The Second Amendment is, in our estimation, the First Civil Right. In other words, the right of the people to keep and bear arms secures all other rights. So it’s quite ironic to see people who stood for civil rights 50 years ago now taking a seat to protest against civil rights. That was the scene in Congress Wednesday as several House Democrats literally sat on the floor and demanded a vote to pass gun control measures. They propose to deny Second Amendment rights via trampling Fifth (and Sixth) Amendment Rights, and they claim the First Amendment as justification for the protest — all while singing the civil rights anthem “We Will Overcome.” Republicans responded by calling a recess and shutting off C-SPAN cameras.

The Leftmedia gleefully trumpeted the Democrats’ “historic” moment, but we believe the word they’re looking for is “histrionic.”

Rep. John Lewis (D-GA) staged sit-ins for civil rights in the 1960s. But he’s completely blind to the irony of the present situation. Gun control began in the 1800s as a racist method of keeping guns out of the hands of blacks. You might even say those blacks were on government lists meant to deny their rights. Who else was on an FBI watch list? A gun-owning Martin Luther King Jr. Yet now a man who claims King’s legacy, and declares on his website that he is “one of the most courageous persons the Civil Rights Movement ever produced,” is using old methods to deny civil rights.

By the way, did we mention that Lewis himself was once erroneously on a terror watch list? As Stephen Kruiser ponders, “Not only was he erroneously placed on the list, he couldn’t get himself off of it quickly. At the time, Lewis had been in Congress for 27 years. If he couldn’t get it cleared up quickly, what chance does an average citizen have?”

Back in January, Barack Obama likewise had the gall to claim King’s legacy — quoting the “fierce urgency of now” line — to pass gun control. Where was that “fierce urgency” when Democrats controlled the White House and all of Congress in 2009 and 2010? This is all exploitative politics for them, complete with immediate fundraising appeals based on the sit-in — because Democrats truly have no shame.