The Hurricane Harvey disaster that struck Texas in 2017 sparked furious debates on firearm carrying during and after a state disaster. And what followed was enacting a law to allow Texans to carry handguns openly or concealed when a disaster is declared in the state.

The 2019 legislation was misguided in permitting Texas residents to carry a #handgun while evacuating or re-entering an area where a disaster has been declared for seven days. The Texas legislature passed this bill to protect themselves and their property after the declaration of a natural disaster. According to the bill's proponents, evildoers take the opportunity of disasters to loot other peoples' property.

However, I find this rule excessive and it will lead to increased crime and danger in Texas during and after a natural disaster. The police are trained and tasked with protecting residents and their property in times of disaster, just as they did during Hurricane Harvey. And thus, they should be given their space to maintain law and order in the state. Allowing the public to move around with guns while the police are responding will lead to conflicts and unnecessary shootings. More so, the law gives criminals a leeway to carry handguns to execute their evil schemes during a disaster. This further makes it difficult for the police to distinguish between criminals and victims.

Additionally, not everyone living in Texas can afford to own a gun. And if we allow those with handguns to carry them openly, we promote social inequity and injustice. There will be an increased danger to unarmed Texans who may be assaulted by the firearm owners. Yet the gun owners would defend themselves by arguing that they were protecting their property. Then how do the unarmed persons protect themselves and their property?

The National Rifles Association (NRA) has been overtly campaigning for pro-gun laws in Texas, and they were behind this Texas low. However, it is devastating for the #NRA to use fear mongering to spread false looting claims when a natural disaster such as a hurricane happens. And while I don't dispute that looting may happen, one or two looting cases should not be exaggerated to look as if the whole state is being looted.

Furthermore, criminals will always find ways of looting and carrying guns after a disaster may not help much. For example, the NRA argued that fewer looting events were reported in Texas than Florida in times of disasters because Texas has more pro-gun laws. Yet the truth is that the two states nearly have the same statistics of gun ownership.

Texas has experienced incidences of mass-shooting, such as the horrible events such as Uvalde in 2022 or El Paso in 2019. With this experience, I think the law allowing people to carry handguns during and after a natural disaster openly amounts to a breach of public safety. Instead, the state should learn from mass-shooting plagues that lead to the loss of innocent unarmed citizens and add more restrictions to firearm ownership and carrying.

Open carrying guns after a natural disaster endangers Texans. Criminal gangs get the chance to undertake their malicious activities and the public may also interfere with the police's efforts to protect them.