At NRA Gathering, Spar . Gun Protesters and Advocates

HOUSTON – On one side of a boulevard in downtown Houston, people applied to the National Rifle Association’s annual convention this weekend to talk about guns, admire guns, buy guns. and call like a Second Amendment to the right to bear arms; that is, guns.

Across the boulevard, gun protesters, gun advocates, the ubiquity of guns and easy access by Americans to guns have facilitated two mass killings this month; that is, the murder of 10 people, all Black, in a Buffalo supermarket, and the murder of 21 people, including 19 children, at an elementary school in Texas.

The avenue is known as Avenida De Las Americas.

As people on one side of the boulevard sweated and shouted in the blazing Texas sun, others flocked to the cool, comfortable spaces of the George R. Brown Convention Center. But the air-conditioned lobby is not sealed. The school massacre earlier this week in Uvalde, just 300 miles west of here. In terms of time and distance, it was too close.

Inside, politicians talk of schools “hardening” the mix of NRA loyalists and newbies curious about the cause. Outside, veterans and novice protesters waved handmade signs and photos of children shot dead this week, hoping to change their minds.

These protesters included the likes of Dana Enriquez-Vontoure, an educator for more than 25 years who stood outside the convention center with a sign she had made hours earlier. It repeats the three words five times:

“The bus is not the listener.”

Enriquez-Vontoure, 46, a mother of two girls, said: “In the past, you would leave your children with me and they would be safe. “Now we live in a world where we can’t promise that.”

She mocked suggestions by some gun advocates to increase school safety by arming teachers and other school officials. She says the doors at her local schools are locked during the day. To pick up her daughter, she had to scan a QR code, fill out a form and wait for her daughter to be taken out. No guns involved.

At that moment, a criminologist and mother named Aramis Miller appeared beside Mrs. Enriquez-Vontoure. She was holding a sign of her own – “Don’t make a scapegoat for the mentally ill” – and the two of them were about to join a larger protest, drawing hundreds of people, across the avenue from Hall. They have known each other since elementary school.

But those with the right certification can escape the heat of angry teachers and the baking sun and step into the welcoming cool of the NRA convention.

This is Michael Shao, 50, born in China and now living on Long Island, who says he’s promoting firearms safety programs to Asian Americans who aren’t worried about the barrage of attacks. violence against members of their community. And here are three men from Chicago, all dressed in Ukrainian yellow and blue, looking for binoculars, night vision goggles, and other items that might help.

Igor Terletsky, 50, said: “We are just looking around.

And here it is, a white-haired man in a T-shirt saying, “We’re the angry ones.”

Like-minded people inside the convention mingled amicably, their gun-talking relationship interrupted only by angry, sometimes obscene chants from all over Avenida De Las Americas, and by journalists asking for their response.

Tim Hickey, 45, who came from Cleveland to promote his business, PatchOps.com, which sells “motivational” stickers and political t-shirts, is rated “You hate kids!” The chorus is being sung at the moment. He has two children, aged 14 and 12.

Mr Hickey, a bearded ex-Marine, said: “Now I am going to die for one of their children. “Will they do that? I do not think so. ”

He called the Uvalde massacre “heartbreaking” and said that many gun owners grieve in a slightly different way than others “because we wish we were there to stop it”.

Mr Hickey defended gun laws, repeating a common refrain that “you cannot legislate for evil” and found no link between the Uvalde shootings and the NRA, including the convention. this.

“It’s the media,” he said. “That’s what you do.”

Standing beside him is Kat Munoz, 34, from Novi, Mich., who has described herself as a victim of domestic violence and as a self-defence “influencer” on social media. for women. Her therapy dog, a Belgian Malinois named Millie, sits at her feet.

Ms. Munoz is a mother of two children, 11 and 9. She also expressed deep sadness about Uvalde. She also defends the country’s gun laws and the NRA. And, she said, “Gun laws don’t change psychopaths from psychopaths.”

She went looking for a place to entertain Millie, with the intention of staying away from the protesters gathered across the street. Later, while queuing to hear former President Donald J. Trump speak at the convention, Ms. Munoz texted that “recent events” had made her wonder if “we can compromise on raising the bar. gun-buying age or a closer background check on the AR-15s,” the weapon used by the 18-year-old Uvalde gunman and the 18-year-old accused gunman in Buffalo.

“If that’s what it takes to not completely remove our rights, I wouldn’t oppose it if absolutely necessary,” she wrote.

The shooting massacres in Buffalo and Uvalde — including Pittsburgh, Charleston, Parkland, Sandy Hook, and many more locations that cannot be named here — have another effect on the NRA’s celebrations this year.

In the hallway outside the convention center’s exhibit area, an electronic sign continues to promote Saturday night’s musical event “NRA’s Grand Ole Freedom Night,” which featured Lee Greenwood , considered “America’s Most Recognized Patriot”; Don McLean, of the famous “American Pie”; and Larry Gatlin, country and gospel singer. Tickets: $25.

But all three dropped out of school last weekend. Mr. McLean told Fox News that the performance would be “disrespectful.” Mr. Gatlin told CNN it “would be a luxurious move” for the NRA to cancel the conference and go for a moment of prayer or silence instead.

There is another notable absence at one end of the hall, where, according to the NRA’s map of exhibitors, a large space has been devoted to the arms company Georgia Daniel Defense, an exporter of The gun was bought by the man who killed 19 students in Uvalde. Instead, the space is occupied by a few tables and a popcorn machine.

But many exhibitors have gone to great lengths to provide a blissful, if temporary, break from the reality that awaits right outside the door. There’s something for everyone, from the dedicated hunter to the anxious survivor to those looking for outfits that can conceal a handgun in a trendy way.

These are knives, pistols and rifles, artistically displayed and ready to go. At a gun manufacturer’s booth, a salesman urged reporters to pick up a short-barreled rifle with a side-folding neck. “Touch it! Feel it!” he said seductively. “It won’t bite.”

These are handhelds for getting your used cartridges, sleek vaults to store your guns, and promotions for gator hunts. A booth for the NRA cigar club. A booth of a wireless provider promoting Christian conservatism. A long line for some “Silencer Smooth,” or whatever else is brewed at the Black Rifle Coffee Company.

As Friday passed, NRA members began to leave the convention center’s protective bubble. They knew that the gallery would open early Saturday morning, offering the latest works on the Kalashnikovs and Rugers and Glocks, and that on Sunday, the last day of the convention, many people would gather in the ballroom. large to have breakfast with prayer menu.

In the Friday night heat, some monks lingered on the boulevards, smoking cigarettes, watching the protests with disdain, occasionally taking selfies with the angry mob as the backdrop. Some say they believe these protesters have their rights too.

Others ventured across the two lanes, not to join the screaming accusations of sparing no one, including elderly veterans, but to collect their cars or find their way back to hotels. their. They passed signs that read “Enough is enough,” “Are guns the death of America,” and “Am I next?” – this was held by a girl no taller than the crowd-control barrier, on which was blood-stained baby clothes.

Several members of the NRA, carrying designer bags, smiled and waved as they passed. However, the others were still staring intently at the hot pavement.