Guns, Knives, Tasers, Truncheons! But please…no cameras

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Gun and Knife Show at the Coliseum.

Not as entertaining as the Baptist Convention — and I’m afraid I don’t have as many good pictures.

Apparently people who are selling Nazi flags, bronze busts of Hitler and Rommel and stocking “The Turner Diaries” in the non-fiction section (all of which we saw) don’t like having their pictures taken. As I saw people ahead of me in the ticket line with very nice cameras and there was a machine dispensing disposable ones right next to the entrance it didn’t even occur to me this might be a problem.

I’d been snapping pictures for a few minutes when one of the guys with a booth tells me: “You can’t do that, Mister…”

“Can’t…what?” I say.

“Take pictures,” he said. “That’s not allowed.”

Which I assumed meant at his particular booth – where he was selling replica pistols with confederate-flags on the pearl handles. Fair enough. His booth – his rules. I go on talking with people and snapping pictures – including this one of a booth that was selling books on “The Real History of the Civil War” including these…

From left to right that’s “The American Flag is the Real Slave Flag” (a sentiment I’m sure many of the retired Marines in attendance, who fought under that flag, would have argued) and “Honest Abe Wasn’t Honest” – a thin volume sliming one of the nation’s greatest presidents.

I also snapped this one, of Chris holding a toy assault rifle that, at first, we weren’t sure wasn’t real:

Whenever I took pictures of an actual booth or person I asked permission and, surprisingly, got the nod from a number of people.

Then I turn around and there’s a Greensboro police officer standing right next to me.

“What are you doing, sir…?”

“Um…taking a picture.”

“You can’t do that.”

“I…can’t?”

“Nope. Not in here. We’ve had some people complaining about you.”

“Me?”
(At this point I’m thinking: “Me? Not the guy who’s selling the “How to Build Your Own Bazooka” books to 12 year olds (which we actually saw) or the guys selling brass knuckles and lock-pick guns…but me with my camera?”)

“Yes, you.”

“Oh. Well, I’ve seen a lot of other cameras here. There’s one guy with what looks like professional equipment…”

“Yeah, well don’t do that anymore…”

And the cop walks off – right past the guy with the really nice camera, amusingly enough, though by now he’d tucked it away into a green messenger bag.

So – not as many pictures as I would have liked.

As we walked around not snapping pictures this ban on photography seemed to make more and more sense. There were (mostly) a few types of people there:

1) Survivalists. Guys perusing booths selling gas masks, camouflaged safes and buying books with titles like: “Erase Your Identity Completely,” “How to Fight the New World Order,” “Building Your Own Survival Shelter” and “Things to Do Until the Revolution.” Depending upon which survivalist scenario you buy into there could be a nuclear war coming, a war with communism, a war between the races, a religious war or a war on “Free Men” waged by a monolithic government (in this scenario George W. Bush is just as big a threat as Hillary Clinton – government itself is the enemy).

2) Hunters. Guys buying fox urine and $1,500 rifles with night vision scopes to take out deer from tree stands. There seemed to be a little crossover here with the survivalists as I saw a number of books about how, after the revolution, those who can’t hunt will die.

3) Revisionist History Buffs. Guys selling glowing tomes on Nazis and the Confederacy, pushing collectible knives with swastikas and confederate flags, talking with younger guys about how everything you read about these groups is garbage from liberal pinko commie fags.

4) Young black guys in do-rags and Malcolm X T-shirts. This last group was certainly in the minority, but I did see a number of them – two of whom were wearing the same “By Any Means Necessary” shirt with this picture of Malcolm X:

Chatting up a couple I asked whether all the Nazi and confederate stuff bothered them at a show like this. To a man they all said essentially the same thing (I’m paraphrasing):

“Eh – not really. As long as no one says anything racist to me I say live and let live. I live in the South. You don’t have to like this kind of stuff but you do have to expect it.”

That may have been the strangest, most surreal thing I heard all day.

But it occurred to me that almost everyone who fit into one of these groups (and people weren’t just there sight-seeing) had one thing in common:

They believe there’s trouble coming from some enemy (who differs depending on who you ask) and that guns will be essential in this conflict. When you have that mentality it isn’t hard to imagine that anyone with a camera could be one of or gathering information for THEM.

One would think that with this many NRA members in the room no one would think of buying guns or knives as an act so shameful cameras should be banned from the premises. They’ll let you bring cameras onto the floor of pornographers’ conventions – even encourage it. In this place, though, there was a blackout.

On our way out we stopped at a half price booth and picked up the following deadly toys, all for less than the price of a single DVD:

A closer look….

A set of handcuffs designed to limit range of motion. I won’t be using these on anyone who doesn’t ask.

These brass knuckles were being sold alternately as “Belt Buckles” and “Paper Weights.”

This butterfly knife cost me less than the AA batteries I put in my camera this morning.

This telescoping metal baton extends all the way out into this…

Using any one of these in a fight (minus perhaps the cuffs) would get you smacked with, at a minimum, an armed assault charge. Get caught with some of them in your pocket and you’ll wind up in court.

But the important thing to remember at a show like this: Don’t bring your camera.

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Possibly related posts: (automatically generated)

• Technogasm
• The peaceful protest
• A polite request
• Picture Taking in a Photo Booth

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