Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, May 7, 1995 TAG: 9505080037
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: JAN VERTEFEUILLE STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
They cater to the criminal, the curious and the scared - those scared that the federal government might one day come for their guns and their freedoms.
"To me, this stuff is junk, really," said a man selling some of the books. "I never understood why people want to buy it."
He wouldn't give his name, saying book selling was just a weekend hobby and that he has a day job he doesn't want to jeopardize.
He also sells pamphlets on making cherry bombs and on "urban terrorism." He likens his selling them to an ABC store selling whiskey and rum. He makes them available, but it's up to the buyer to use them responsibly.
He resisted stocking books like that for a long time, he said, but people kept asking for them. On one side of his booth, he keeps books like "The Turner Diaries," the story of a white supremacist takeover of America that some believe provided a blueprint for the Oklahoma City bombing. On the other side are books he said he's more interested in, like gun care and owners' manuals.
The books on terrorism, how-to manuals for assuming a new identity and weapon manufacturing are selling well, he said.
"There seems to be a fear that all this stuff is going to be ... banned."
A man from Tennessee said he usually sells three copies of "The Turner Diaries," whose author, William Pierce, lives in Hillsboro, W.Va. At the Salem Gun Show, though, he had sold nine copies. He said he thinks people are buying this and similar books to build up a reference library - just in case.
"I think a lot of people are preparing for the day they have to use their weaponry," he said. "I feel confident people don't use these. They keep them for reference."
A note from the publisher says the books are for entertainment only.
He said a lot of people stopping by his booth at the gun show believe the government may have blown up the federal building in Oklahoma so it could get more money and more authority against militias and other anti-government groups.
One pamphlet he handed out said, "Over the years, the federal government has gone from incompetent to corrupt, from intrusive to oppressive. ... The plan has been long established for the subjugation of the American people, with the internment and extermination of millions of U.S. citizens. ... We are on the verge of being a conquered nation."
Whatever evil these people believe the government is capable of, it is exactly this kind of anti-government rhetoric the First Amendment was created to protect.
"The core of free speech is essentially about governmental protest," said Kent Willis of the Virginia chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union. "The whole basis of our Constitution was a group of individuals who felt they had a natural right to speak their mind against an oppressive governmental entity. One way to keep government honest is the right to protest against it."
Ralph Stein is a law professor at Pace University who worked as an intelligence analyst for the Pentagon, keeping data on civilian political activity during the Vietnam era - a practice he later challenged publicly.
"While I understand the political pressure to pass new laws, I believe existing laws are sufficient to do whatever needs to be done," said Stein, who studies political surveillance of civilian groups.
Forming plans to defend yourself against an evil government is "some kind of political catharsis," he said. Such groups have a right to exist, although he still will worry about them, he said.
"I happen to agree with the president," Stein said. "These are groups propagating hate, and we do not ignore groups that propagate hate."
People are attracted to militias because of a desire to join a group or the excitement of being part of a pseudo-military organization, he said.
Modern-day militias have nothing to do with the government-sanctioned, regulated, citizen defense groups of the pre-Colonial era that today's militias say they are modeled after, Stein argues.
"They aren't going to call themselves the White Panthers or something like that because it has a different connotation," he said. "So they borrow a name to create a sense of legitimacy and a warning that it's about to happen again."
Willis said the ACLU is monitoring Congress and any legislation proposed in the wake of the recent bombing, including President Clinton's anti-terrorism bill.
"In a time of crisis, the tendency is first for the government to announce a crackdown on liberty, and second for the public to be accepting of those crackdowns," Willis said.
But monitoring groups the government doesn't like, or vice versa, may not help.
"No amount of restrictions on speech or assembly would have prevented what happened in Oklahoma City," he said.
by CNB