You’re in a Publix checkout line with a cartful of groceries. The customer ahead of you has a three-year-old in her cart. A man walks in the front door in a tactical vest with bulging ammo pockets and an AR-15 slung over his shoulder.

He’s only showing off — you hope. Maybe he’s looking to buy more ammo, though Publix doesn’t sell it — at least not yet.

It’s unlikely that the armed visitor intends to kill everyone on sight — but how can you be sure?

And how do you explain the firearm to your kids or grandchildren?

A shopping displeasure

Open carry, as the gun lobby calls it, is now legal in Florida thanks to a noxiously extremist First District Court of Appeal and unelected Attorney General James Uthmeier, who smugly refuses to defend Florida law by appealing the hideous decision in McDaniels v. State.

There are exceptions, including those that apply to convicted felons and people under 21 or under domestic violence restraining orders. Government buildings remain off limits to guns, as are several other locations such as bars. As we’ve noted, there’s concern that this decision has exposed a loophole for long guns to these exceptions that the Legislature must quickly address.

More to the point, any business establishment can still legally bar weapons, whether openly or concealed.

Florida’s largest grocery chain, Publix, refuses to exercise its option to keep out weapons. We doubt that most customers will be comfortable with that — especially in South Florida.

But Publix knows how to make money. Perhaps the front office has calculated that it will lose fewer customers than it gains. Consumer choice might work the other way, as competitors remain gun-free.

Are you willing to drive a little further for your eggs or milk to have a sense of personal well-being?

Publix’s pro-gun past

Publix’s motive could be purely ideological, too. Its political contributions lean right.

The chain was targeted for boycotts over the $670,000 it contributed to former state Agriculture Commissioner Adam Putnam, who ran for governor in 2018 as a “proud NRA sellout” and who opposed a stricter gun-buying law enacted that year soon after the Parkland murders.

That law banned rifle sales to people under 21, another law Uthmeier refuses to defend on appeal. A bill filed for the 2026 session (HB 133) would lower the gun-buying age back to 18 (the Parkland killer was 19 at the time).

Publix surely has the legal right to decide whether to allow guns on its premises. But similarly, nobody is required to shop there, either. We are the “free state of Florida,” after all, right?

Publix’s choice sets a poor example for other businesses. It won’t comfort Floridians already nervous because of the gun violence in a state where the gun lobby has too much influence.

It hardly helps that supermarkets, like schools, have become tempting targets of opportunity for would-be mass killers because they can count on finding many people there.

Groceries a target

The record for a supermarket killing is 23 people at an El Paso Walmart in 2019, by a racist who admitted to hunting Hispanics and claimed to be helping President Trump repel an invasion. He was armed with a WASR-10, a semiautomatic version of the AKM assault rifle that would have been illegal under a federal assault weapons ban.

The open carry travesty worsens the mess the Legislature and Gov. Ron DeSantis made two years ago when they repealed the law requiring a permit to carry a concealed weapon.

The gun lobby’s attempt to legalize open carry was thwarted by the opposition of many sheriffs and by Senate President Ben Albritton, R-Wauchula. But that was before DeSantis appointed Uthmeier, his chief of staff, to be attorney general.

The problem for law enforcement — as it will be for every Publix manager — is not knowing the intent of the person shouldering an assault weapon or wearing a pistol on his hip.

Cops can only watch

Until now, walking into a store with such a weapon would trigger all sorts of alarms. Now, police can only watch.

The sheriffs’ concerns were recently brought home by an unidentified and self-described “Second Amendment auditor” seen walking near the county jail in the Panhandle town of Bonifay, carrying an AR-15 and wearing body armor, accompanied by a cameraman.

He recorded a video while wearing a mask, saying he was testing his rights. He filed a grievance against Holmes County sheriff’s deputies for monitoring him.

It seems he was only a provocateur. What if it was worse?

“Let’s make something clear,” the sheriff’s office said. “If you’re walking around in body armor and carrying an AR-15, our deputies are going to do what they have to do to keep our citizens safe. Public safety comes first. Always.”

But not everywhere, sadly. Publix needs to reconsider.

The Sun Sentinel Editorial Board consists of Opinion Editor Steve Bousquet, Deputy Opinion Editor Dan Sweeney, editorial writers Pat Beall and Martin Dyckman, and Executive Editor Gretchen Day-Bryant. To contact us, email at letters@sun-sentinel.com.