There have always been black men and women who seek to exercise their Second Amendment rights. That’s why early gun control laws sought to restrict them from doing so, after all. It’s not like you need a law to prevent someone from doing something they weren’t going to do anyway, right?

Over the years, black men and women have continued to embrace their gun rights, and for good reason. Black Americans account for nearly half of the homicide victims while only making up about 13 percent of the population. I get why a black person would want to have a gun.

However, for quite some time, the anti-gunners seemed to have done a pretty good job convincing many black Americans that they should embrace gun control as an answer to all their ills.

These days, though, it seems more and more black folks are choosing a different path.

When Second Amendment activist Brent Holmes started showing up at police brutality protests in Richmond, Virginia, over the summer while carrying an assault rifle across his chest, passersby would cheer him on.

“‘Yes, yes, he gets it,’” Holmes says. “He knows that he has those rights, too.’”

Holmes, who also wears a red baseball cap with the words “I CAN’T BREATHE” embroidered across the front, is part of a community of black gun-rights activists who have been showing up armed to protests in several American cities.

Here’s the whole video:

At the end of the day, there are probably a lot of folks within the black gun rights camp that I’m going to disagree with on a whole lot of stuff. However, I also don’t believe that gun rights are the exclusive purview of conservatives or libertarians. You don’t have to hold specific political opinions in order to have the right to keep and bear arms.

That’s kind of the point of rights, after all.

Frankly, I’m glad to see more African-American men and women embracing their gun rights. If they are actually afraid for their lives every day as we’ve been told time and time again, then they should be armed. Based on the homicide rates alone, I sure as hell would.

However, there’s an upside to those conservatives and libertarians I mentioned previously.

See, Democrats have been courting minority votes for ages now. They don’t want to lose their lock on minorities. Yet, if the black community truly embraces their gun rights, then Democrats will likely stop talking so much about gun control. After all, they don’t want to lose that key demographic, right?

If Democrats drop gun control, who would really be left to pick it up?

Sure, a handful of Democrats would still push that narrative. They’re from heavily white, anti-gun regions where it’s unlikely to hurt them anyway, but the party itself–especially its presidential candidates–would drop the anti-gun narrative so fast it’ll make your head spin.

As they should.

Look, gun rights exist for everyone. I’m personally glad to see more people come to embrace them. They should embrace them, especially if they’re worried about hate coming their way.