Before President Barack Obama even mentioned gun control, the National Rifle Association was convinced that he was on the verge of enacting mass gun confiscations.

The NRA breathlessly reported any progress made on an United Nations arms treaty that would prohibit the sale of weapons in cases where the arms would likely end up in the hands of terrorists or warlords. The NRA insisted that this would mean the United States would cede its sovereignty and give the UN — famously ineffectual — complete power over its citizens and their firearms. The NRA whipped up such a panic that when the treaty was approved, the United States senate refused to ratify it.

After the 2012 Aurora theater shooting, when 12 people were murdered and a further 58 wounded by gunfire, Obama was still reluctant to address gun violence, only voicing tepid support for an assault weapons ban during a debate against Mitt Romney months later.

If silence meant a UN gun grab, lukewarm support for near-meaningless gun control was tantamount to Hitler II to the NRA.

This was further cemented that December after the Sandy Hook Massacre, which led Obama and other prominent Democrats to call for a ban on assault weapons and universal background checks. The nature of the Republican-held Congress meant that this gun control push was cut down to a polite call for background checks, a request congressional Republicans ignored.

With Obama’s term coming to an end and Hillary Clinton looking to be the next President of the United States, gun rights fans are awash with fresh new conspiracy theories. The Islamocommunist may have failed in his eight year, quarter-assed gun-grabbing effort, but Hillary — the rabid Marxist masquerading in a moderate Republican’s clothes — will be the true threat to the 2nd Amendment.

Donald Trump certainly enjoys feeding into the Big Brother delusions of his supporters, and began Wednesday night’s debate by stoking gun-grabbing fantasies.

“We need a Supreme Court that, in my opinion, is going to uphold the Second Amendment, which is under absolute siege. I believe if my opponent should win this race… we will have a Second Amendment which will be a very, very small replica of what it is right now,” said the man accused of sexually harassing or assaulting numerous women.

Like most of Trump’s comments that night, his charge that 2nd Amendment rights will be whittled down into meaninglessness were amusing given the craven lack of backbone evidenced by Congressional Democrats in recent years. Trump would have to take a great deal of House Republicans down with him for a basic background bill to have a remote chance of passing, nevermind any sort of ban on assault weapons.

Strict gun control certainly isn’t a cure-all for the gun violence epidemic in America — especially given the racial disparities in how those gun laws are enforced — but the kneejerk rejection of any attempt to reduce the 30,000 annual deaths through gun legislation and the tendency for conservatives to invent problems that aren’t actually there are helpful when examining other conservative talking points, from Islam and creeping Sharia to their favorite topic, black-on-black crime.

For conservatives, the problems of inner-cities exist solely to distract from other problems. Chicago’s shooting problems are used to deflect attention from mass shootings committed with assault weapons, police killing black people and just about anything else they’re uncomfortable discussing at the moment. The fact the city of Chicago has strict gun control laws becomes a slick joke to them, unable to distinguish the possible effectiveness of a federal law compared to a city law. Driving outside of the city limits to pick up a .45 is one thing, driving to Canada or Mexico is another.

Democrats are nearly always mucking things up. From far-reaching drone policies to knuckling under to pressure on entitlement reform, there are plenty of nonfiction mistakes to critique. No need for fantasy.