Believe Them When They Tell You: The North Florida Gun and Knife Show
real America pit stop #3
Thanks for visiting Narrative Nation!
This is where I’ll collect some thoughts and images from my exploration of places with emotional significance for many Americans. Stops include Civil War and Revolutionary War sites and museums; state parks and historic homes; historical associations; and memorabilia and gun shops. To get a better sense of the narratives attached to historic places and the events and people they might commemorate, I look at the signage, collect the literature, and talk to visitors, staff, guides, and rangers. And of course, I mine the gift shops! Other sites such as a religious theme park and a gun show will help me consider how ideas about the nation’s history influence current American fascinations.
Parts of these reflections will be incorporated into the book I am developing with the working title “Loads of Heresy”: White Supremacist Revisions of the American Narrative. For now these stories are drafts to help me think about what I’m seeing and hearing. I have a lot more stops to discuss from Kentucky, West Virginia, and Virginia, as well as some material from South Georgia and North Florida.
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This weekend, my friend Dave and I attended the North Florida Gun and Knife Show at the Jacksonville Fairgrounds. With his camo Crocs, he was ready to blend in with me in the spectrum of attendees.
Walking up to the building, Dave and I talked about some of the far-right and white supremacist narratives I expected to find represented in the merchandise. We walked through the unsecured doors, blew past the gun inspection table without being stopped or searched, paid the cash-only entry fee without showing ID, and had our hands stamped “GUN.”
Inside, vendor tables were tightly packed into one big room. There were guns, cases, stun guns, knives, tactical vests, $549 flame-thowers, gun adapter kits, lasers, many many products for concealing a weapon, and of course magazines and ammo out the wazoo. For the most part I had no idea what I was looking at, but Dave was impressively conversant with the vendors, making it easy for me to observe the particulars and take a few notes.
There is much to say about every aspect of these gatherings, but for this post I’m focusing on products that tell a story about the country. Here’s a quick taxonomy of the topics represented on the lifestyle merchandise, though subjects naturally overlap as parts of a fairly unified worldview. All photo credits go to Dave.
I’ve spent some time translating the slogans and images in a few of these photo sets, and for now I’ll just leave the rest here for you to ponder. Please provide your interpretations in the comments!
In my book, I talk about my late stepfather’s years as a gun show vendor in the 80s and 90s. Maybe one day I can get a table myself at one of these shows selling a board game where you match slogans, memes, and images with the grand narratives and conspiracies they support. I think people would buy it, maybe in the homeschool section. I’m in a mood this week after entering this type of space again after so many years—I hope you enjoy this partial tour of the gun show!
On White Christian Nationalism
It looks like this American Savior on a mousepad has the scene of his own death tattooed on his chest. Hardcore AF. Similar to the huge flag featured in my story about Branford, Florida, the combination of images here—where a strong male hand pulls back an American flag to reveal an underlying image—makes a statement about the so-called real America. Maybe this one argues that Christianity, though not always visible, is foundational to the nation and to those who would carry the flag. Or maybe it’s part of a different argument I’ve seen in several places: that Christians are now being discriminated against and forced to hide their identities in this woke new world. Anyway, these two narratives operate in tandem and can lead to violence and to prophecies of a new civil war, national divorce, or radical “re-founding.” In my book, I’ll document some of these conversations in the online spaces run by white supremacists.
The “Faith” t-shirt uses a cross and a flag to explicitly align the United States with Christianity. Both symbols are ragged around the edges, reminding us of the fight American Christians must now take up in order to be American Christians. Or, perhaps they’re supposed to look old, reminding us that the country began with Christianity. The camo fabric invokes a military-style struggle requiring combatants to hide themselves from the enemy. But in spite of those imaginary conditions, the very existence of this shirt assures us that someone, at least, will not be cowed by the liberal media megaphone and the SJW army. I was just about to crop that picture and noticed that the ladies’ clutches sitting on the table say “Damsel in Defense.” I guess these are pistol purses. Cute.
