As we battle COVID-19, we’re also having to battle for our Second Amendment rights at a time when no one should be required to worry about it. While many people are clamoring for guns right about now, anti-gunners are trying to shut down the only avenue for firearms for millions of people. They want to see all the gun stores closed, effectively banning large segments of the population from having guns.

Perhaps more insidious than this, though, is how some in the media try to reframe these people are “human rights advocates.”

Human rights defenders on Tuesday demanded that the Trump administration reverse its decision to designate gun stores as “essential businesses” during the coronavirus pandemic and warned that increased gun violence during the national public health crisis will only add to the strain on overwhelmed health systems.

Well, if that’s not a blatant lie, I don’t know what is.

Of course, this is at Common Dreams, which describes itself as a progressive media outlet, but it also claims:

Common Dreams works diligently to uncover and publish honest, independent news and information that you can rely on. Every day.

Looks like they blew that part.

I say that because calling gun control advocates “human rights defenders” is nothing more than a blatant lie designed to reframe their efforts to curtail an essential human right and pretend they’re actually defending something.

Of course, anti-gunners will counter by claiming that people have a right to live free from harm. I won’t actually argue this. Sure, there are semantical arguments to be made, but the general point is valid. No one is disputing that.

However, criminals violate the rights of others on a regular basis, even without firearms. They don’t need guns to infringe on people’s right to live. Knives, blunt objects, and “personal weapons” such as hands and feet all account for a sizeable portion of the weapons used to kill people each year. Guns aren’t a requirement.

Yet if you’re a 120 lbs woman, please tell me how you’re supposed to use those “personal weapons” to defend yourself against a 250 lbs attacker? I mean, if you’re a UFC-level mixed martial artist, you just might be able to, but most folks aren’t at that level.

That’s where guns come in.

You see, the right to defend yourself from harm is an actual human right. That means people have a right to access the tools needed to defend themselves. That means guns. (Let’s also not forget the right to keep and bear arms, a human right explicitly protected by the Constitution.)

While Common Dreams may want to argue that gun grabbers are defending human rights, the truth is they’re doing the exact opposite. They’re working to deny people their means to defend themselves and, by extension, the right to defend themselves altogether. In other words, they’re not human rights defenders, but instead, seek to eliminate a basic human right.

And they’re doing it at a time when more and more people are suddenly recognizing how important a firearm is for protecting themselves and their families.

What’s worse is that on some level, they know they’re not defending any human right. They know that “gun rights” are actual rights and that they’re pushing for gun control. They know it, yet still present the allies like this.

Sorry, but they’re not getting away with that kind of a lie.