Marlborough gun show with Nazi swastikas and other items.

[namedpipes]

I keep hearing about this jerky. Is it actually good? I do like jerky...

It is.

 

[member 58617]

It is.

I'm there, as long as the jerky isn't cut in shapes like a swastika.

 

[bill o]

Gun show organizers should ban non-historical Nazi items for the same reason they'd ban NAMBLA from setting up a vendors table.

 

[JoeT]

Gun show organizers should ban non-historical Nazi items for the same reason they'd ban NAMBLA from setting up a vendors table.

If NAMBLA paid for the table, I'm sure Carol would let them set up...

 

[Tiktock]

So, a bit off topic but not by much. My Dad has a Nazi dagger that he brought with him from the old country. The tip is broken off and the nazi symbols removed. We believe that was what was done to the weapons when they surrendered. Can anyone confirm this? Pretty cool piece of history if this is the case.

Absolutely not true. Case in point:

All family heirlooms with photos, documentation and paperwork. Take-homes were in-tact. The firearms will be fully working and come with paperwork like this if they are legit:

 

[mark056]

Personally I think it's idiotic to have tables selling Nazi crap at a gun show. It's a gun show, not a fashion show. I guess it is the show organizers business who they rent space to, but were it mine I'd send them packing.

A table of guns with other collectibles is very different.

And jerky.

sent from my chimney using smoke signals

Pipes, historically and traditionally gun shows (and I've been going to them for close to 50 years now in the east, west and south) have always featured militaria. Many gun collectors have an interest in this subject because they collect guns from a particular historical period. Also too, there have always been vendors who sell assorted accessories. What you are seeing is a manifestation of gun culture, it's part of it. Mass is not a gun culture state nor will it ever be.

One thing I have noticed though at Mass gun shows and that there are a lot more non gun vendors here. That's because of the fact that basically only dealers sell at our shows. If we relied solely on actual sellers of firearms, there would be no gun shows here.

When I lived in Colorado Springs there was an average of a major show about every six weeks. There were lots of people selling guns. The reason is simple: no limits on FTF private sales. Let's suppose you wanted to get rid of 5 or 6 guns. All you would have to do is rent a table. Essentially anyone could come in show a Colorado DL and buy a handgun or any state and buy a rifle. No FA 10, no forms to fill out. This BTW is the so called "gun show loophole" As long as you don't sell too many guns, you stay under the radar and don't attract the attention of the ATF by selling too many guns you are good to go.

We don't have that luxury here. I think it's important to remember that in this state licensure is required to purchase a firearm. Not so in other states, in fact in most states. Gun shows here do attract non gun owners who are interested in related stuff, be it militaria, tactical clothing or hard to find firearms books.

This may sound strange to some, but it has only been in maybe the last 25 years that the Nazis have become more odious and evil because the Holocaust is seen in a much more critical light. I grew up around Nazi items because anybody who a dad who was in the ETO brought the stuff back. Put it to you this way: would Hogan's Heros be permitted on TV today? For about 5 years running it was in the top 10 TV shows.

When I was in school we knew about the Holocaust but it was not strongly emphasized. Revisionist history has created the WW2 myth that we fought to save the Jews, regrettably that was not the case. To the extent we even knew how severe the Holocaust is open to debate among historians to this day. Given the tenor of the times there were many Americans back in the day that weren't all that upset about what the Nazis did to the Jews and others then. I honestly don't know if they were more anti-Semitic than today, but it was far more overt and not really very subtle in many cases.

What changed is the way we teach history under the guise of social studies and everyone reads the Diary of Anne Frank. There is nothing inherently wrong or bad about this in and of itself but there has been a sea change in social attitudes and WW2 has taken on the mantle of the National Myth, a crusade between good and evil. We fought for self preservation plain and simple.
The fact that we liberated death camps was incidental and certainly not our top priorities.

Remember in the late 1930's Hitler was Time Magazine's Man of the Year and many of the Eugenics policies were lifted literally verbatim from the Commonwealth of Massachusetts and translated into German.

The biggest difference between Nazi militaria back in the day and today the stuff for the most part was real and not a fake or replica.

I'm probably less offended by Nazi stuff because I grew up with having it around. I even have an authentic Iron Cross 2nd Class and two War Service Crosses (without swords) in original packaging given to me by a friend of my father's. He was one of the first US Troops into Berlin and his unit found a whole cache of German decorations and medals in the ruins of the Reich's Chancellory. The Nazis were the enemy but not necessarily evil. Von Braun was sanitized and Operation Paper Clip provided the brain power that ultimately got us to the moon. The German Federal Republic was hyped by our government as a positive force against Communism. Of course the fact that many generals in the Bundeswher had been ranking colonels in the Wehrmacht meant nothing because "they were on our side now." GI's found occupation duty in Germany to be essentially wine, women and song. There just wasn't that outrage, that came with maybe Gen X, most definitely Gen Y and now Millennials.

 

[namedpipes]

Pipes, historically and traditionally gun shows (and I've been going to them for close to 50 years now in the east, west and south) have always featured militaria. Many gun collectors have an interest in this subject because they collect guns from a particular historical period. Also too, there have always been vendors who sell assorted accessories. What you are seeing is a manifestation of gun culture, it's part of it. Mass is not a gun culture state nor will it ever be.
...

I'm not objecting to the idea of memorabilia at all. In fact I have a number of WWII era German firearms and some Nazi "setting" material. No place to display any of it of course until I win that lottery and build the Museum of Modern Pipes

I do think vendors with nothing but material like the Nazi table (or NAMBLA!) detract from the experience. Right or wrong I sense their intent / aura is negative. I'm not encouraging the organizer to ban them, but I would enjoy the shows more if they did. Perhaps that Nazi table would balance their wares with firearms of the period. THEN I might stop at their table and browse.

It's a personal preference, not an attack on free speech or Illinois Nazis.


Note: I also have a couple of WWI era French guns and a white flag I use as a backdrop for them when they're displayed