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Showing Original Post only (View all)The grocery store, the gun, and my free speech rights [View all]
Earlier today before I mowed the lawn and had to take some allergy pills, I was at the grocery store. There in the line behind me, when I was checking out, was someone carrying a gun on their hip. I didn't say anything. It's totally legal here in my state, after all. But, I just felt like they were somehow inhibiting my freedom to speech. I can't exactly figure out the how, or the why, or the what of the whole thing.
Maybe I was afraid to speak to the cashier? Maybe I thought that something would happen if I made a sudden move? Like if I pulled out my wallet too fast, the crazy person behind me would think I'm going for a knife to shank him, or somebody else? I mean, who needs a gun in the freaking grocery store? That meat you're buying is already dead, I promise you won't have to shoot it. I felt very conscious of all of my movements, like I was being watched, like a penned up animal at the zoo.
When I got out to my car, I just sat behind the steering wheel, angry. I wrapped my fingers tightly around the wheel, and just sat there, all tense, feeling uneasy, and flustered about the whole ordeal. I felt like I wasn't in control of the situation inside of that store at all.
I felt like I had been silenced. I felt like you would after being admonished by an authority figure, when you have no rebuttal. I felt like a child who had been caught with his hand in the cookie jar. I felt like I was the one who had done something wrong.
Why did I feel this way? I'm still pissed about it. If I can figure out why, I can fight it next time. Sorry for venting.