A Guy Walks Into JC Penny With An Assault Rifle Strapped To His Back: “This is 22-year-old Joseph Kelley. The gun is an unloaded AR-15. “I felt no negative vibes from anyone,” Kelley told the Salt Lake Tribune, after these photos snapped by fellow JC Penny shopper Cindy Yorgason went viral. “I think it went rather surprisingly well.” Kelley added that he carries guns to protect people from “criminals, cartels, drug lords” and “evil men.” He was also carrying a loaded Glock 19c.”
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Sometimes it’s just a matter of melanin. Let’s just imagine for a minute that Joseph Kelley had middle-eastern features — or that he was a black man: might his fellow SLC Penneys’ shoppers given off some ‘negative vibes’? Might Kelley have been greeted at the door by the police?
Or, for the fun of it, let’s imagine Joseph Kelley wearing the AR-15 in any other large city that isn’t the completely homogenized HQ of the Church of Latter-day Saints: would it have gone ‘surprisingly well’? And would he have made it home WITH the firearm still attached to his person? Does anyone really want a 22-year-old “protecting” them from his idea of imaginary villains?
Most importantly: as we’ve witnessed all too often, the most dangerous people in America have been young white men with guns. You have to wonder why his fellow shoppers weren’t more alarmed.
“White, overweight, bad dresser. Yep, he’s one of us!”
Yet, who’s to say that because he felt no “bad vibes” (and no police stopped him) it means that everyone there was perfectly fine with this? Maybe 911 didn’t get multiple calls, but other shoppers may have been uncomfortable enough to head for the doors. They won’t call 911 upon encountering people with brown skin in the store either, but doesn’t mean they’re happy about it.
Or, maybe he’s testing a theory that if you want to go on a public shooting spree, all that business about using a duffle bag to sneak in all your gear is totally unnecessary.