North Texas Daily

Let’s be honest, guns don’t kill people, people who are mentally disturbed that have access to guns, kill people. Like many Americans across the country I am a gun owner. I believe in the right to own firearms and the right to protect oneself, but I also hope to never have to use it on another human being.

The right to own a gun is a right that some may not really understand. I understand that we have a police force that we are supposed to call if there is any kind of trouble or criminal intent that another individual is trying to inflict on me. But what happens when you are home alone or with your family and someone breaks into your home with dangerous intent? You can call the police and eventually they will arrive on the scene but in the time you are waiting for the police to show up, harm could have already came to you or your family and that is the reason why I choose to carry.

There are many people who believe in stricter gun laws and there are many who believe that the laws that are already in place are enough. In the state of Texas, I believe the gun laws are fine the way they are. As a matter of fact, it is because of these laws that many lives were saved in the West Freeway Church of Christ shooting in White Settlement, Texas. As tragic as it was that two church parishioners were senselessly killed by a gunman, more lives were saved because of the Senate Bill 535 law that was passed allowing possession of firearms in places of worship.

If this laws was passed sooner, or if licensed handgun owners brought their weapons with them already even before the law was passed, I can only think about the potential lives that could have possibly been saved.

In November of 2017 in Sutherland Springs, Texas, 25 people and an unborn child were murdered, and the gunman was chased down and shot and killed by a good Samaritan with a gun, or better yet as some say, the “good guy with a gun.” In El Paso, Texas at a Walmart, 20 innocent people got killed and, in my opinion, if there was someone in the store other than the shooter who had a concealed firearm, there could have possibly been more lives saved. The Odessa, Texas mass shooting that took place in September of 2019 is another example of the gun laws that are already in place working, because even though the gunman was still able to illegally buy a firearm from someone off the street, he attempted to purchase a firearm the legal way and was flagged through the database and denied a purchase of firearms.

The current gun laws are enough to work and if more stricter gun laws are passed, the only thing that will happen is that you will be restricting law abiding citizens from protecting themselves from criminals and mass shooters. Many people have lost their lives to gun violence and that is a tragedy. As a gun owner, I was once asked why I need an AR-15 or a rifle that carries high capacity magazines. My answer was that while some use these guns for hunting or other sport, I have mine for protection in case the government decides to take away the rights of the American people altogether.

In the words of the famous comedian Dave Chappelle, “the first Amendment is first for a reason and the second Amendment is just in case the first one doesn’t work out.”