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Swastikas and Semi-automatics: What's Wrong With Gun Show Culture

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Submitted by meg on Mon, 11/17/2008 - 4:57pm.

A BUZZFLASH NEWS ANALYSIS
by Meg White

Last weekend alone, there were at least 44 separate gun shows in this country. After reading up on the historic increase in gun purchases after the election of Barack Obama as well as articles linking Nazi and Klan propaganda with gun show offerings, I had a few questions on my mind.

This weekend, how many guns were purchased out of hate? This weekend, how many relics of human beings' persecutory past were purchased in an attempt to revive such hatred?

Timothy McVeigh himself sold The Turner Diaries, a novel written by a neo-Nazi leader that was labeled the "Bible of the racist right" by the FBI, at gun shows before he carried out the Oklahoma City Bombing attacks.

Should private gun show organizers allow people to sell Nazi and Confederate paraphernalia at these events? The question is debated fiercely, even within the gun show community as evidenced in this extremely long thread on the subject.

The thing is, the context of a sale makes an incredible difference.

Case in point: I decided, along with maybe 63 percent of long-haired, bespectacled brunettes in this country, to go as Gov. Sarah Palin for Halloween this year. I cobbled together most of the costume myself, but there were two essential accessories that I just couldn't fake: a flag pin and a McCain/Palin 2008 pin.

Though it would have been much easier to buy the pins through the McCain/Palin Web site, I was not going to be using these items for the purpose for which they were meant. I found a third party Web site with no affiliation with the campaign, and purchased them there. I may have ended up paying more and wasting a little extra time, but I felt better about the transaction.

Likewise, lovers of history should not buy war regalia at gun shows.  The people who sell these items at gun shows are not antiques salesmen. They will use your money to spread hate.

Similarly, a gun enthusiast shouldn't buy firearms from a neo-Nazi or Klansman. Who knows what that gun has been used for, and who knows what people like that will do with your money?

You don't see other groups selling gear that promotes their lifestyles alongside guns at these shows. What would happen if Satan worshippers or the New Black Panther Party tried to set up tables at a gun show selling T-shirts, regalia and books promoting their lifestyles alongside their arsenal for sale?

Another important issue is provenance.  If a badge or helmet or flag has been preserved for posterity from the Civil War or World War II, it is indeed something of historical value. But replicas and reprints need not apply. These are simply attempts to monetize the hatred  both that fueled the violence of these wars and that continues to fuel racist and anti-Semitic behavior.

Clearly, not all gun owners are neo-Nazis or Klansmen. They are protected by the same rights to free speech that allow me to write these words. But by giving these people a seat at the table of the gun show culture, organizers are allowing them to associate discriminatory beliefs with gun owners.

Furthermore, by purchasing anything from such people, no matter what it is, one strengthens their resolve. If gun owners want to paint themselves as decent, law-abiding citizens, they should make this important distinction.

A BUZZFLASH NEWS ANALYSIS

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It is unsubstantiated, but

Submitted by Paul Revere on Tue, 11/18/2008 - 12:14pm.
It is unsubstantiated, but the claims that gun sales are the best in 50 years may be true because the N.R.A. and its cohorts have put the fear into many people that Obama will confiscate their guns. Fear always works on the naive and most ignorant.If Obama even tried to confiscate guns, there would be a civil war in America.
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Idiots

Submitted by sulphurdunn on Tue, 11/18/2008 - 10:07am.
In the entire 230 some year history of federal governance in this country, has anyone in a position of political power ever attempted or even suggested the confiscation of personal firearms? In fact, if anything, gun sales have become far more lax than they once were. It is illegal, for instance, to own a fully automatic weapon and has been so since the 1930s, yet I can buy a semi-automatic assault rifle with 30 round magazines or fifty round drums that has such a short trigger pull it can be made virtually full automatic buy merely placing a stout rubber band around the magazine and trigger. There are approximately 200 million privately owned firearms in this country now. The whole "big bad lefist govmint gonna take ya gun" is chicken little hysteria and always has been. Guns show bazaars prove it.
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One reason

Submitted by vtjozef on Mon, 11/17/2008 - 10:50pm.
I can tell you what I hear from gun owners in my state. There is a big fear that Obama's attitude toward the 2nd amendment will make guns and ammo taxed so high that no-one will be able to purchase them. Whether rational or not, it is the fear that gun and ammo purchases will go the way of the dodo bird that is driving the buying frenzy. And then there is this: people are beginning to understand the right to bear arms. And they are concluding that there is a left to bear arms as well.
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What buying frenzy?

Submitted by Henk on Tue, 11/18/2008 - 9:05am.
There is no clear evidence that Obama's election has caused a rise in gun sales. Its all anecdotal. The gun industry is pushing that meme because they have to. Gun sales have been in decline for many years so its all a big marketing ploy, in fact a lot of what the NRA does is done to promote guns sales. My Dad told me that Obama was going to raise taxes on ammo TEN TIMES what it is now. He only listens to wing nut radio (Rush) and reads the American Rifleman (NRA rag) so that's where this is coming from. Obama's attitude toward the 2nd amendment? He's a constitutional scholar! This is what he says: "The senator, a former constitutional law instructor, said some scholars argue the Second Amendment to the Constitution guarantees gun ownerships only to militias, but he believes it grants individual gun rights. "I think there is an individual right to bear arms, but it's subject to commonsense regulation" like background checks, he said during a news conference." Sounds pretty mainstream to me. As far as gun shows are concerned: I am a gun owner, I built a small collection of quality guns that I use for the various types of hunting that I do. I own a couple guns for target shooting as well. To get the guns that I wanted on my budget I had to do a little horse trading: buy guns that were cheap and trade up when I got a chance. It took years of attending gun shows. What I saw was a lot of guys doing exactly the same as me. Just the average guy trying to get what they wanted as cheaply as possible. Then there are the collectors. Believe it or not they are not much different then antique collectors that I know. These two groups USED to be the vast majority of the people I'd see and deal with, now not so much. Now there are a lot of dealers, one good thing about that is they have to do the background check here in Minnesota, but then there are the para-military jokers. They dress in black pajamas and combat boots and sell black plastic junk for large amounts of money. They attract a different element to the shows. It got so bad here that the antique collectors started thier own group and now do shows where those things aren't allowed. That was a good move and these are people that Democrats should be targeting. They are purists who dislike the way the gun industry and NRA are acting just as much as anyone else.
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Good comment, Henk

Submitted by quousque on Tue, 11/18/2008 - 10:58pm.

I'd guess about half of gun owners and gun show attendees are Democrats [more of whom are vets than it seems are the GOPers], but we tend to keep politics to ourselves when around the NRA-types and rabid Righties.

Sure regret now that I passed up a really nice 9mm Mauser broomhandle w/ proof marks for $800. :·)

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Gun nuts

Submitted by Pops2nd on Mon, 11/17/2008 - 6:17pm.
Not all gun nuts are racists, but all racists are gun nuts ....... an observation by Pops.......
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and why the private gun show

Submitted by jack12 on Mon, 07/26/2010 - 11:41pm.

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