"Ask the Rabbi" by R. Mermelstein

I am a fervent supporter of the need to be armed, trained and prepared to defend all Jews. What I have difficulty reconciling is the fact that most (let's say many) gentiles who are supportive of the 2nd amendment are also deeply into Nazi regalia, and plain old blatant anti-semitism. How to deal with this? I just spent a day at a gun show trying NOT to spend all my money buying the nazi trinkets and 10 copies of the Turner diaries so I could burn them in the parking lot. The last time I saw the protocols of the elders of zion I kicked over the stand of the guy selling the books.

Any suggestions on how an observant Jew should deal with this issue would be greatly appreciated.

G'mar Chatima Tova (May you be sealed for a good year)

Not only have Jewish gun owners every reason to be outraged by this, but all Americans as well. We either fought a war against Nazism, or many Americans died for nothing in Europe and the Pacific.

Some random thoughts on the matter:

Nazi memorabilia is without doubt not free of emotions of sympathy with the Nazi movement; whether with the original version or the current Neo-Nazism born on U.S. soil, I'm not certain. Is it a reaction to white Protestant anger over perceived reverse discrimination, the result of liberal affirmative action programs? Whatever, the correlation between the right to keep and bear arms and Nazism is impossible to understand.  

1) The little Austrian corporal only succeeded in his coupe by the confiscation of privately owned arms. Without first disarming German citizens, Hitler's grip would have been tenuous if not unsuccessful. Hitler viewed gun confiscation as a first priority for the plan he envisioned.  

2) How does American patriotism coexist with sympathy for Nazism? Fascism is rule by dictatorship. The U.S. Constitution is a statement of permission by the American people for the government to rule. It gives the government rights, not the other way around. Maybe I'm getting slow witted with old age. I don't get it.

Is Nazi memorabilia merely "collectibles" like guns, stamps and coins? The people who buy such junk, along with The Turner Diaries and The Protocols of the Elders of Zion may not admit to sympathizing with the Third Reich. However, their "software" is not free of a serious virus.

Here's the clincher: It is my contention that the way some American Jews have subverted the meaning of the Second Amendment is in no small way responsible for anti-semitic attitudes among a minuscule segment of gun owners. I'm referring not only to the liberal media elite, many of who mare of Jewish extraction.

Jews came to America to escape persecution abroad, not because America had a Bill of Rights. The Bill of Rights was for them a "freebee" and many don't know anything about it or even why we are not free Americans without it. Joseph Stalin certainly wouldn't have permitted the sale of Nazi trinkets under his dictatorship.

Can you come to terms with Hitlermania at gun shows? Funny, neither can I.

Sincerely,

R. Mermelstein