The educational industrial complex is front and center in the latest attempt to overthrow the Second Amendment. Aided by big donors, powerful lobbying groups, politicians, the media, and the other usual suspects, our schoolchildren have now been weaponized nationwide to protest against their own Rights and demand disarmament to tyranny.

Our public schools have been organized as the Occupy Wall Street training ground against the Constitution. This is the perfect storm of a crisis and the Left is not letting it go to waste. It is obvious by the amount of ground they have taken in such a short time, that this game plan was constructed long ago. The script had been written and the staging had already been set in place. All that was missing was the right cast. And now, following the latest school shooting, all the components have been assembled.

Those on the Right are at a disadvantage in trying to just hold onto the status quo while those on the Left are empowered to enact the extremist agenda they have pushed for all along. Since emotions are more convincing than facts and the court of public opinion is stacked against us, we cannot afford to make mistakes that will actually help the Left defeat us. We do this by:

Failing to familiarize ourselves with the most effective arguments and information: Many people avoid discussing an issue such as the Second Amendment because they feel ignorant or are afraid their opponent will throw a verbal grenade that will destroy their argument. While it’s impossible to be a fount of all knowledge or be prepared for every possible line of attack (though there are faqs we should familiarize ourselves with), just remember: your opponent is in all likelihood driven by emotion rather than reasoned arguments. We need to first express empathy for their misguided desire to stop evil, rather than glibly respond along the lines of, “Well, more kids are going to die and there’s nothing we can do about that.”

Making false assumptions or engaging in pointless debates: We must keep advocates of gun control on the defensive by making them answer their own questions regarding the “Something” which “must be done” instead of attempting to field against an impossible open-ended line of attack. Our answers will never satisfy them and our appeal to logic and reasoning will only further enflame their emotions.

Usually only the most virulent anti-gun advocate will call for an outright ban on all guns. If you happen to run into such an individual, you can acknowledge their rare honesty, but there’s really no point in debate. They are not going to be happy until none of us have guns – and none of us are going to give up our guns in a senseless effort to make them happy. If they insist they only want to ban the misnomer “assault weapon,” make them define exactly what that is. Make them describe in detail the steps they believe should be taken to keep these attacks from happening again. Above all, don’t respond with a defiant “Out of my cold dead hands” to someone who is unfamiliar with guns or the Second Amendment and is only grasping at failed methods to keep such evil from recurring.

Focusing on our own pet crusade as the main or only factor: When an event such as a mass shooting occurs, the first question is always “Why?” Experience tells us there must be a reason, but we must fight the impulse to pin the blame on our personal pet cause. We want answers; we want to identify the underlying motivation; we want to connect all the dots to show others the picture we see. It’s as if we could identify that one thing, we could keep this from happening ever again. But just as there were many reasons Rome ultimately fell, there are many factors at play in the creation of a school shooter. The Left, in their ongoing attempt to eradicate the Second Amendment, always focus on the gun and any individuals or organizations they can connect to guns. The Right focuses on a plethora of causes including fatherless boys, the overmedication of psychiatric drugs, violent video games, bullying, social media, the erosion of traditional cultural norms, and the role of the entertainment industry to name just a few. A legitimate explanation will take into consideration a multitude of factors, but a multitude of factors precludes an easy fix. We must not make our personal pet cause the be all and end all.

Making ourselves look like villains by attacking sympathetic victims: One of the most important things we must remember is: Do not argue with children! Anyone who has had this unpleasant experience knows that adults only “win” because they are bigger and more powerful than kids.

In the current debate, as Laura Ingraham, Dinesh D’Souza, and even the former adult victims of mass shooting attacks have learned, the tables have been turned. A specially selected clique of Parkland students is being used as unassailable human shields to further the efforts of the Left. This is because the Left has mastered the skill of disguising their nefarious ideological agenda and advancing it through the camouflage advocacy of victims. These children are the most powerful voices ever used against the Second Amendment. they have experienced an unthinkable horror and we must acknowledge that. We will not win the court of public opinion by mocking them, ignoring them, or silencing them.

However, victimhood status does not grant them carte blanche to parrot the false claims and statements of the Left or launch atrocious personal attacks against those who disagree with them. While it is to our detriment to belittle their college acceptance status, if David Hogg, Emma Gonzalez or any of their classmates want to step on the adult stage of debate, we must insist they be held to the same standard of honesty and decency. This is a fine line for the Right to toe and the Left knows it. That’s why David Hogg is fast morphing into the Twilight Zone’s Anthony Fremont who has been empowered to banish any Conservative opposition “to the cornfield.” We must not fall into this trap and we must never apologize for upholding an objective standard – but we must only confront and attack our opponents on actual points of substance that will further our cause.

Offering to compromise: Our Rights as enumerated in the Constitution must not be up for negotiation. This current debate on the Second Amendment perfectly illustrates Benjamin Franklin’s warning: “They who can give up essential Liberty to obtain a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety.”

Just as the Left will never give an inch on the abortion debate, any infringement on the Second Amendment should be a non-starter. Compromise is always a loser for Conservatives and only becomes the next starting point for the Left in any future negotiation. Many Conservatives have been willing to support a bump stock ban after the Vegas shooting. But that will not even momentarily appease the Left. As Parkland student Delaney Tarr revealed in the recent DC March for Our Lives event, “We will take the big and we will take the small, but we will keep fighting. When they give us that inch, that bump stock ban, we will take a mile.” That’s why we must NEVER give an inch.

Destroying our credibility by spreading our own unvetted and false information : The most bizarre and self-defeating phenomenon that seems to have arisen in Conservative circles since the 9/11 attacks is the promotion of conspiracy theories.

Yes, the Left fights unfair and tilts any crisis in its favor to implement their agenda. But to regard the verified atrocities they use as vehicles as mere Deep State False Flags is the equivalent of responding to their “Do you still beat your wife?” debate tactics with, “Well, your wife is a space alien.” Even if David Hogg confessed to being a crisis actor, it would not change a thing in this current debate. The Left would still be pushing for gun control and we on the Right would still need to be able to make our case for the Second Amendment. The Parkland students serving as mouthpieces for the anti-gun and anti-freedom advocates serve as a reminder, as Reagan warned, that we have not passed Liberty through the bloodstream.