JFK Museum and Dallas Holocaust Museum

[n5wmk]

I didn't see any really recent posts on these two places, so I thought I'd give an update here.

At Christmas, I had promised my 13 year old granddaughter a trip to both museums (she's interested in historical stuff like that), and she had a day off from school on Tuesday, Jan 21, so we went.

The Sixth Floor (JFK) Museum is no longer posted. That's probably not a recent change - I went there 6 or 7 years ago with my Mom and former SIL. At that time, it was posted 30.06 with a technically non-compliant sign (printed on 8.5" x 11" paper in too-small font). The entire building was posted with those signs then, as the Dallas County Courts are also in the building. I didn't carry inside back then, even though the signs were not compliant, because they also had a couple of Deputies inside.

But now, the museum is totally separated from the court area by an exterior corridor. So the court area is posted 30.06 and 30.07, but the Museum is clear.

We had bought our tickets on line, and I carried happily inside. No metal detectors, no wanding. No real security at all in the 6th Floor Museum, other than a couple of unarmed private security folks. So it was just a normal go in, present or purchase your ticket, and enjoy the tour.

The Dallas Holocaust Museum (across the street from the 6th Floor) - much different. Large compliant 30.06 & 30.07 signs at the entrance. I locked my EDC in the lockbox in my truck, but left my holster in my belt. We went inside, and there's an airport-style metal detector, an airport-style x-ray machine, and a couple security guards with wands.

Took everything out of my pockets - keys, phone, coins, original style Leatherman tool/knife, wallet - all in a bowl along with my wrist watch for the x-ray. When I stepped through the detector - it beeped.

I told the guard about my steel knees and the zippers on my Bates boots. He wanted see the zippers and said that my knees were what triggered the detector.

No wanding - I expected they would find my empty Cross Breed IWB holster from the belt clips, and I'd have to explain why I had an empty holster. But they sent me on through without any wanding, just accepting my statement about my knees and looking the zippers on my boots. No comment at all about my Leatherman knife.

I just don't understand a place that claims to promote human rights and whose reason for being is a result of a group of people were forcefully disarmed and slaughtered, prohibiting the legal possession of firearms within their building.

But overall, it was a good day spent with my granddaughter, with no problems.

[strogg]

Thanks for the update. My family and I went to the 6th floor museum during the Thanksgiving holiday weekend, but we didn't go in due to the tickets being sold out. The exterior doors did have gun buster signs, though. Are they gone now?

[n5wmk]

No gun buster signs that I noticed. But I typically don't "notice" gun busters signs, just look for legal 30.06. There were 2 guys repairing the glass entry doors - so I may have missed it. But definitely no 30.06 sign.

[C-dub]

I just don't understand a place that claims to promote human rights and whose reason for being is a result of a group of people were forcefully disarmed and slaughtered, prohibiting the legal possession of firearms within their building.

The only two possible explanations I can come up with are that they either aren't bright enough to see and understand the irony or they just don't care.

[JustSomeOldGuy]

I did a 'walk around' the perimeter of the book depository building in Google Maps Street View today (images dated mid-2019). The museum related entrances on the side away from Elm Street all seem to be devoid of any 30.0x signage. However, the Elm facing recessed doorway inscribed Dallas County Administration Building has what looks like might be 30.06 and 30.07 signage on the right side of the alcove. Unfortunately, the images are not good enough for the signage to be read in Street View. Can anyone confirm or deny them as 30.0x signs? Thanks!

[iratollah]

I just don't understand a place that claims to promote human rights and whose reason for being is a result of a group of people were forcefully disarmed and slaughtered, prohibiting the legal possession of firearms within their building.

Good question. But first off, good on you for encouraging your granddaughter's interest in history and making time to take her to these sites.

Some Holocaust survivors were so traumatized by their wartime experience they have a rabid aversion to guns as they associate them with the violence perpetrated against them. (Other survivors aren't about to ever give up the tools to defend themselves.) None of us can put ourselves in their shoes to begin to imagine their worldview.

It's very likely that many major donors, board members, and supporters of the Dallas museum are very liberal. Security concerns these days at any place that has a relationship with anything Jewish are necessarily very hightened. Perhaps their security consultants advised that unlike a synagogue or church that allows congregants to carry, and considering the congregants are known to regulars there, having random strangers wander into a place like a Holocaust Museum carrying firearms would allow a person with evil intent unfettered access. A good defense plan is layered so they may see metal detectors as desirable layer, and again, circumstances are different in this particular type of museum than in say an art museum or place of worship.

More puzzling is how many in the Jewish community are opposed to our freedom to own firearms. A Holocaust Museum necessarily includes a tribute to the Warsaw Ghetto resistance where a small group of untrained, poorly armed, sick and starving Jewish fighters held off the most powerful army in the world longer than did the entire country of France. (Worse is how a group like PolitiFact claims that if Jews had weapons that could have prevented the Holocaust which totally denies the success of that same resistance.)

The message of a Holocaust Museum isn't just a Jewish story...it's a lesson about what can happen anywhere when racism, bigotry, and hatred spiral out of control and no one does anything to stop it. The nature of donor driven funding has some of these museums taking on a more general human rights message that tends to stray from the original. The other reason for a change in the way Holocaust museums present their message is that less observant Jews have allowed their politics to replace their Judaism.

The only two possible explanations I can come up with are that they either aren't bright enough to see and understand the irony or they just don't care.

Neither of these speculative explanations are satisfactory, IMHO.

Disclaimer: I was a volunteer docent at Holocaust Museum Houston for about eight years and my parents were Holocaust survivors, I try to not let the passion of my intimacy with the topic cloud my perspective. Our museum was also posted and I've no comment to make here about how I prepared for my tours nor what I saw as my responsibility to the safety of groups I led through the museum.