COULD YOU IMAGINE IF…?

One of my favorite phrases is: “Could you imagine if…?”

As in, “could you imagine if smartphones had never been invented?” Or: “could you imagine if Michael Jordan played in today’s NBA with the restrictions on physical play?”

 

Playing that forward, here are my two current favorite applications of that phrase:

 

1.       Could you imagine if the Republican National Convention allowed attendees to open carry firearms?

2.       Could you imagine if in addition to their regular customers, a group of black or middle-eastern men showed up to this restaurant with guns strapped to their sides?

I can. I can imagine.

I can imagine that devout First Amendment zealots like Trump and Cruz, would refuse to take the stage if hundreds or even dozens of delegates had Glocks or Smith & Wessons stuck in their Walmart reversible belts and Wrangler jeans. I could imagine The Donald and Lyin’ Ted holed up in their dressing rooms, yelling at their campaign staffs to demand a complete and total disarmament of the convention floor.

And at that Utah restaurant where guns are currently welcome…?

Come on. If a group of 20-somehting black men in ghetto chic and armed to the teeth started showing up and ordering the blue plate special, how long do you think it would take for the owners to hang a sign in the window prohibiting firearms in the establishment? A week? 10 days, tops?

And if that group included a dozen Muslim men in robes and beards and 9 mm pistols? How long then? I’m guessing there would be a sign in the window by closing time that day!