The right to keep and bear arms is a basic human right. It doesn't matter what your political affiliation is or anything else. It is there for all of us.

This is how rights should be. They should be there for everyone regardless of any other factor beyond the findings of due process in a court of law. 

Yet a lot of people have acted like it's no such thing, that the right to keep and bear arms is not really a right at all.

Many of those folks, though, are part of the LGBT community. It has nothing to do with being gay or anything, mind you, it's just the way politics breaks.

And now, many of those folks are now buying guns themselves. Why? Because of politics.

Across the nation, LGBTQ people are taking up arms, driven by fears of escalating political rhetoric, targeted legislation, and what many describe as the specter of persecution. 

As the Republican Party has pushed for increasingly restrictive policies on gender-affirming care and divisive policies, some LGBTQ Americans are turning to self-defense as their ultimate safeguard.

'It's all about survival,' said Matthew Thompson, a 36-year-old gay man from Oakland, New Jersey to the Philadelphia Inquirer.

'We're not looking to arm up and storm the Capitol. We just don't want to be put in concentration camps.'

Thompson's words echo a sentiment growing louder within the LGBTQ community, especially in states where conservative lawmakers have advanced bans on gender-affirming care and portrayed transgender individuals as societal threats. 

For many, the idea of armed self-defense is no longer theoretical but something that feels essential.

For a 24-year-old trans woman from Philadelphia named Amy, the decision to purchase her first firearm came after months of unease. 

As Texas upheld a ban on gender-affirming care for minors and Florida restricted access to hormone therapies, she felt an urgent need to prepare for her own safety.

Now, I'm not going to get into the other issues here because, frankly, they're beyond what we do here.

However, I do find it funny how these same people rolled their eyes at our issues with an assault weapon ban and how that might well take us down a road to tyranny, but they think that prohibiting sex change operations for children is just a short step to herding people in concentration camps.

Regardless, though, I will point out one very important fact: The Second Amendment exists to oppose tyranny. It doesn't inherently mean only a certain kind of tyranny. If you're genuinely afraid of being put into camps, then sure, get a gun and learn how to use it. Stand ready to oppose any effort to put gay or trans people into camps. Absolutely.

It behooves everyone concerned that our nation is falling into tyranny to arm themselves and stand ready to resist.

Yes, even if your fear is something that was talked about eight years ago, treated like a serious threat, and then never even got floated in anything beyond the left's fever dreams.

Your concerns don't have to be immediate or even particularly rational in the right here and now. What matters if that your ability to resist tyranny exists. Exercise it.