Second Amendment: Right (for white men) to bear arms

So, this recently happened at Atlanta’s Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport:

Taking advantage of his state’s open carry laws, a Georgia man paraded around the Atlanta airport toting a loaded AR-15 simply because he could — alarming police and airport security.

Jim Cooley carried his assault weapon with a 100-round drum attached to it while accompanied by his wife as they dropped their daughter off, alerting the press later after he was stopped multiple times by authorities.

…While in the airport, Cooley was approached by a fire marshal asking him why he was carrying the gun, an Atlanta police officer who asked him if he had a carry permit, and then multiple officers who followed him to his car while taking pictures.

…Asked by a reporter if it was reasonable to alarm people by lugging the loaded gun around even if it was legal, Cooley replied, “If you don’t exercise your rights, the government doesn’t have any hesitation taking them away.”

No, you don’t have to click on the article, and you probably already guessed anyway. It was a white guy.

That’s relevant, of course, as soon as you imagine what might happen if a Middle Eastern-looking guy wearing a turban tried the same thing at the world’s busiest airport. Or a black guy. Or a Latino guy. Or, really, any non-white guy.

Certainly its racial overtones is not the only reason it’s time to dispatch the Second Amendment to the dustbin of history — but that alone is a damn good one.

Plus, you know, there’s the whole idea that it’s really not acceptable — by any civilized or rational standard — to carry around a military-grade rifle (the same style that was used to slaughter schoolchildren in Connecticut) at an airport, much less anywhere else in public.

Nor, for that matter, is it acceptable or necessary, by even the most charitable interpretation, for civilians to possess them in the first place.