AP Photo/Rex Curry

Constitutional carry is, in a lot of ways, the “Holy Grail” for gun rights. These laws allow people to keep and bear arms according to their personal choice, not government regulation or permission. They get to decide if they want to carry or not.

With that in mind, I was thrilled to hear Kentucky was looking to join the constitutional carry club. Every state that passes such laws is another state that disproves the fearmongering.

Not everyone shared that sentiment, though.

A father whose daughter was killed in the Parkland, Florida, school shooting denounced Kentucky lawmakers on Friday for pushing through an open-carry bill that passed its first major hurdle on the anniversary of his daughter’s murder.

Fred Guttenberg, who has become a vocal supporter for gun control legislation following the death of his daughter, Jaime, told Newsweek the bill was a “major setback” and characterized it as a threat to public safety.

“This bill has nothing to do with public safety and is simply going to make it easier to sell more guns,” Guttenberg said. “Shame on the legislators who have given up on their responsibility to defend the right to life of Kentucky citizens and to take steps to keep them free of gun violence. I hope the donations they receive from the (National Rifle Association) is worth it.”

The bill, which first passed the Republican-controlled Senate on February 14, allows state residents over the age of 21 to carry concealed firearms and other concealed weapons without a license. The piece of legislation, which passed 60-37 in the House, now lands on the desk of Republican Governor Matt Bevin, who did not immediately return Newsweek’s request for comment on whether he would sign it into law. On Friday, he told Gray TV that he would sign the bill.

I know that Guttenberg lost his child. I can’t even imagine what that must be like, and I’m not going to try because I don’t think I could take it. I love my kids way too much.

But Guttenberg isn’t honoring his daughter. He’s beclowning himself by pontificating on a topic he knows nothing about, nothing at all.

Constitutional carry doesn’t make people less safe. After all, the criminals are already carrying guns. They’ve been carrying them without permits the whole time.

What these laws do is allow private citizens to carry guns for their protection without having to beg the state for permission to do so. As a result, these lawful citizens can carry a firearm whenever they find the need, rather than having to wait precious days they may not have.

The truth of the matter is that guns make us far safer. If Guttenberg bothered to compare the CDC’s statistics for defensive gun uses to the CDC’s number of people killed with guns, he’d see that while the loss of any innocent life is a tragedy, the good done by firearms well outpaces any harm committed with them.

But Guttenberg doesn’t care about that. He’s emotionally driven, fueled by rage over his daughter’s murder and not remotely someone you can consider rational on the subject of guns. I was going to ask why the media keeps shining a spotlight on him, but I know why. They don’t want rational; they want you mad and afraid.

And someone like Guttenberg making a fool of themselves is, they figure, likely to do just that.