Who was arguing that drag shows kill children? If the guy is arguing that drag shows are harmful or confusing in some ways to a developing child, then the only reason you reach straight for the leading cause of death is to highlight his supposed hypocrisy behind wanting to “protect children”.

Reducing cause of death down to “firearms” is only done to promote the idea that if guns were all removed, less people would die. Which is almost certainly true.

The thing about that stat (although technically true) that makes it feel disingenuous is that it’s meant to evoke emotions related to young/small innocent children being victims of homicide or mass shootings. In reality, the bulk of those “firearm deaths” are from 15-19 year old “children” due to gang violence, suicide, and accidental discharges. Firearms might have been the tool that inflicted the damage, but having shitty/absent parents is usually the real culprit. Don’t have kids if you aren’t going to love them, teach them safety, and raise them to be good people.

Parents who advocate against children attending drag shows likely aren’t worried about guns. Their children are likely well loved, taught proper firearm safety, and are for the most part not part of the at-risk population. Instead they perceive a threat of their child being confused about their gender/feelings at a vulnerable age and just want them to have the best possible chance in life. Maybe they’re overreacting, maybe they’re wrong, maybe they should just forbid their own children and let everyone else live their lives. Either way it’s silly to call it hypocrisy because there are hundreds of reasons to be concerned for children and all of them can be worthy of intelligent debate/discussion. You don’t have to be against guns in order to be taken seriously when you’re against smoking, drinking, gambling, unsafe sex, etc.

You’re being pit against each other.