I suppose you could burn a cross on a black man's lawn and say, come on it's just a burning symbol of Christ. Or you could hang a noose in your doorway and say, Oh come on, it's just a rope used to secure stuff, or you could fly the Nazi flag from your car antenna and say, well, it used to be a symbol of love in Egypt.
Good luck with that.
Did you feel the same when Latino protesters in CA took down the American flag and flew a Mexican flag, or when you see the American flag set ablaze in Iran?
No, because first off, you're starting a fire on someone else's lawn. If said KKK member wants to set a cross on fire on his lawn, or on someone's lawn/property he otherwise has permission to set it on, then he has every right to. Same with the Mexicans, again, it's not their right to go take down someone else's (be it the town or state's or private property) flag without permission and put a mexican flag up. But if said Mexicans want to fly a Mexican flag on their property/property they have permission to fly it on, I wont like it, but hey, it's their right to. In turn, I can fly a flag or have a billboard or whatever that says I dislike Mexicans flying Mexican flags in America and not speaking English. And for Iran, I dont like it, but you know, hey, they own the flag, and they can do what they want with it.
The answer to free speech, is free speech. If you dont like something someone else is saying, then you say something counter to it. You dont go ban saying certain things because you dont like them, because how would you feel if someone did the same to you?
For the issue of nazi memorabilia at gun shows, I probably wouldn't like it unless it was historical or something, but it's not up to me to decide, it's for the gun show owner to decide. Personally, I myself wouldnt mind people selling that stuff just as long as they're not recruiting for a white power/Nazi organization. If they were, I'd politely debate with them/tell them my opinion that they should not embrace socialism and genocide and that if they are truely interested in advancing white people, they should make a non-racist organization about advancing white people, and when I'm done talking to them, I'll politely tell them goodbye.
If I owned the show, and people went to me complaining about it, they were harassing customers, or pissed me off somehow, I'd likely throw them out or tell them to put their copies of The Turner Diaries and other stuff like that away and to not harass customers. I'd be the owner of the show, so it'd be my right to throw people out as I saw fit.
But, it's up to the owner, not you and I, the most you can do is tell the owner you dislike it, and it's up to him to decide, though a good store (in this case the show owner) does take his customer opinions to heart when making decisions. I personally, though, would just try to counter his opinion, not try to silence it. You know, hand out phamplets about Hitler's disarmament, phamplets about why national socialism is bad, how Hitler controlled people and how it relates to our current government now, ect.
Also, one sorta unrelated thing to my message, is that a lot of times people selling that kinda stuff are selling it because people want it for the shock/novelty factor. This is America, afterall, and we have the freedom to believe what we want, no matter what anyone else thinks. And some people buy swastika stuff just to show that in America they have the freedom to. They basically buy the stuff because they can or find it interesting. You may hate it, but in many european countries, if you question the holocaust, you go to jail, same with wearing swastikas.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laws_against_Holocaust_denial In Austria, you go to jail for at least 1 year, and at most, 10 years, for denying or supporting the holocaust. In America, we're free to say whatever we want, and display whatever symbols we want. People are free to criticize you if you display a nazi flag or whatever, but you cant be arrested and put in jail for displaying one.
Sorry if this post seems long and rambling, but I'm just mad that people claim they like their constitutional rights, but at the same time want to ban "hate speech." Saying "oh nazi stuff should be banned because it's worse than other speech and nobody needs to say it" is exactly the same as saying "X gun should be banned because it's really dangerous and you dont need it anyway."
