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A few months ago that question of why we collect came up during a concerted effort on the part of some people to stop a military collectors' show.  Some of may know of the Ohio Valley Military Collectors Society and it's annual Show of Shows.  There are several videos of past shows that offer pretty representative examples of the type of activity at these gatherings.  After outgrowing several other venues, for the last several years the OVMS has rented space at the Kentucky State Fairgrounds in Louisville, Kentucky, to hold the show.  This year, however, there was considerable doubt that the show would occur.  As some of you may know, the political left in the United States has been striking out at anything and everything it deems inappropriate or offensive.  Well, after several left-wing lunatics learned that a vendor at another gunshow held on the grounds had Nazi christmas ornaments for sale there, they demanded that the Kentucky State Fair Board not rent its facilities to the OVMS.  Essentially they claimed that anyone who owned, sold, collected or even looked at anything with a swastika was a nasty, hateful, racist person and therefore should not be allowed on the Kentucky State Fairgrounds much less be allowed to rent space there.  The OVMS tried to address the concerns of the Fair officials (ironic term isn't it?) and finally managed to convice them that the OVMS was not a "nasty, hateful, racist" organization, but only just barely.  The Fair Board agreed to allow the SOS with certain conditions such as no reproductions.  This was not an isolated incident.  Since the 1960s, gun collectors have been under attack by the political left.  More recently many of these same people and their younger political allies have attacked anything to do with the Confederate States and the Civil War.  The point is that, at least in the US, collectors are increasingly having to defend themselves.  A good and convinceing answer to the question of "why do you collect" is becoming a matter of life and death for those of us who enjoy it.  Thanks!