There are times in life when a person who carries a gun has to make a decision. Do you draw your weapon or do you not?

The obvious times are when you’re faced with someone holding a weapon or while one person is being attacked. These are times when no one would think ill of you for drawing your weapon.

A dispute over condiments at a fast food place, however, is a different matter entirely.

The Jefferson Parish Sheriff’s Office arrested a man accused of pointing a gun at the manager of a Marrero Popeyes during a dispute over condiments, according to authorities. Earl Jethroe, 59, of Marrero walked into the Popeyes located at 7100 West Bank Expressway just after 3:30 p.m. Friday (Nov. 30) and ordered a meal from the fried chicken restaurant, said Capt. Jason Rivarde, spokesman for the department. Jethroe apparently took issued with the condiments provided by employees, the report indicates. Jethroe’s arrest report makes no mention of reason for his sauce dissatisfaction – whether he hadn’t received enough or if he’d requested a different flavor. But the manager allegedly refused Jethroe’s request to make amends for the perceived condiment shortcoming, according to JPSO. That’s when Jethroe threw his chicken across the counter, pulled a pistol from his waistband and pointed it at the manager, the arrest report said.

Jethroe was charged with aggravated assault and some other charges.

I’m not sure if gross stupidity is a charge in Louisiana or not. If it isn’t, then perhaps the state legislature could be convinced to consider it when in the next legislative session. Seriously.

Honestly, I could delve deep into this and try to come up with a rationale as to what this alleged act means, but I’d be just trying to pad my word count at that point. I’m fairly sure that Jethroe was either stupid or crazy, if not both. There’s no need for deep discussions as to the sociopolitical ramifications of his actions or how this will impact our Second Amendment rights.

After all, I’m pretty sure we all agree that him being arrested is the right move. If he’s convicted, he deserves whatever punishment that befalls him. I mean, he pulled a gun because of a disagreement over condiments at Popeyes. It’s not a case of victim blaming to say that he’s asking for this one.

As for lessons for us all, don’t be stupid.

On a serious note, however, I have noticed a trend of people who do seem to think that having a gun makes them tough. Guess what, folks? It doesn’t. It makes you armed and being armed endows you not with power, but with certain responsibilities. Among those is to retrain yourself from acting like a giant tool just because you know you can get away with it.

If Jethroe did what he’s alleged to have done, then I suspect he fell into that camp that somehow thinks having a gun makes him immune to the need for human decency. Well, it didn’t, and now he’s looking at jail time.

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