An Atlanta music festival has been canceled because local authorities say that guns are more important than peaceful music

America loves their guns. They love them so much that they demand to take them everywhere so they can show how much they support their Second Amendment rights. Guns love trumps everything in the US.

Case in point: the long-running Music Midtown Festival in Atlanta. Promoted by Live Nation, this year’s event promised about 30 acts, including My Chemical Romance, Fall Out Boy, Future, and Jack White. To ensure a safe time for all, organizers wanted to prohibit firearms and explosives from Atlanta’s Piedmont Park.

A no-brainer, right? I’ve been to concerts where the caps to bottles of water are twisted off and kept by the concession stands less someone use them (or worse, a full bottle of…something) has a projectile. Glass bottles are prohibited. I’ve seen beach balls and Frisbees confiscated because they’re considered hazards. Someone gets hurt and suddenly insurance costs for the event go way up.

But this is Georgia. The state has the Safe Carry Protection Act, otherwise known as a the “guns everywhere law.” Since a Georgia Supreme Court ruling in 2019, private citizens can carry whatever guns they want, wherever they want so long as they’re on public property.

Piedmont Park is public property. Once word of the “no firearms and explosives” ban started getting around, pro-gun groups started making noise about how their legal rights weren’t being respected. Legal challenges were imminent. And had the show gone ahead as scheduled, there was much worry that some of these folks would have shown up to Music Midtown armed to the teeth because, well, it was their constitutional right. Music Midtown would have had no legal standing to enforce their ban on weapons.

Can you imagine being in a festival crowd and seeing a bunch of people walking around with AR-15s? That’s what organizers were faced with.

Rather than deal with such a volatile situation, Music Midtown has been canceled.

“Due to circumstances beyond our control, Music Midtown will no longer be taking place this year. We were looking forward to reuniting in September and hope we can all get back to enjoying the festival together again soon.”

Bottom line? The right to bear arms in Georgia is more important than enjoying a couple of days of music in peace and harmony.