Admiration vs. Glorification

pardon me if i'm overstepping my bounderies here with all of the alumni collectors, but i felt a need to speak from the view of the freshman collector.


the ongoing discussion about mr. x and GA is quite interesting from both sides. from mr. x's position and background i can see where he's coming from and even understand how one might feel from that side. but his record and history of gun selling on GA totally wipe out whatever footing he had. he should either stop selling them or be quite on the issue. as for his guns being evil idea(only nazi guns?), well that's kinda batty. they are nothing more than cold steel and objects of destruction, whether it be for food, self defense or agression. i think we can all agree they were'nt created for target practice. as it's been said too many times before - people kill, yada, yada, yada.


as for the patrons of this forum, we also seem to want to look the other way at times and not admit to the facination some of us have with the third riech. admiration for the gun itself, the design, the machinery, the beauty is something i think we can all relate to and appreaciate. but when we start displaying the guns with the nazi flags and other nazi paraphanalia we're going in another direction with this and one that does concern some people. i think we all need to acknowledge that there is a strange facination with nazi germany and the luger connection. just say it. it's alright. but in our facination, we need to be careful to keep it there. displaying our lugers with all the pomp and circumstance of the third riech can start to be propaganda and a misinterpreted endorsment of the beliefs and practices of the nazi's. it becomes almost a glorifacation to the novice that comes here. and while it's meant to be one of the gun, it could be seen as that of it's political affiliation.


the luger was a great work of art way before "little corporal" spread his nightmare around the world and is just a small part of it's history. but as long as we continue to display the luger with the symbols of nazi germany there will be people like mr. x making comments like that. the showing of the luger with the swastika is a political statment, whether it is meant to be or not. and it becomes not only a glorification of the gun itself but of the third riech also - whether we like it or not. can we seperate them? i don't know? that's kinda like the seperating the south from the confederacy. but we can be concious of it and how the outside world sees it and try to keep it in check. public relations wise, the luger has 2 major things going against it - one, it's a gun and second, it's a nazi gun. but if the volkswagen can overcome it's heritage perhaps the luger can too.


i hope i haven't offended anyone here. you have all been a great help to me. but i think we do need to be aware of other perceptions about the things we enjoy and not get so caught up in our "hobbies" that we lose focus of what's really important in the world and our communities.


tom