David Pearson says Confederate flag sales are so brisk from his online store, he has no intention of stopping them.
Pearson owns Alotta Signs in Sparks, Nev., where he has sold as many Confederate flags in the last week as he typically sells in a year.
"Typically about 20 a week, on average," he said Wednesday. But on Sunday he sold 100; then he sold another 800 the next day.
"We've had some people buy two, some buy three or four," he said. "One person bought 21 of them. My phone's ringing off the hook."
The flag, which was originally the flag of Gen. Robert E. Lee's Confederate army during the Civil War, is also seen by many as a symbol of racism.
Dylann Roof, who alleged shot and killed nine African-Americans in a South Carolina church last week, had been photographed carrying the flag. Since that shooting a week ago, South Carolina officials have said they will work to enact measure to remove the flag from the state's capitol.
Pearson said he has no problem with the flag because he doesn't believe it symbolizes racism.
"I think the people that look at the flag as sending a message of racism and slavery and hatred and white supremacy," Pearson said. "I think those people don't know their history. I don't necessarily know my history very well, either. But I don't see it as that, from what I've read about the flag. There's a lot more to it."
The flag is part of this country's history, he added.
"Slavery happened," he said. "It doesn't mean it's right, but it happened. And the Civil War, it happened. We're going to take away the flag? Are we trying to erase history?"
Pearson won't just sell any flag, however. One with a Nazi swastika, he said,
"we won't deal with those. Those are clearly well known to everybody as racist flags and we're not going to get into that."
Wal-Mart and Amazon.com have announced they will not sell Confederate flags anymore. What if Pearson becomes one of the only retailers to sell the flags?
"I'm the type of person, I'm always out alone on the end of the branch," Pearson replied. "If they want to do it. Then maybe they're concerned about acts of terrorism. Or maybe they're just too, maybe they don't have a pair, where they can stand up for people's rights."
David Pearson, owner, Alotta Signs
