The right to carry should remain protected

Earlier this month, as a woman and her husband were dining at a restaurant in Houston, a patron’s gun fell from his pocket and discharged.

Diana Barker, a grandmother from Kingwood, was struck by the bullet in her buttocks. “The bullet’s upward trajectory hit my mom on the left buttocks and then continued through her hip, into her abdomen and ended at the right side of her chest,” Barker’s sons wrote on caringbridge.org.

Although the bullet missed all arteries and vital organs, a significant amount of damage was done to Barker’s intestines. Thankfully, Barker is beginning to make monumental strides toward recovery.

Barker’s incident — and the shootings in Tucson involving Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-Ariz.) — have prompted a swell of gun control debates among politicians.

President Barack Obama is expected to unveil a new gun control plan within the next few weeks. He will most likely propose strengthening current gun control laws that currently allow mentally unstable people to obtain certain weapons.

Robert Gibbs, the White House press secretary, downplayed the supposed talks by saying that “there isn’t a timetable, but it seems as though it is inevitable,” Gibbs told New York Times reporters last Wednesday.

In Texas, gun rights are a hot-button issue. While it is perfectly reasonable to strengthen laws that currently allow mentally unstable people, like alleged Arizona shooter Jared Loughner, to purchase certain firearms, drastic changes are unnecessary.

The main reason for that is people who shouldn’t have guns will continue to get them. There is no way to stop it, especially when there are over 300 million guns owned by civilians in the United States, according to justfacts.com.

Reducing the occurrence of accidents like Diana Barker’s is a huge part of gun law reform.

“What we ask is that anyone who legally carries a gun ‘remember’ that they have it, ensure that it has a functional safety, that the safety is in use and not carry unreasonably dangerous weapons,” wrote Barker’s sons on caringbridge.org.

If you are lawfully carrying a gun, be responsible. It’s that simple. Adjusting the laws to allow for a reduction in sales to those who are unstable or criminals is necessary, but forcing law-abiding citizens to also endure those adjustments is not.