Correct me if I am wrong, but aren't dealers at gun shows required to view ID of all purchasers as part of the 4473 process? Couldn't the dealer in this case simply have confirmed for himself the identity of the buyer?
What happened instead was the dealer assumed the buyer was a criminal and called security, not to confirm his ID, but to have him 'dealt with.'
It would be as if one went into a gun store and the proprietor called the police, based on the assumption that 'strange accent=foreign criminal,' when the proprietor could easily have confirmed a buyer's eligibility to purchase for himself, through the mandated official procedure.
There was no reason for security to get involved, whatsoever.
For those who think the OP has thin skin- you're the sort who think you have thick skin until this sort of thing happens to you.
For those who think that this is just one of those things that happens in a state of 'heightened security' (read: rampant hysteria)- you're cowards, literally and morally. The man is a United States citizen and deserves exactly the same fair treatment that any polo shirt wearing, white, anglo-saxon bourgeois consumer prig demands in any service sector environment. You can, in fact, be too careful. Being too careful is, ironically, the root of gun control.
For those who perceive (wrongly) that there is some tit-for-tat justice in treating a 'European' in the manner you assume you would be treated as a foreigner in Europe, again, the man is a United States citizen. It's doubtful you've spent any significant time out of US jurisdiction. I have done so; and have never been treated with anything but courtesy and respect (with one sad exception) by anyone- official or civilian- in traveling the world for twenty years.
For those who believe that 'profiling has its uses'- the law and the majority of civilized society disagree with you. You're wrong, and you've never been on the receiving end of negative profiling, or you wouldn't even suggest it. That isn't how America works, and shame on you for thinking that's how it should.
For the OP- I'm sorry you were treated this way. I'm embarrassed that things like this still happen in our country. I like to think that the US is a place that welcomes decent, hard working, law abiding people of all origins; where people treat each other with dignity and respect. I'm saddened when it turns out that's not always the case.