The Second Amendment is something it should never be, a hot-button issue. Many seem bound and determined to present so-called “assault rifles” as deadly instruments of mass destruction and to try and segregate them into a completely different part of American life.

Why else would Dick’s Sporting Goods, for example, completely stop selling the weapons even at their Field & Stream stores while still selling handguns, a firearm which is used in far more murders each year than modern sporting rifles by something like an order of magnitude.

However, the firearm industry isn’t taking it lying down. It’s showing that it can cut ties too.

The most recent to do so is Rock Island Auction Company.

The Illinois-based auction house said they had ended their relationship moving forward with Invaluable and its sister company AuctionZip, citing a change in the promoter’s guidelines. Comparing Invaluable’s shift to that of gun retailer Dicks Sporting Goods, RIAC said they had pulled their upcoming 10,000-gun 2018 June Regional Auction from the site and will not use the service again.

The reason for the breakup, according to RIAC, was that Invaluable announced in May that it would no longer sell, “all Class III weapons,” “assault-style” semi-automatic rifles, and other items.

For those looking to still participate in their auctions online, Rock Island is directing potential bidders to their new in-house live bidding site which they point out adds just 1 percent fees to items, whereas Invaluable charged 3 percent.

I applaud RIAC for this.

It could have easily gone along with the new policy, using it for some guns and doing something else for those not approved by Invaluable, but it didn’t. RIAC gave them the proverbial middle finger and went on to set up its own thing. This will potentially be better for its bottom line as well.

However, let’s not overlook what Invaluable was doing.

Time and time again, we keep seeing people trying to divide firearms into categories, “These guns are fine, but those guns are dangerous.” It’s rarely a comment on the quality of the gun, either. It’s that somehow those “dangerous” guns might get misused by someone, despite the ones in the “fine” category are being misused at an exponentially higher rate.

But, by dividing guns, it’s trying to divide the gun community. There are a lot of gun owners who have no interest in “assault-style” rifles. They don’t fit their needs, and so they don’t own any. The anti-gunners desperately want to drive a wedge between those of us with AR-15s and other so-called “assault rifles” and those who have no such thing.

The idea here is to weaken the gun community as an entity so they can make it possible to pass more and more anti-gun legislation.

No one in their right mind thinks mass shooters are bidding for AR-15s through Invaluable. It’s not a remotely practical way for such a person to obtain a firearm. Anyone with half a brain can see that.

But what it is about is making sure to feed into the narrative, to try and push the AR-15 and similar weapons into a completely different category because that’s the proper, responsible thing to do. At least, that’s the narrative.

In the meantime, Invaluable has accomplished nothing, but RIAC may well have boosted its bottom line in the long run.

Nice job.