When it comes to Second Amendment rights, Republicans and Libertarians normally defend them. It is rare to find a strong Democrat voice reassuring their voter base that the right to bear arms is an absolute necessity. However, if you look further left, there are numerous groups who share this sentiment, and Democrats should too.

Access to guns is not and has never been an inherently conservative issue. Leftist groups like The Black Panthers and the Zapatistas saw massive importance in arming their respective people. The Huey P. Newton Gun Club was formed in 2014 and named after Black Panther founder. The organization’s main objective is arming “all black, brown and poor men and women across the United States that can legally bear arms.”

The increasingly authoritarian government is actively encroaching on citizen’s rights in the name of combatting terrorism. It is essential that Democrats and Leftists take up issue with violations of this amendment and the inaccessibility of guns. No longer should it be seen as a right versus left issue.

People will agree that it is preferable for interactions with the government to be peaceful. However, citizens want a means of self-defense when faced with violence from the government and conventional avenues have been exhausted.

It is important to note that the Second Amendment was primarily created for average citizens to protect themselves from oppressive governments. Today, we are witnessing a mass increase in the militarization of our police forces and the continuation of police brutality.

When people acknowledge that the police are an extension and tool of the state, it is evident that conditions may arise where the government becomes even more violent toward its people. With 914 fatal interactions with police this year and counting, citizens must have the tools to combat this violence.

However, Democratic logic of the Second Amendment is filled with contradictions. It is contradictory for Democrats to acknowledge the extreme danger in a Trump presidency and at the same time allow for gun rights to be infringed upon. It is contradictory to support Black Lives Matter and not grasp the potential and immediate danger of militarized police against unarmed communities.

This summer, Democrats in Congress staged a sit-in for a bill that would allow people on the no-fly list to not be able to own guns. Though this may sound like an okay idea on the surface, it is actually extremely alarming.

One would imagine that people who are on this list would all be big-time criminals or ISIS sympathizers. However, it is not that simple.

Historically, the United States has had the ability to deem certain citizens as treasonous simply based on their political ideas. Entire groups of people and movements being blocked from arming themselves because the state deemed their opposition “treasonous” is incredibly problematic, oppressive and dangerous.

Not to mention the fact that the no-fly list has plenty of technical errors that could land almost anyone on it without due process. In Dec. 2015, CNN reported that Jet Blue removed an 18-month-old child from a 2012 flight because she had been tagged as “no fly.” Similarly, British singer-songwriter Yusuf Islam, who goes by Cat Stevens, was denied entry into the U.S. because of his name in 2004.

A government that is not actively scared of its people may not be quite as responsive. It can be argued that civil rights laws would have taken substantially longer to be passed if armed groups like the Black Panthers would have waited for a “more convenient time.”

If Democrats truly believe in the full liberation of all people, it is absolutely necessary for them to take the position that citizens should be able to defend themselves from state-sanctioned violence. At the end of the day, the ballot box is not the sturdiest shield.

-May Olvera is a journalism junior