“Good Girls”: On the Proper Comportment of Women
Weapon-toting women are mildly taboo. Much of the merchandise aimed at women provided a titillating mixture of guns with femininity, behavior conventions, or girlishness. T-shirts said Good Girls Carry Guns, Lipstick & Lead, and Rifle Toting Pistol Packing Gun Chick. A hand grenade necklace reminded me of the musket ball jewelry I saw at the Kennesaw Mountain gift shop near Atlanta last month.
The only women’s item I saw that didn’t represent weapons or violence was a magnet with lettering that combined “ULTRA MAGA” in thick, bold capitals with “Girl” in a cheerful cursive font. The American flag sunglasses and the American flag handkerchief hairdo suggest the era when America was supposedly so great: the 1950s, before the signing of the Civil Rights Act that for many white nationalists marks the end of America’s uphill trajectory and the permanent subversion of the Constitution.
“I Love Freedom”: On the Un-American-ness of Diversity and Inclusion
One of the puerile and typical rhetorical moves of the far-right troll is to take a salient phrase and give it a frustrating new meaning. The reasoning behind some of these is difficult to know, but this collection of shirts and stickers challenges or mocks the general idea of tolerance. I’ll try to interpret—but please add alternate readings in the comments.
On one bumpersticker, LGBT means Liquor, Guns, Beer, and Trump. These are things Trumpies and gun owners “support,” in presumed contrast to all these other people . . . who also don’t drink beer or liquor? Do I have this right? What about the whole Bud Light thing earlier this summer, a controversy that specifically tied beer to the LGBTQ community?
One shirt shows a line-up of different weapons and reads, “Diversity is Our Strength.” But human diversity is replaced with a catalog of guns, and the word strength implies threat and dangerousness. Here’s a potential paraphrase of the message, which is a talking point in the struggle over the Second Amendment: only when citizens can own however many guns and of whatever type they choose do they have the power to preserve their way of life. Alternately: empowering citizens to kill the stranger with a personal stockpile of weapons makes America great.
If I do not “like” the fact that someone else “supports” the six sacred signs of patriotism on this large car magnet—Trump, freedom, beer, meat, guns, and a safe family—then I should “move” out of the neighborhood, the state, or the country. This relocation offer is not reciprocal. Someone who doesn’t respect my interest in wine, vegetables, or hugs is not going to move away and leave me to it. In the far right’s narrative, my priorities are not a protected part of the “real America,” which is often only a caricature of the Wild West.
On the green t-shirt, the protections afforded to some (“rights”) are contrasted with “feelings” instead of with the true boundary on individual rights, which is of course other rights. Immediately this is some kind of a logical fallacy. It’s also really ironic in light of curriculum-destroying initiatives from the likes of Ron DeSantis to eliminate information that would make students feel, well, feelings.
The only way these clever slogans hurt me—as one of the people presumably being told that my feelings don’t matter and that I should leave the country, and also apparently that I don’t drink enough—is by forcing me to acknowledge the mountain of irrational thought I’d have to surmount if I really tried to talk some of these people down. It’s disheartening.
“Go Woke, Go Broke”: On Trump Saving the Country While Biden Ruins the Country
“Up Your Ass”: On the Idea that The Second Amendment is a Lifetime No-Holds-Barred Gun Permit that Commies, Nazis, and Democrats Want to Take Away From You
“No Bag Limit”: On Murder Fantasy and Fetish
One of my interests is the presence of literature at the sites of white supremacy. A few chapters of my book will explore this in some depth, including my 2018 article about Internet memes and Rudyard Kipling’s “The White Man’s Burden.” We didn’t see any intentional poetry or fiction at this gun show, but some kind of demented “found verse” emerges here:
“United States Illegal Alien Hunting Permit”
Special Issue - To Any U.S. Citizen - Permanent
This certifies that [your white name here]
Having Paid The License Fee,
Is Hereby Licensed
To Hunt Illegal Aliens Nationwide.
May Be Used Under the Influence of Alcohol.
