Only In America

Posted on by under guns, History, Law and justice, Political commentary, Social commentary, voting rights

Imagine for a minute that you’re in your local grocery store, perhaps perusing the canned veggies to re-stock your pantry after the holidays, when suddenly you encounter a man wearing body armour and carrying or wearing all of these …

What do you do?  If your heart doesn’t stop, I imagine you abandon your cart of groceries and head for the nearest exit, perhaps stopping to inform a member of the staff that there is a heavily armed terrorist in aisle 8, then when you are safely outside and close to your car, you dial 9-1-1.

It happened in Atlanta, Georgia in March 2021.  A 22-year-old man, Rico Marley, was discovered in the restroom of a Publix supermarket with one of the rifles leaning against the wall, the others on his person or in his hands.  A delivery driver had entered the restroom, quickly assessed the situation, and exited quickly in search of the store manager to report what he had seen.  Quick thinking led to Mr. Marley being arrested moments later as he exited the restroom, clothed in body armour with four loaded handguns in his pockets and a rifle and a shotgun, both loaded, in a guitar bag.

Two days earlier in Boulder, Colorado, a 21-year-old man went on a shooting spree in a King Soopers grocery store, killing ten people.

Common sense and logic would tell you that there is no good reason for Rico Marley to have carried six fully loaded lethal weapons into a grocery store, nor for him to be wearing body armour.  None!  While it is often said that we cannot assume a person’s intent, it seems quite obvious to me that he intended to emulate the actions of the Boulder shooter.  Why else would he have come fully armed and ‘loaded for bear’ into a place where people are doing naught more than trying to buy food to feed their families?

But the law doesn’t always follow the same logical patterns that my mind does.  Prosecutors initially went all in on Mr. Marley’s case, charging him with 11 felonies: five counts of criminal attempt to commit a felony and six counts of possession of a weapon “during commission of or attempt to commit certain felonies.”  But alas … the following February all charges were dropped, and Marley was released from jail because, as his attorney, Charles Brant argued, he had not made any threats or fired any shots and had legally purchased his guns. Mr. Marley did not violate Georgia law, Mr. Brant said; he was “just being a person, doing what he had the right to do.”

So … let me get this straight.  The rights of a person to arm themselves to the teeth in public supersede my rights to enter a grocery store and safely buy food for my family?  Only in America do the laws protect gun owners far more than law-abiding people going about their business.  Only in America.

All but three of the fifty states have laws that allow open carry, meaning that everywhere except Illinois, Florida and California, it is perfectly legal to walk the streets, enter a grocery store or church or movie theater with a loaded gun in hand.  Isn’t it ironic that while our voting rights are being drawn tighter, making it more difficult than ever to cast a vote in some states, gun rights are being made ever broader?  While women are being stripped of their rights to make their own medical decisions, people are being given expanded rights to terrorize and intimidate with lethal weapons?

Methinks the people of this country who elect the lawmakers have a skewed set of priorities.

32 thoughts on “Only In America”

  1. Sadly, it is for reasons you highlight here that I haven’t cross our Canadian border since Conald came along and made everything worse there. Until the NRA isn’t ruling America. sadly, I will not be back. 😦 xx

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  2. I have seen many pictures of people in your shops with handguns, automatic rifles etc and it has blown me away at how casually it is accepted. All shoppers have to automatically assume these people are not sick mentally, not angry, not robbing the store, not going to mass murder shoppers and that they do simply understand the danger of loaded weapons and have at least unloaded their weapons in the correct manner.

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    • I was in the bookstore not long ago when a man bent over to look at a magazine on the bottom rack and as his shirt pulled up, I saw a handgun tucked into the back of his belt. I left the store immediately, after informing the management. I’ve seen people with guns sticking out of their belts in the grocery store and also left immediately, after informing the staff. It may be accepted by some, but I refuse to occupy the same space as someone who is carrying a gun if I’m aware of it. I sometimes wonder how many times someone is in the same store as I am and is carrying a loaded gun, just waiting for someone to look at him wrong. Have I mentioned that I HATE guns?

