I understand your concern about guns. You see what is on the news and you get scared. I get it; it is scary. And that is why I carry whenever I legally can.
The founders of our great nation understood this so they added the 2nd Amendment to the Constitution. This was done not only with the US Constitution but with the SC State Constitution as well (Article I, Section 20). They did this NOT to give us the right but to remind the government that our right to self-defense preceded these documents and that those rights should not be “infringed”.
Passing laws that restrict gun ownership, the ability of individuals to carry guns, the method of carry or place of carry does NOT prevent the “bad guys” from having guns. If laws were all that was needed to control human behavior, we would not have any illegal drugs in this country… period.
What these additional laws do, plain and simple, is remove the right of self-protection from good, law-abiding citizens. That’s all they do; nothing more and nothing less. It will NOT prevent crime and it will not prevent the “bad guys” from having guns because most of them obtain their guns illegally.
I have a tremendous amount of respect for law enforcement. The conditions in which they do the job they do would “break” most individuals. For the most part, these folks are the daily American heroes and receive little recognition for what they accomplish. But, when a “life-threatening” situation occurs, unless there is an officer within 30 feet of you, the response time for 911 will be measured in minutes when seconds are all most have to survive.
So, if you’re serious about feeling safer, you should learn how to protect yourself. If having a gun makes you uncomfortable, then lobby your legislators to increase the budgets of ALL your local and state law enforcement agencies so they can have more officers on patrol. That is something that the government can do to reduce crime.
But please don’t take away my right to protect myself because my life depends on it.