You have failed to articulate any rationale as to why I should respect that kind of crass consumerism. Respect is earned. You don't earn my respect by bringing an anti-materiel rifle to a protest to advertise your mercantile aspirations. You don't earn my respect by seeing armed communists creating roadblocks, effectively menacing people into compliance, and then criticizing their firearm accessories like a teenager girl criticizes another girl's shoes.

I can articulate why I don't like it. It signals to me that far too many do not take what's happening seriously, that their guns are some kind of toy or hobby to them and they'll stamp their feet like children when they're taken away, but in the end they will be taken away.

You can feel insulted by that characterization if you like, but the fact that there is very little real pushback against this behavior while people are being sent to prison for defending themselves tells me, at least, that many people presumably on our side don't preserve the "spirit of resistance" but at best view their firearms as some kind of totemic symbol to ward off evil rather than a tool of resistance - and at worst see it as an opportunity to status signal.

Either way I can't help but find it embarrassing. Feeling insulted doesn't make you right or give you any special claim to strawman me.

EDIT I'm sure the people who participate in this are fine people, but I'd just like them to consider what I and others have said, that's all.