Inside gun meet ...300 miles from school shooting
IN a Texas conference centre teeming with gun lovers, an excited 17-year-old is picking his next birthday present – an AK21 assault rifle.
Austin Whitehead is here at the National Rifle Association annual convention in Houston despite being too young to buy the products on display.
But guns have been around all his life, so he doesn’t bat an eyelid as people pose for pictures with Kalashnikovs and scoop bullets into plastic bags.
Later, Austin will be among the crowd reaching fever pitch as the convention’s main speaker Donald Trump hollers:
“The only thing that can stop a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun.”
Meanwhile, in a town 300 miles away, 19 children and two teachers lie dead, massacred by a teenager with an assault rifle he got for his 18th birthday.
Austin senses the comparison. He has a brother aged eight, the same age as some of the victims in Uvalde.
But he says the tragedy has only made him all the more determined to get his hands on his birthday gift. “I’m a gun enthusiast,” he explains. “My dad is in the military. What you do with a gun depends on the person. They can be used to protect people or to kill them.
“I want to have that choice. I have two little brothers, and I want to protect them.” The Uvalde atrocity made no difference to the
NRA. Despite pressure to cancel, the three-day gun show goes on though guests such as American Pie singer Don McLean withdrew as a mark of
respect. Daniel Defense, the firm that made the rifle used by killer Salvador Ramos, hastily pulled its sponsorship.
The NRA trumpets the event as “14 acres of guns and gear”. At one stall, I’m urged to to try a £400 M&P Sport Series rifle, apparently good for beginners. At another I’m given a free baseball cap and told if I like
the
company’s Facebook page, I could win a gun. Most shocking of all is a stand advertising “ghost guns” – untraceable firearms you assemble yourself that can be bought without background checks. Later this year, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives will start regulating them.
A sign says: “Biden and ATF changed the law effective August 2022. Ghost guns will be illegal... get yours now.”
Gun store owners Henry and Diana Orr from South Carolina tell us they’ve made the 14-hour trip here to stand up for their right to bear arms, enshrined
in the US constitution’s second amendment. Henry, 61, says: “We got to defend our second amendment rights and the NRA is our best supporter. ”
Diana, 60, is adamant the Uvalde tragedy would have been prevented if the two slain teachers – Irma Garcia,
48, and Eva Mireles, 44 – had been armed while they taught.
“The children didn’t have protection,” she says. “The teachers need to be armed. By choice – they have to feel it in their hearts.” There is only one politician Diana truly trusts to ensure gun laws aren’t tightened. “Oh my
gosh, I love Trump,” she says. “If he runs in 2024, he’ll win,” Henry adds.
Their views are shared by Virgil Patterson, 79, a former builder from Houston. We meet him as we wait for the ex-President’s speech. Virgil is wearing a Trump 2024 hat with the slogan “Take America Back”.
He says: ”Trump’s not a politician. The man cares about his country.” Virgil has 30 guns at home and taught a granddaughter to shoot when she was 10. “The second amendment is
important to me,” he says. “It’s a matter of freedom. You don’t have that right in England – it got taken from you. I have had to use my gun a couple of times but I haven’t had to fire it.
“People tried to take something from me but then they saw my gun.”
Bookkeeper Melinda Teitelbaum, 67, from Fort Worth near Dallas, adds: “I love guns. It’s really unfortunate what happened a few days ago but the
problem is not guns, it’s the character of the person. All of these horrific events – there has never been one carried out by an NRA member.
“It’s a sickness. It does not matter how many laws you have, you cannot control mental illness. I would absolutely arm teachers.”
In the Trump queue, most people we speak to express horror about the tragedy in Uvalde, saying they would only use their guns in self defence.
Then a man walks past wearing a “Kill a Commie for Mommy” T-shirt.
We take our seats for the series of warm-up speakers. Texas Senator Ted Cruz blames Tuesday’s tragic events on everything from one-parent families to video games.
A middle-aged woman in the row behind me begins to jump up and down in agreement. “Exactly!” she shouts.
Trump is ushered on stage to the strains of Republican anthem God Bless the USA and everyone joins the standing ovation.
No one mentions that country music icon Lee Greenwood, who wrote the song, cancelled his appearance out of respect for the Uvalde families.
Trump reads out the names of the Uvalde dead to the sound of a clanging bell.
In his speech he says security in schools must be beefed up. “There is no sign more inviting to a mass killer than one declaring a gun-free zone,” he says, to rapturous applause.” And if he runs in 2024?
“I would crack down on violent crime like never before,” he vows.
“Four more years!” screams the old man in front of me, waving his walking stick. An hour later it ends with a promise to “take back that great, beautiful White House that we love.”
Outside,as we leave, not everyone is feeling so inspired. Protestors are gathered with signs saying “no guns!” and “go home!” Among them is teacher Nathaniel Gomez, 35.
He blinks back tears as he says: “I teach 10-year-olds. I cried when I heard. It’s just so messed up. You honk your horn, you might get killed. There are so many idiots with guns.”