I’ve heard a lot of bad arguments regarding a lot of things in my life. One is this idea that there’s a right to safety. In other words, the government exists in part to provide safety for each individual and anything that someone thinks makes them unsafe is something the government should outlaw.

Yeah, it sounds ridiculous.

However, it gets worse when people use that to try and justify anti-Second Amendment positions, like an op-ed in The Daily Cougar, the student newspaper at the University of Houston, does.

Gov. Greg Abbott’s new permitless carry  law should not happen due to the recent increase in mass shootings.

…

This law will put so many of us in danger, considering it is already extremely easy to get a gun in this state.

We take the mentality that guns bring us freedom and that they are part of our identity to the extreme. With a society that prioritizes guns so much already, making unlicensed carry legal is unnecessary and poses a big safety risk.

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Humanity needs to become a bigger priority in this state. This means that stricter gun control is necessary. Our government should listen to its people and make them feel safe, rather than allowing a law as dangerous as permitless carry.

This is in an op-ed entitled, “Permitless carry infringes on the right to safety.”

The thing is, no such right exists. You can get hurt doing anything. You could walk down the street, step wrong, and sprain your ankle. Is that a violation of your civil rights? I had a nasty ankle sprain while hunting at a state wildlife management area. Did the state of Georgia violate my civil right to safety because they didn’t level out the woods?

Of course not.

The thing is, this “right to safety,” whether it’s espoused as such or not, is really just about one group of people getting to feel safer, as noted in the last quoted paragraph.

The problem, however, is these people are putting their own feelings of safety above those of others. They want to feel safe. They don’t care if you feel safe or not.

Especially when more guns in the hands of law-abiding people is universally a good thing. Those who would infringe on one’s “right to safety” are people who were going to carry a gun either way. They don’t actually care what the law says, so the new measure in Texas won’t change their behavior one way or another.

More law-abiding citizens carrying means more people who will be willing to meet these threats and protect human life, even if only by trying to protect their own.

In other words, if there were a right to safety, the new permitless carry law will do more to preserve it than any gun control measure ever could.

To the author–who is young so I understand really doesn’t know how the world works–I simply want to point out that your feelings of safety don’t get to trump mine. I have a right to feel safe, too, don’t I? That isn’t going to happen if I’m barred from carrying a firearm, especially when the criminals are going to carry them no matter what you say.

Frankly, if you feel safe without a firearm, you need to wake the hell up.