Carrying a firearm doesn’t make you a criminal. What you do with that firearm is what determines that.

Society has sort of come to a point where a citizen who wishes to carry a firearm is considered a bit rogue and perhaps a little right of center.

That’s too bad because in some ways safe, responsible firearms ownership is at the core of our nation’s founding, it’s history and quite likely its future, too.

Mississippians have heard much lately about the new open carry law. The law was to go into effect Monday, but is now on hold for another week to give a judge time to rule on a lawsuit over the law’s constitutionality.

Ultimately, the law will likely stand — and it should.

It’s not the state of Mississippi’s place to say whether or not the U.S. Constitution is right or wrong. Clearly, at the moment at least, Americans have the right to bear arms.

Carrying firearms is part of the daily routine in some of the more remote and wild parts of our country such as Alaska. There, the enemy may be a large predatory animal.

Here, the enemy may be a large, predatory criminal, a criminal likely to ignore gun control laws even if all firearms were banned.

In the end, a citizen’s life is in danger regardless of the source.

What America really needs is likely less gun control measures and more bad people control measures.