I am trying, as I get older, to be less angry. I am trying to allow myself to say I “hate” people or groups less, because it doesn’t really help move the dialogue forward, and I don’t want to die at 42 years old because I have a daily heart attack over the dumb, ignorant, racist, Christofascist bullshit about a third of this country believes is “truth” or “a cogent thought worth sharing.” But, I have to say that there are some people and groups I think I can’t stop hating, and one of the biggest are gun cuddlers.

I’m not talking about average, sensible gun owners.

I have friends who own guns, more than one, and they keep them locked away safely, and they employ several important devices and measures that help keep their firearms as safe as possible. These gun owning friends of mine want stronger background checks, and they want magazine capacities limited. Most of them, in fact, even support banning certain kinds of guns, like the AR-15 platform. They do all these things because they’re adults who understand the need for responsibility to temper freedom. It sucks to say, as someone who truly takes advantage of his individual liberties as much as possible, but there are circumstances and freedoms that absolutely have to be curtailed in the name of public safety, and it can be done without completely repealing any constitutional rights.

But gun cuddlers? They can fuck off. They’re the ones who tell us, no matter what we’re talking about when it comes to guns, “SHALL NOT BE INFRINGED” is the only argument they’ll want or need to make. They’re the ones who legitimately believe dead first graders at Sandy Hook and dead high schoolers at Marjory Stoneman are tolerable prices to pay for our freedom and liberty. They’re the ones who not only want no new gun laws, they want fewer gun laws, if any, on the books.

Gun cuddlers, for lack of a better term, are “fucking stupid as fuck.” And they’re also scared as all get-out, which I am definitely here for.

You can see how scared they are by how much they’re trying to destroy the Parkland survivors who have started the #NeverAgain movement. They make up bullshit conspiracy theories about crisis actors. They smear them both as rank and file Republicans and as big, talking heads on Fox News. Convicted felon Dinesh D’Souza got a heaping helping of clapback and had to apologize for tweets in which he tried to savage the kids who, God forbid, are trying to petition their government to bring a grievance before it.

And why would these so-called lovers of family and family values be attacking victims of gun violence? Because they’re scared shitless that the movement the Parkland Survivors have started will get stuff done, that’s why. They have reason to be scared, because as this tweet below shows, the Parkland Survivors have already moved the needle in the one place conservatives get most panicked to see progressivism take root — the free market.

In the past 24 hours, these companies have ended their relationship with the @NRA: Best Western

Wyndham Hotels

Alamo Rent A Car

National Rent A Car

Enterprise Rent A Car

First National Bank of Omaha#BoycottNRA — Michael Skolnik (@MichaelSkolnik) February 23, 2018

The #NeverAgain movement is working, and that is precisely what conservatives are freaking out about. That’s why they’re carping about how rude and disrespectful the students are to politicians. fuck politicians, they shouldn’t be asking for votes if they can’t handle some teenage lip. More importantly, the kids are right, and they are incredibly effective. They’ve also raised millions of dollars for their cause already.

What the NRA and its hardcore base don’t realize, I think, is how many people really don’t view guns the same way they do. I’m not talking about the people who want to ban all guns and confiscate them all. Those people are as naive as anyone who thinks putting guns in the hands of teachers is the answer. But even most gun owners aren’t hardcore gun cuddlers. They understand the logic behind not letting just any moron on the street own a semiautomatic rifle. They understand protecting their Second Amendment rights come with the responsibility of trying as hard as they can to make it so others can’t abuse theirs.

I have to say, I don’t know how much momentum the Parkland Survivors can count on having after the next couple weeks. I remember when I thought 20 dead first graders would finally break the dam and we’d get background checks at the very least passed. I was way, way wrong there. But there is something different this time; these kids are old enough to have lived through and be the mass shooting generation, and they are articulate, smart, and passionate. So I’m here to support their cause until the bitter end, and I just adore watching them make people like Laura Ingraham quake in their boots, too.

Teenagers ended the Vietnam War. Teenagers got the draft shut down. Teenagers were a large part of the Civil Rights movement. All of these are reasons the right is paranoid and scared about the Parkland Survivors and what they mean for the unfettered proliferation of guns in the name of profits over people.

…and they should be scared.