Imagine this conversation at the restaurant table next to you:

"Honey, when we're out to dinner, is it really necessary to play with your smartphone?"

"I'm not. I'm checking to make sure my gun is loaded and the safety is on."

Fanciful? Not entirely. A Minnesota firm is developing the Ideal Conceal, a .380-caliber, double-barrel, two-round handgun designed to look like a smartphone. When the owner feels the need, he or she can simply click the handle into place and voila! A gun!

You read that correctly: It's a handgun that folds up into a smartphone-shaped rectangle and tucks into a pocket. It is slated to go on the market later this year for $395.

It's a clever idea but frighteningly short sighted. Police already have trouble with violent criminals carrying guns and innocent people brandishing real-looking toy guns. If police now have to sort out whether someone who whips out a cellphone is taking a picture or is on the verge of squeezing off a couple of rounds, well, that's when a smartphone gun stops being quite so smart.

Since the smartphone gun isn't in production yet, the United States Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives hasn't determined whether it would be subject to federal firearm restrictions. The manufacturer does say, though, that X-ray machines will be able to tell it's a gun.

A small consolation. Designing a gun to look like a smartphone so that the owner can carry it in public without arousing curiosity is a dangerous step in the wrong direction.

REPRINTED FROM THE JACKSONVILLE DAILY NEWS