New gun bill in the Georgia House/Senate

There are new bills being introduced in the the Georgia House (Rep. Tim Bearden (R-Villa Rica)) and Senate (State Sen. Mitch Seabaugh (R-Sharpsburg)) to clarify the confusing Georgia firearm laws.  Putting aside the merits of a long overdue clarification of the obscure rules in Georgia, I was quite amazed by the comments of several readers of the linked articles.  Here are just a few:

Shouldn’t those law makers be spending their time trying to create jobs for unemployed Georgians?

Our school sytems are awful, unemployment is out the roof, forclosures are among the worst, banks are failing right and left, terrible high school completion rate, one of the worst teen pregnancy rates in the nation, high child abuse rates, addiction issues are afflicting many of our population, huge numbers of children and families with no health insurance…and yet our “esteemed” legislators are worrying about where we can carry guns!!!

I found these comments (and other like them) quite disheartening.  First of all, nowhere in our Constitution is our directed (or allowed) to create jobs, put kids through school, keep teens from getting pregnant, and so on.  It IS listed, right there in the Second Amendment, that we are to have the right to keep and bear arms.  This freedom is one of the most crucial protections against the potential of a tyrannical government.  The Georgia Congress is doing well to make a confusing law more "user friendly."

I think that the real reasoning behind those comments is better illustrated in one other comment to the first story:

For me, I don’t want to be anywhere, around anyone that has a gun, be it concealed or brazen, on them.

Some people are just afraid of guns.  I can understand that.  A lack of familiarity can be daunting.  But many of these people who are afraid of these "deadly" guns don't have the slightest problem getting into a car, and cars kill MANY more people a year than guns do.  And cars can't protect you, unless you're running away...