Gun debates have always reared their ugly heads after a shooting by a crazy person, which always causes emotions to run high, and politicians to act before thinking. Everything dies down, and then another mindless and evil shooting by a crazy person happens again and a new gun debate rages on. Either the Left succeeds in banning, controlling, or limiting guns or ammo, all in the name of stopping gun violence or Conservatives succeeds in protecting our 2nd Amendment rights and addressing the real problem of mental-health in this country. We’re fooling ourselves if we actually believe gun debates are about guns and gun violence. They are not. They should be called an individual rights debate because that’s what we’re really debating.

The Left will argue gun debates are about putting an end to gun violence because who wouldn’t be for ending gun violence. No one in their right mind would actually want gun violence. If they did want it, then they would be as crazy as the shooters, and they would probably be one of the shooters. The Left’s real mission is to take away, or the appearance of taking away, our God-given individual rights that are enshrined in our Constitution’s first ten Amendments known as the Bill of Rights. The Left knows that when responsible citizens know their natural rights, it’s virtually impossible to control individuals. It’s all about control, and controlling the individual. By talking about ending gun violence, the Left makes people believe what they are doing has nothing to do with their individual rights. The Left shows us what their right hand is doing, when the real policy of taking away our rights is on the left hand hidden from view.

Conservatives put the focus on the right problems. They focus on ending gun violence by protecting the responsible citizens’ God-given individual rights, and improving mental-health laws so that there are fewer crazies that will get a gun and shoot up a school or any public place; killing innocent human beings. I know the Left loves laughing at this argument, but the fact is guns don’t kill people, people kill people. Treat the cause (the crazy person), not the tool (the gun). Conservatives realize that most of the gun violence that occurs happens in gun free zones, cities, or states. Where individual rights are protected, gun violence rarely occurs because when people know their individual rights are being protected they tend to act responsibly.

The Federalists agreed to codify our individual rights into the Constitution through the Bill of Rights because the Founding Fathers understood that those rights come from God, not government. If they didn’t do anything to protect those rights, then government would have fewer checks on its power. Government would gravitate towards controlling individuals, and keeping them from the natural rights that God has given to them. Government can’t take those rights away from you, but it can stand in the way and keep you from experiencing your full potential when you have all of your natural rights protected.

Left-leaning journalists love asking the question: Why do you even need an AR-15? The best answer that I’ve never heard anyone, even the most Conservative, give is that it’s not about needing it. It is about protecting our natural rights, as responsible citizens, to keep and bear arms with whatever guns and ammo we want to own. In all honesty, I believe the 2nd Amendment includes the right to keep and bear any type of arms. Given the reason for the 2nd Amendment protections was for responsible citizens to protect themselves against a potentially tyrannical government. The Left wants to take responsible citizens’ guns away, or keep them from buying guns and ammo so that they do not have the tools that they need to defend their individual rights from a potentially tyrannical government.

It is our natural right to keep and bear arms, not from crazies, thieves, or intruders, but from the government. During the Revolution, the American revolutionaries and the British army for the most part fought with the same basic type of weapons. Therefore, how again does an AR-15, which is not automatic, compare to the drone, tanks, automatic weapons, and rocket launchers that the US government owns? It doesn’t even compare. Even if responsible citizens succeed in being able to continue to buy and own AR-15’s, if the US government ever became tyrannical where we had to revolt against it, responsible citizens would still be at a disadvantage in weaponry. I am by no means advocating that we revolt against the US government. I don’t believe our government has become tyrannical, it’s just too big.

As I’ve said, the debate is not really about guns or gun violence. It’s about our God-given natural, individual rights. We are either going to continue allowing the Left to define this debate so that they can gradually, under the radar erode away our God-given individual rights, or we are going to finally stand up and protect our natural rights from an overreaching big government. A well-educated and informed citizenry in knowing our God-given individual rights is all that it takes for responsible citizens to take a stand and keep the government from controlling us.

Trey Mays is an independent Conservative political commentator. Follow him on Twitter @TreyMays and Like him on Facebook @TreyMaysUSA.