What’s the best way to respond to President Barack Obama’s historic plans for gun control?

Why, to show everyone how much we love our guns!

Gun Appreciation Day is Saturday, just 24 hours before Obama is officially sworn in to a second term and 48 hours before the public ceremony … which happens to fall on a national holiday honoring a black civil rights leader assassinated with a .30-caliber rifle.

“I predict it will be a bang up success (pun very much intended),” writes the author of a Gun Appreciation Day post titled Guns Are Safe & Sexy. “I love guns and the fact that we live in a country founded on rugged individualism. Because of that, many citizens are very pro-gun. Contrary to what you may hear from the anti-gun crowd, this doesn’t make these citizens a bunch of crazies bent on turning every corner of America into the Wild West. It’s just the opposite.”

Doing its part, the Hawaii Rifle Association is urging 2nd Amendment supporters to exercise their 1st Amendment rights at the state Capitol at “high noon” local time.

“Join us for a peaceful walk to protect our right to bear arms,” the HRA states. “Please bring a pro-gun or pro-2nd Amendment sign.”

In parenthesis, the HRA adds, “I know this is a no-brainer, but please do not bring firearms or mock firearms to to the gathering.”

Yes, please!

Besides, state sheriffs will arrest you.

‘What Would Django Do?’

Gun Appreciation Day is being promoted on conservative outlets like Fox News and the Drudge Report, but there are also grass-roots campaigns, including here at home.

Willes Lee, an active member of the Hawaii Republican Party, has emailed out this message:

We’re facing another threat of really unreasonable laws from our state legislature. Some republicans are joining the “progressive democrats” in supporting more stringent firearms legislation in Hawaii. It seems some republicans have made a deal with the devil to gain more power.

It’s time to organize, mobilize and mount a united effort.

Lee forwarded an email from another gun-rights supporter that says, “Bring an appropriate sign and dress appropriately to impress drivers and the press that we are the good guys.”

State Sen. Sam Slom will be in attendance along with other Republicans, and some local Democrats are expected to participate as well.

Nationally, supporters are making an all-inclusive pitch, too.

In another post at the Gun Appreciation Day website, this one titled What Would Django Do? Arms and “The Man”, author Jonathan David Farley writes:

“Why do African-Americans side with liberal proponents of gun control? Historically, guns have been the African-American’s greatest friend. The great Ida B. Wells — who, like me, had to flee Klan supporters in Tennessee after writing a newspaper article — said that ‘a Winchester rifle should have a place of honor in every black home … ‘”

The Django reference is to both the new Quentin Tarantino film and to the phrase “What Would Jesus Do?”

(It seems that, if only it had been invented then, the Savior would have brandished his AR-15 in front of that nasty Pontius Pilate.)

Farley continues: “Larry Ward, convenor of the Gun Appreciation Day rally in Washington, D.C., said on CNN that if African-Americans had had guns, slavery might not have happened.”

Well! That’s quite a powerful weapon. And an absurd statement.

Reaction to the Obama administration’s plan is also bordering on the absurd. And frightening.

On Friday, Media Matters a progressive media watchdog, reported that Gun Appreciation Day organizers accepted the sponsorship of a white nationalist organization to promote and mobilize supporters for its January 19 event.

People, let’s take a deep breath and think this through.

The president and Vice President Joe Biden are trying to respond to a national call for action. Though the administration can act through executive order, the toughest proposals — such as reinstating a ban on assault weapons — have to go through Congress. It will be a hard fight.

But it’s a fight that is long overdue. It’s been one of the bloodiest periods in America when it comes to mass shootings, from the gunshots suffered by a congresswoman in Tucson in 2010 to the shootings at a movie theater in Colorado and an elementary school in Connecticut in 2012.

The 2nd Amendment is not going away. Guns will not be randomly seized from citizens. Guns will still be used for hunting, target practice, safety and — yes, unfortunately — to commit crimes.

So, show your appreciation for guns, as is your constitutional right. But let’s keep it civil.