In the wake of Parkland, tensions are kind of high. The anti-gun left is rallying, and they’re using the kids of Parkland as their figureheads. The kids seem to be embracing this role, calling for anti-gun marches.

However, they’re not content to just call for marches. They seem to believe they have some kind of political power that demands we listen to them. Why else would they act like this?

“The adult politicians have been playing around while my generation has been losing our lives,” Cameron Kasky, a student at Stoneman Douglas, told “Face the Nation” on Sunday. “If you see how they treat each other in the office, if you see the nasty, dirty things going on with them, it’s sad to think that that’s what they’re doing while 17 people are being slaughtered, gunned down only yards away from where we’re sitting right now.”

Kasky added, “This cannot be the normal. This can be changed and it will be changed. And anybody who tells you that it can’t, is buying into the facade of this being created by the people who have our blood on their hands.”

…

Emma Gonzalez was one of those students who delivered a speech at a Saturday rally calling out members of Congress for inaction in preventing similar mass shootings from taking place.

“We are going to change the law, and it is all going to be due to the tireless effort of the school board, the faculty members and most importantly, the students,” she said to cheers at the Saturday rally.

…

“At this point, I don’t even know if the adults in power who are funded by the NRA — I don’t even think we need them anymore because they’re going to be gone by [the] midterm election. There’s barely any time for them to save their skins. And if they don’t turn around right now and state their open support for this movement they’re going to be left behind. Because you are either with us or against us at this point,” said Gonzalez.

Oh, it’s cute when children think they’ve got the political muscle right here, right now, to dictate to adults how things are going to be.

Only, it’s not.

First, a lesson about absolutist rhetoric: If you’re going to use it, you damn well better make sure you’ve got what it takes to back it up. If you’re saying, “you’re either with us or against us,” then you’d better have more going on than a few heightened emotions in the aftermath of a horrific event. As it stands, you don’t.

For the rest of us, though, all I can do is shake my head and mutter, “Kids these days.”

I have no problem with the fact they disagree with me on guns. Well, not any more problem than I would if they were far older. I don’t despise them for their position. But, they’re ignorant. They don’t understand how the system works. They were thrust into a horrible situation, and now they’re trying to jump into the political pool by making claims that don’t bear up under examination of the facts. They’re banking on sympathy and emotion to carry the day, and no, that’s not how any of this works.

They claim we’re either with them or against them, but they don’t understand that I don’t really have a problem being against them. At all.

I’ve been against far more established and savvy political operators and for far longer. Most of us have. We’ve been defending our sacred rights longer than some of these kids have been alive, for crying out loud. Yet now they’re claiming we have to step behind and follow their lead simply because a terrible thing happened to them?

I’m one of the people who has used a firearm to defend my life. I will not now, nor will I ever, tolerate anyone taking away my right to keep and bear arms in any way, shape, or form. Nor will I allow myself to be bullied into such a position by children.

Sadly, these kids don’t even realize they’re nothing more than the flavor of the week for the anti-gun left.