Anyone else bothered by this...

[taliv]

it's an inanimate object. it is neither good or evil. it simply *is*.

it wouldn't bother me a bit to own it or sell it or buy it etc if nobody made a big deal out of it.


however, given the opportunity it presents to the anti-gunners to make us look like a bunch of bloodthirsty maniacs, i'd certainly prefer gunbroker exercised a little more discretion.

 

[Balog]

Is it odd that I'm more bothered by the piss-poor spelling and capitalization than the idea of making money from an infamous object?

 

[Manedwolf]

If someone were to sell the Mannlicher Carcano used to kill Kennedy and made the history part of his sales pitch, is he glorifying Lee Harvey Oswald and assassination? Unless he makes obvious overtones to that effect, I think not. I believe the auction lacks that. It might be considered tasteless in it's description but it seems to me that the items are being presented as (potential) historical relics, a curiosity.

The Zodiac killer, Jack the Ripper, the Son of Sam, the Hillside Strangler, and their ilk are part of popular culture. Like mobsters, they are interesting. Evil but interesting. If it is authentic, it's a piece of popular history. I have no personal interest in it but thank God for choices.



A saintly gentleman, to be sure. He would never consider rape. Only the good stuff, murder and robbery, for the likes of our beloved Jesse.

The Henry Ford museum has on display the car Kennedy died in, along with the bloodstained theater seat Lincoln was shot in. They get a lot of interested visitors...people are fascinated by the elements of crime and tragedy. The FBI Museum in D.C. is also full of the artifacts of crimes. (And they have some fascinating Prohibition-era gang guns, too, especially the odd caneguns and shoeguns and all.)

That said, I do have to say that it's tasteless for the seller to try to make a quick buck off this. It'd be far more decent to simply donate it to one of the public-trust crime & justice museums, I'd think.

 

[IndianaDean]

[QUOTE

Jesse James didn't make a habit of raping & killing women.

[/QUOTE]


Folks should read more on the historical Jesse James. If ever there was a man who does NOT deserve to be a folk hero, it's James. He was one of the most vicious cold blooded killers of his time. He might not have raped or killed women (and I'm not sure now that I think about it that he didn't shoot some women dead), but it wouldn't surprise me one bit to find out he did. Alot of folks he murdered were unarmed.