Making History

My Great-Grandmother had some wonderful old pictures of store fronts in NYC, circa 1900.

Some she'd cut and pasted from LOOK, and LIFE, and different magazines, and others my Great Grandfather took as he was a camera buff back when they were monstrous and cumbersome.

NO IRISH ALLOWED

NO MICKS ON THE PROPERTY!

NO ITALIANS ALLOWED INSIDE

GREASEBALLS EAT IN YOUR OWN NEIGHBORHOOD

SAUSAGE-EATERS, GO BACK TO GERMANTOWN WHERE YOU BELONG

NIGGERS PERMITTED INSIDE AFTER DARK SEATING IN REAR

The folks who owned these businesses loved their signs. Most of them were genuinely afraid that letting in the unwashed masses would lead to blood running in the kitchens, and when it did not, well, whole new hordes of customers were discovered.

Similar things have happened with regards to the ownership and carry of firearms. The predictions were ominous; DODGE CITY ALL OVER AGAIN! BLOOD RUNNING IN THE STREETS!

And on and on.

We proved them wrong.

This is why the Guns Locked In Cars Bill is important. Well, one of the reasons. Businesses have a long and sordid history with regards to who they consider worthy enough to darken their doorsteps. Laws and good behavior taught them otherwise. Not being a fan of government interference, I do however think that blacks and Germans and Irish and Italian peoples should be allowed to go anywhere anyone else can go, and that legislating it to be so was a good thing.

No one remembers these old signs anymore. Few of the folks who experienced it first hand are alive to remind us of what certain places of business thought to be within their "rights". In fact, they sounded a lot like the modern day businesses who are declaring that their feelings supersede Constitutional rights. Maybe in the near future, after we've proven that we are responsible men and women who won't turn all of Florida into the Wild Wild West, maybe then the discrimination will disappear just as it did way back when.

Besides. PRO-Gun legislation is never a bad thing.