Moral Dilemma: Doing business where an employee has old pro-Nazi tattoos.

[neutron_star]

After reading the title, I guessed what kind of store this was going to be before I even read the OP.

What is it with gun culture and racism?

[Green_Bean]

@Cluricaun

And again, the tattoos might not mean what everyone is assuming them to mean. It’s rather possible that those tats are gang tattoos and that this fellow has spent some time behind bars getting associated with the Aryan Nation or one of the other white prison gangs who are for the most part no more Nazis than a member of the BGF is an actual guerilla. If so it raises concern that anyone with an extensive enough criminal background to have spent time as a member of a prison gang might not be the best thing to have working at a business with an FFL.

To take this to an illogical conclusion though, maybe the guy used to be a terrible drunk and did a stretch back a few long years ago for drunk driving offences, hooked up with the gang while incarcerated for protection, and now is sober and has served his time and is completely reformed and that is not an active part of his life anymore. I definitely agree that he shouldn’t be showing them in the shop and if my supposition is the case that he should have them blacked out or redone as something else, but there are many assumptions to be made.

As I said before, his actions in the past–getting the tattoos–aren’t the salient issue here.

His actions in the present are the problem. He’s choosing to display the tattoos.

Your theory of his needing to join the gang in prison is certainly a possible explanation for his having the tattoos. And the “real” meaning might indeed be something different than what we assume. But anyone but a complete moron knows exactly what a swastika communicates to someone who doesn’t know the whole story–which includes just about everyone he encounters working in a retail store.

@Really_Not_All_That_Bright

Sure, but you’re… what, 25, 30? It’s pretty hard for us to imagine it, but people change an awful lot between their twenties and their fifties- and tattoo removal is painful, not always an option, and really ridiculously expensive.

Again, there are two cheaper and less painful options other than removal. He could get covering tattoos or keep his sleeves rolled down.

@CrazyCatLady

I think what he’s saying is that it’s perfectly possible to get so used to something you don’t even notice it any more, if it’s there long enough. Hell, my dad’s got a tattoo on his forearm that quit registering with me long enough ago that I can’t even really tell you what it looks like in any detail. There’s an eagle, and some sort of shield under it, and I think a banner that says “Marine Corps” or something like that. Come to think of it, I’m even really sure which arm it’s on; I think it’s the right, but I’m only about 60% sure of that.

Sorry, but that’s absurd. I forgot about the birthmark on my knee, and I don’t doubt that you forgot the particulars of your dad’s Marine eagle tattoo. But neither of those things are a big honking Nazi symbol! I just don’t think anyone forgets that they have the symbol of the most reviled regime in modern history prominently displayed on their arm.

@msmith537

The Nazi imagery is offensive not because of the “precedent set by Nazis towards violence” but because of the precedent set by the Nazis towards racial intolerance and bigotry. If you want to demonstrate those beliefs, I as a Jew, will not do business with you. It would be the same as someone wearing a “Kill All Niggers” tatoo as far as I am concerned.

Huh. All this time, and I didn’t know you were a member of the tribe. L’Chaim!

@neutron_star

After reading the title, I guessed what kind of store this was going to be before I even read the OP.

What is it with gun culture and racism?

Did you really have to go there?

I hope that nobody lets your comment derail this very interesting thread.

[Pazu]

To the OP: Have you observed any non-white patrons at this establishment?

[mailman]

I worked in a hospital when I was in college, and one day I had to go and bring a woman downstairs for an X-ray. Her hospital gown–you know the ones–didn’t offer much in the way of modesty, but somehow when she saw that I had noticed the death camp ID tatoo on her forearm, she managed to cover it up with some part of that gown. She didn’t want it seen, and I’ll bet in her ordinary life, it never was. I felt like I had, however inadvertantly, been a peeping Tom. My point is, she went out of her way to cover up something she didn’t want showing. The pawn shop guy didn’t. Draw your own conclusions.

[neutron_star]

@Green_Bean

Did you really have to go there?

There was an elephant in the thread.

[El_DeLuxo]

1. Maye he’s put whatever the tattoos represented behind him, but it’s important to the man that he not hide from or obscure something in his past that he now regrets – sort of an owning up to his follies.

2. Maybe he’s put whatever the ink once represented so far behind him that he does not care one way or another; or

3. Maybe he’s still an unrepentant WP who flies the flag.

You should probably gut up and ask him about it if it’s that big a deal to you.

[Tripler]

UPDATE:

I haven’t called over there yet (been a little busy this week in school), but one of my friends went over to the store to pick up a pistol after her three-day waiting period. I had mentioned to her earlier what I saw, and she noted that yesterday, “Sam” was in short sleeves again.

At this point, I have to assume the management knows and/or doesn’t care. I am now leaning towards finding another store. But, once I do call, I’ll let y’all know. . .

Tripler
Damn. Strike one.
ETA:

@Pazu

To the OP: Have you observed any non-white patrons at this establishment?

Yes, I have. A handful of them, but the were Air Force types like myself. I didn’t know them, but they were mulling about one day when I was doing the same.