When Jim Cooley and his wife, Maria, went to drop their daughter off at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport, he made sure he had all the essentials: car keys, a wallet, and an AR-15.
WSBTV interviewed Cooley in the Barrow County Sheriffs Office parking lot where he stated that he did not break any laws.
“It shouldn’t matter what I carry, just that I choose to carry,” he said. “You never know where something might happen.”
While legally Cooley did not break any laws, he certainly raised a few eyebrows and caused a firestorm on Twitter.
Critics called him everything from “a clown” to a “narcissist” and said he wouldn’t have gotten away with this if he were black. They even charged that his large gun was an attempt to make up for him lacking in the male anatomy.
Clowns-Jim Cooley-exactly why people want gun reform. Besides all the senseless deaths daily, but hey. Lets just be an attention whore.
— #GoAwayGeno (@SteveMonahan17) June 4, 2015
http://t.co/oDYOAGpWIx People parading around with guns are just hoping they get a chance to shoot somebody.
— Max Sawicky (@maxbsawicky) June 3, 2015
Area Narcissist Takes Loaded Assault Rifle into Busy Airport … Because America: http://t.co/hBQ8pIrAI6
— Michael Cohen (@speechboy71) June 3, 2015
Atlanta Douchebag Brings Loaded AR-15 Into Airport Because He Can (VIDEO) @TPM http://t.co/2nvwCAXdLl
— Josh Marshall (@joshtpm) June 3, 2015
Jim Cooley decided to this instead of wearing a sign that said “I have a small penis”. Same message though. http://t.co/gSFUMtEnDh
— @boopumpkins (@boopumpkins) June 4, 2015
Jim Cooley
I am a big man
(yes I am)
and I have a big gun
http://t.co/Lkzqjmkimu
https://t.co/mTRDWdloKl pic.twitter.com/oslJnPM24W
— Moeez Siddiqui (@messofanego) June 3, 2015
