I was happy to see this news from Jacob, that the Westchester Gun Show, running in one of the suburbs of New York City, was back in business after being closed down in post-Columbine hysterics. At first I thought this was good news, but I am so thankful for the New York media pointing out that it was just a bunch of nazis. The New York Daily News I am particularly grateful for pointing out that no one has thought of the children, in addition to driving home the whole nazi thing.
But in all seriousness, we all know most guns hows have militaria, and a lot of the same people who collect guns collect militaria, this reinforces my view that gun show promoters who are operating in hostile media markets (and you don’t get much more hostile than New York City’s) need to think about public and media relations. I actually would like to see NSSF do more to reach out to gun show promoters and try to build some accepted practices. I am absolutely not suggesting this road needs to lead down the path of removing militaria from gun shows, but as we restore gun rights to a lot of these infringing jurisdictions, we’re going to continue to have this problem, and have to have a plan.
The Daily News and the Journal News ought to be ashamed of themselves for such one sided, shoddy journalism, but we can expect more of this kind of thing if we don’t think about how to mitigate the problem.
The sheer amount of Nazi memorabilia at gun shows has always creeped me out a little, given when my family was doing back then (fleeing). I wouldn’t lose sleep if gun-show organizers didn’t allow that sort of thing. But it should be a private decision, not one forced by government action. And given the number of Garands and 1911s at guns shows, I think it’s clear who won, anyways.
I am not a militaria collector, either, so it would be easy for me to say they should just get rid of that stuff. But some people are, and I would hate to tell them to get bent because some people have issues with it. Most people that collect militaria have no sympathy for that crap. I have a few trinkets, including a Nazi flag, all of which were brought bcak by my grandfather from the war. Considering he came home after having his arm shredded by an 8mm bullet, I can assure you he wasn’t sympathetic.
What area are you located that you see that much of it? At Philly area gun shows, there’s usually one or two militaria dealers. Most of them still have plenty of World War II militaria, from all sides, including Nazi Germany, but I wouldn’t classify it as excessive.
I’m not operating from a huge data set here; I went to one In Florida a few years ago, before I was as big into firearms, and felt like maybe a fifth of the show floor was Nazi memorabilia. That said, in retrospect, I’d bet you a great number of the sellers were in fact, WWII veterans or their families, and alot of the stuff may have been bring-backs from time fighting overseas. Being Florida, the demographic would have been right for that.
But that thought certainly didn’t occur to me until just now, and I could see how it might not occur to anti-gun Joe Liberal.
Different promoters have different rules for how much of it can be there. It’s usually not a matter of what it is, just restrictions on how much non-gun stuff dealers can sell. Show promoters have an interest in making sure their shows have enough guns for sale to make it worthwhile for visitors to pay to get in the door.
Depending on venue options, I would consider putting most of the collectible stuff like that into one section and boldly labeling it militaria or some other term that could explain it’s military collectibles – historical items, something along those lines. I don’t know if that would hurt their bottom line or not, but if I was a promoter in an unfriendly area, I’d be willing to comp them the tables one weekend to find out.
Also, I implicitly agree there’s a huge creepy-level difference between WWII bring-back memorabilia and “fascinated with the Nazis” memorabilia. I’m not sure if this distinction means so much in terms of the PR issue.
I also agree it’s easy for me to say “cut them loose” because I don’t engage in the hobby. I’m not sure I’m arguing for that so much as saying “Yes, there is a PR problem here.”
I think we should all note that a Nazi flag catches the eye and memory a lot more than a French flag, or a Japanese flag….or better yet a Japanese Imperial Navy flag. I have one of the latter, didn’t even know what I bought until somebody told me….this fellow was Japanese, and he looked at it the same way I’d expect somebody to look at a Nazi flag.
I’ve no trouble with the militaria. It’s when I pass by one of the booths that has copies of the the “Turner Diaries” prominently displayed along with similar items that I cringe.
These same hysterically anti-gun NYC libturds who get their panties all up in a bunch over Nazi memorabilia for sale at gun shows have absolutely no qualms with Soviet Union memorabilia and mass murderer Che Guevara T-shirts being sold from tables at the street fairs in Manhattan. Many of them even proudly wear Che gear themselves, or their offspring do with their full approval.
This liberal hypocrisy becomes quite evident by the fact that throughout the 20th century, Communists and Marxists the world over have slaughtered and caused the deaths of innocents by the hundreds of millions. The Marxist death toll dwarfs the Nazi death toll by at least twenty-fold – perhaps even fifty-fold.