An interesting read.

[bogie]

Okay - maybe it is geographic distance... Or the fact that my father is a serious WWII history buff. All I really know about you is that you are allegedly 40 (more than a few people on this forum have met me face-to-face, and can attest to the fact that I'm funny looking...), and are in Northern CA...

When I see something with a swastika on it, I do not assume "gun crazy." I assume that the item is a WWII artifact. If it turns out to not be so, I get a little twisted... (coupla years ago I decided to try shaving the head for a spring/summer... that stopped _real_ fast, since it suddenly seemed that every loser that walked into a joint would decide I was his best buddy... dang, but it's REAL easy to get in fights...). I don't like Illinois Nazis...

Or... Oh heck... Lemme see how I can put this...

I think you saw the swastika, and immediately decided to see if you could discredit the message as a whole using the image. You ignored the fact that it was an image that warned people to beware of the Nazis, and looked only at a portion that you could twist to turn people against the general message involved on the page.

Similar to an anti-gun guy who I used to work with who saw a gun on bank-delivery guys' waistband, and insisted that he leave the building.

 

[Sindawe]

folks, you do realize that the swastika long predates National Socialism, right?

Similar to an anti-gun guy who I used to work with who saw a gun on bank-delivery guys' waistband, and insisted that he leave the building.

Exactly.

 

[bogie]

You know, this may sound paranoid, but I suspect that there are some folks, possibly semi-organized, who are just out to discredit anything which isn't on a certain party's agenda... It wouldn't cost much in fact, in the grand scheme of things, to hire 40-50 of these guys and put 'em to work surfing forums - conservative, firearms, free thinking, whatever... People who pride themselves on being "independents" can also have their votes easily swayed - But it seems that there's folks out there dilligently passing the word to "vote for anyone but these horrible conservatives," and "aren't all you gun nuts ashamed to be associated with something like WWII?"

I personally find the religous loonies of the Republican party to be on the far side of slimy, but I hold my nose and vote against gun control...

They see a "hot button" idea, such as resisting confiscation, and immediately try to discredit the concept. Circular logic, whatever... The web page that was pointed at used some WWII anti-Nazi artwork to reinforce their message, so it's immediately twisted, and the concept itself virtually accused of being pro-Nazi...

Those of us in The Gun Culture know that the Nazis confiscated, and thus controlled. We also can see that we're on a slippery path to where the state may actually succeed in confiscation by attrition. It's going to be slow, and it won't happen in a single politcial term, but their goal is to make it happen. The best thing we can do is remain vigilant, politically active, and prepared.

Or maybe I'm just paranoid...

 

[Steak]

I have serious doubts

that our government is nearly this efficient. The manpower required to seek out every shotgun bought from a pawn shop in 1975, and manage to search their home, x-ray their land, remove hot tubs and such, does not exist, not even close.

What about all the dead former-gun owners? They would need to go after all their family members and friends to find the weapons which could have been left to any of them. Searching through all these random degrees of separation would mean probably every citizen in the entire country would be searched, audited, and have their property x-rayed 5 times over. Not likely.

 

[bogie]

Why not? I think that many law enforcement agencies would jump all over it - After all, it means bigger budgets, more manpower, etc., etc... And a lot of the population won't see anything wrong with it... Because the media circus will be going full blast, spraying anyone who differs as either being a domestic terrorist or some sort of nutjob... After all, it's for the children...

And remember - the central agency has a history of being willing to spend over a million taxpayer dollars in order to collect a $200 tax... And now they can trot out "terrorism."

 

[MudCamper]

All I really know about you is that you are allegedly 40

You insinuate that I may be a liar... Please lay off the continued personal attacks.

and are in Northern CA

Yes. I am. And so are millions of other pro-gun, pro-Second Amendment, pro-self defense, self-reliant people. It's something so many people from other states always do that is annoying - discount the reasonable people of CA and assume we're all way-left gun-grabbing nuts. There are probably more pro-gunners in CA than in most other states. There are 45 million Californians. It's just that we're not in the majority here.

I think you saw the swastika, and immediately decided to see if you could discredit the message

That was not my intent, but my point is I believe that this is exactly what the gun-grabbers will do. I try to appeal to their reason, because in the end, if we don't want to lose our rights, we have to convince them our position is the right one, the reasonable one. They are bombarded daily by irrational, emotional, fear based propoganda, to feed their ignorance of the subject. If, when trying to show them the truth we point them to websites with swastikas in the header, I think that actually helps feed the gun-grabbers propoganda machine, making us look like nuts.

 

[mike101]

Quote
"I do not condone modern Nazi or klucker memorabilia/trinkets at gun shows. I _will_ go bitch at the promoter. However, I _do_ draw the line between collectibles and crap - Joe with a genuine Hitler Youth dagger in a case of other high-dollar items is okay, but Bob, with a dozen Chinese reproductions and a buncha hate literature next to 'em is not."

Bogie- I have half a mind to put you on my Buddy List. Couldn't agree more. You would be it's sole occupant.

Mud Camper- As you know, one of the 1st things the Nazis did, after coming to power, was disarm the German population. Unfortunately, a lot of people don't know that. Perhaps, whenever a Swastika is used, it would be a good idea to include one of Hitler's famous quotes on the subject, to avoid confusion.