Gun Collecting: Why the Outrage Over Gun Shows and Gun Collecting?

Looking back this year, one topic came up again and again – American guns were fueling the cartel wars in Mexico. Of course that resulted in an all out attack on the American gun shops and gun shows.

The other topic that came up again and again in the mainstream media was how gun shows in states with so-called “lax” gun laws were resulting in illegal guns in states with restrictive gun ownership laws. The argument was made, time and time again that private sales or the infamous “gun show loophole” was at fault. Supposedly it allowed criminals, the mentally unstable and all other sorts of criminals to obtain guns.

But missing was the story of collectors, the preservation of history and respect for the role that firearms have played in building this nation. Yes, there are infamous stories of cowboys and six shooters, gangsters and Tommy Guns, and gangbangers and Mac 10s. Yet it was the musket, the Pennsylvania Long Gun, Kentucky Long Gun and others that helped forge this nation.

And yes, museums have the guns. Some argue that guns only belong in museums. But here we must consider a couple of points. Where is our national military museum? The truth is that while London, Paris, Athens and even Cairo have national military museums there isn’t one to be found in Washington, D.C. The NRA has a firearms museum, but that’s because the National Rifle Association cares about history. This is a private museum.

London has the Imperial War Museum, the Tower of London with the old royal arsenal, the National Army Museum, the RAF Museum, the Royal Artillery Museum and more. The United States, a far larger nation in size, finally has a World War II museum, and it is located outside New Orleans. And yes, there are plenty of wonderful military museums around the nation too, but consider a few things.

There are very few surviving B-17s today, while many other famous WWII aircraft exist only in pictures. The museums didn’t save these. For some of the tanks and even guns, they exist today because collectors saved them. The sad truth is that history is always lost, but it is the collectors who save it, whether it be vintage records, cars, baseball cards or even guns.

The terrible part is that guns get a bad rap. A vintage car can be just as deadly. But guns, according to some, shouldn’t be worthy of being collected.

So when someone says, “collect baseball cards instead,” think about it… baseball might still be the national pastime, but guns built this country (good and bad). Wouldn’t it be a shame if all the famous guns from history disappeared? What is worse is that our freedom could disappear in the process.