May Hunt Day or Night With or Without Dogs
Around Borders, Poultry, Plants,
Onion Fields, Farms, Orange Groves,
Construction Sites,
Goats,
Low Riders, Tunnels and Packaging Plants.May Use
Coronas, Jose Cuervo & Burritos
As BaitNo Bag Limit - Tagging Not Required.
Glossing over this type of thing as only a joke lets us avoid confronting the real violence done to real people historically and currently considered out of place in white America, whether they come from another country, from another side of town, or from another place in time such as pre-conquest North America. My book will also show the way jokes are made about this kind of violence on white supremacist social media. And we’ve all seen coverage of the plans to hurt and kill immigrants crossing the border from Mexico.
Tagging Not Required. How many Black, Brown, and Indigenous people have gone missing?
“Survivors Will be Shot Again”: On Veterans and Homefront Violence
In each of these shots, some stickers let you know that you’re being surveilled and considered fair game for killing right here in your home country, maybe just down the road from your own house. Other stickers drip with rhetoric about love for veterans and the sacrifices they’ve made to ensure the same land is a safe place where a person can walk freely.
My mash-up of three stickers sold by the same guy presents a disturbing conversation between two of the most iconic American types, the veteran and the land owner:
VET: “I have been away from the family a long time so that yours can be safe.”
LAND OWNER: “If you can read this, our sniper can drop you.”
VET: “I have sacrificed a lot in my life so that you might live free.”
LAND OWNER: “You are no longer a trespasser, but now a target.”
“A lot of fun”: On Inflicting Maximum Damage
Here’s just one more set of pictures from the gun show.
One vendor was selling three flamethrower models for $549 each. When I asked if there was any kind of permitting or age restriction for this incredibly dangerous item with a 30-foot range, he looked at me like the question made no sense. The woman behind the table with him stepped in when I asked what it might be used for in civilian life: “anything you want!” Some other comments I jotted down include “the kids will love it” and “it’s a lot of fun.”
On the next aisle, an older man had a table full of horrifying knives for cutting up people in the most vicious ways possible. Dave questioned whether the “Cyclone Knife” pictured above was legal, and the vendor only said it’s not specifically illegal. When pressed a bit more about this nightmarish thick spiral blade, the man told a story (and please look this one up for me if you have the time) about how these knives were banned from the battlefield after WWI because there was no way to stitch up the wound. He had a solution to that though—”see, you just hold the wound open and pour some Gorilla Glue down in there!” There’s also an extra spike on the handle, for when the enemy really gets into your personal space.
My kids can attest that XTC’s song “Jason and the Argonauts” has been circulating through my brain for decades. Fortunately it’s a good one. While thinking of the gun show during my run the next morning, this part of the lyrics came to mind.
I have watched the manimals go by:
Buying shoes, buying sweets, and buying knives.
I have watched the manimals and cried:
Buying time, buying ends to other people’s lives.
So much to unpack here ( because there are so many "packing.") This dorky comment shows I'd be much more comfortable at the Pun Show than the Gun Show. But, clearly, this is the radical right movement died up neatly with a bow, isn't it? There's so much anger, cruelty, tribalism, dis/mis-information and white-hot irony in there, it's dizzying. The Anti-Socialists love social programs that benefit them; the Anti-Communists often support moves made by the former KGB agent who would dearly love to see the return of the Soviet Union. The rabid supporters of law enforcement who may agree with Jan 6 activities involving harming police and the pro-veteran folks who likely can't stand Jon Stewart are also interesting. One thing I don't see- any anti-choice propaganda- that issue is tricky for them to navigate. The only reason I even bring this up is it appears that the the list found among the stickers, apparel and even the naming of weapons connect to actionable political issues that voting groups connect with- guns, the border, lgbtq rights, even "protection" of Christians' rights. I wonder how they reconcile such intrusive moves upon personal rights that have been made in terms of Dobbs and state-level legislation with their otherwise libertarian approach. I hope that one really messes up the plan to roll us back to the 1850s. Yes, I meant eighteen. Ugh, my stomach hurts- every undecided or disinterested voter should have to see these on a billboard.
Disgusting enough to perform the ironic eradication of humans that indoctrinate this fouling of the mind.