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  3. It’s a combination. Guns lobbies own, especially the Republican politicians but some democrats as well. And their interest is simply getting re elected for the perks. And to do that, they not only take the bribe, and grovel at the far right base for the votes, but at bottom line do not care one whit if people shoot each other and die. They are seldom in stores, movie theaters, out late at night or concerts and this gives them the edge to not care because mostly it won’t effect them.

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  4. Some years ago (in 2016 to be precise) I swore never ever to put a foot on the soil of the ununited states of a again. We have relatives there but ‘tough luck’. if they want to visit us, that’s ok. but we will not go back to your country. i’m glad that we won’t have to (business or family matters) and we feel deeply sorry for all our honest, warm-hearted, kind friends who are good citizens, generous and loving. It just isn’t our choice.

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  6. I can’t even imagine what it must feel like to live in a country where the likelihood of these things happening are so high. I don’t pretend that we’re immune to this in Canada but not in a way where it’s almost become desensitized.

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    • It isn’t fun, my friend. I mostly stay home … I’m not comfortable in places like malls and restaurants anymore. You guys at least have laws … most of the gun laws we have were rescinded and now, in many states you don’t even need a license to own and carry a gun. If I were younger, I’d be moving for sure. Even now, we are considering leaving, but it’s easier said than done.

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  7. Jill, we should put up signs in our international airports, “Welcome to America, we hope your are packing heat, but left your birth control at home.”

    Keith

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  8. Not only in America, every nation has such absurd law loopholes which favours the threatening humans of the society. While the innocent public are victimised and their life is to live in fear.

    Liked by 1 person

    • Not meaning to disagree, but the gun laws in the U.S. are far more lenient than in other countries and our rate of gun deaths far outpaces every other nation on the globe. In my book, guns are the single worst invention of humankind!

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  9. EXCELLENT POST, Jill!!! Totally agree!!!

    Of course, your closing remark was the topper: While women are being stripped of their rights to make their own medical decisions, people are being given expanded rights to terrorize and intimidate with lethal weapons?

    And what is even more mind-boggling is the number of SANE and SENSIBLE gun-owners (yes, Jill, they do exist) who scream FOUL every time someone puts forth some/ANY type of restriction. Far too many of them take the stand that their “rights” take precedence over the number of lives that could be saved.

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    • Thank you, Nan!!! Oh, I know there are some sane and sensible gun owners, and most of them support tougher gun restrictions. In my book, those who decry even the most basic of gun restrictions are seriously lacking in humanity, in values. All one has to do is look at the faces of the parents of children who didn’t survive Parkland or Sandy Hook or Uvalde. All one has to do is ask themselves what’s more important, life or guns? Guns have one purpose and one purpose only: to kill. No other reason for their existence. They weren’t invented so men could shoot at paper targets … they were invented so men could kill others. Were it up to me, I’d take every gun in the world, put them on a few of Elon Musk’s spaceships, and dispatch them into outer space forever!

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  12. Pingback: Only In America — Filosofa’s Word | Ned Hamson's Second Line View of the News

  13. The people with the skewed set of priorities and values are the lawmakers who continue to abrogate their duties towards the people who vote them in. Who are prepared to see the populace be slaughtered willy nilly rather than ensure they are around for the next election cycle. It looks like the definition of politician should be rewritten as A bribe taking lackwit completely lacking a moral compass or feelings of guilt..

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    • That’s true, but people elected those lawmakers, knowing full well what they stood for, so I blame the people, too. Heh heh … I rather like your definition of a politician, but we both know it only applies to some of them, not all.
      Cwtch

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    • The only reason I can give is my own — that it’s easier said than done to pack up, leave job, family, friends, and move to another country. But no, I no longer respect this nation or its laws, wish I lived elsewhere. Sigh.

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      • Unfortunately that would be most people’s answer. And I know you are trying to fight for a better nation, a better world. I respect you for that. But when it comes to gun violence, you are 100 times more likely than I am to see it close up. And that makes me sad. I worry about you.

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        • I’ve seen it up close, and I survived. Maybe next time I won’t, because yes, it’s all around us. Not a single day goes by that there isn’t gun violence within 10 miles of my home. Sigh. I HATE it and I HATE the people who advocate for gun ‘rights’.

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