readily hope.

It will be useful for Gen Z to learn from the experience of the older generations. It’s not just the average criminal that you need to defend yourself against. History is rife with genocides and democides that make a university lockdown look like a peaceful walk in the park.

The Second Amendment, and as a matter of fact the entire US Constitution and the Bill of Rights, is meant to enshrine your pre-existing self-defense rights into a document. That self-defense can be on an individual level against an individual criminal, or at a collective level against a megalomaniac. The leitmotif is the same.

I hope you realize sooner rather than later that YOU are your own first responder. Your safety is YOUR responsibility. Depending on someone else with a gun and a badge to come and rescue you is an unreliable solution. Expecting criminals and the murderously determined to obey the law and not get guns is unrealistic.

So how do you start your transition from being scared and locked down in a room with the lights off, hiding silently, to being someone who is willing, able, and trained to fight back? The good news is that there are lots of instruction programs out there from the NRA to the USCCA to Project Appleseed. Take as many classes as you can. Learn about the laws of self-defense. Buy a gun and start carrying it. You’re a free citizen. Exercise your rights and refuse to get on your knees, whether it’s in front of a petty criminal or a megalomaniacal tyrant.