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St. Peters store stops selling Holocaust-style patches designed for gun owners

The patch resembles a star Jewish people were forced to wear in Hitler's Germany, but this patch was designed for gun owners who feel they are being persecuted, too.

ST. PETERS, Mo. — A St. Peters tactical shop pulled a controversial patch from its website Monday after 5 On Your Side started asking questions.

The patch resembles a star Jewish people were forced to wear in Hitler’s Germany, but this patch was designed for gun owners who feel they are being persecuted, too.

The online description of the product reads, in part, “The similarities of the current attitude of the legislative environment and the systematic persecution that this star represents are uncanny. There’s no difference."

That’s a statement that offends Burt Newman, who lost several family members during the Holocaust.

Newman is married to Missouri state representative Stacy Newman, a Democrat and supporter of tougher gun laws.

“My father escaped in 1938. He lost 8 aunts, 4 uncles, all of their spouses, all of the children and all of their grandchildren because they were exterminated and murdered in Hitler’s camps. Now how do you equate something like this with the so-called discrimination against gun owners?” he said.

The store’s owner says he doesn’t believe the two are comparable.

"I do not think you can compare gun owner persecution to that of the Jews in WWII or anything like that,” TJ Kirgin said.

He says this is one of 1,700 patches sold by his company, and the product description was copied and pasted from the manufacturer when the patch was created during the Obama administration.

"I don’t think the patch is relevant anymore,” Kirgin said.

And he will no longer sell them.

"We're not gonna make a habit out of removing items because they offend people, but this is a case where I think I should make an exception,” he said.

The patches are still available on the manufacturer’s website.

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