Texas
I bribed the gal behind the counter at FedEx to let me print before the other folks in line. I needed 500 copies and just walked a mile in the blazing sun. So, I slipped her $20 cash when nobody was looking. It’s the way the world works, folks.
There was another dude waiting by the printer wearing one of those fishing shirts with the flaps on the back, a baseball cap, and some cowboy boots. How the hell people in Texas wear cowboy boots all day is beyond me.
“Where are you from,” I asked passing time.
“Uvalde,” he replied.
“Oh shit,” I said out loud before realizing I said it out loud.
He was also attending the NRA convention in Houston, Texas which was a mile away. We both needed flyers for the conference. An exhibition and conference with “14 acres of guns and goods” and described by the organizers below:
Make plans now to join fellow Second Amendment patriots for a freedom-filled weekend for the entire family as we celebrate Freedom, Firearms, and the Second Amendment!
Why the hell was I at a gun show in Texas? It’s a long story. The short story is I was working.
“I am sorry about your losses,” I said to the fishing shirt guy. I am not sure what to say to someone from a small town that suffered one of the most horrific tragedies in American history while sitting in a FedEx store.
“Thank you,” he replied.
“I am sure it has been very hard on your community,” I kept struggling for the right things to say. I make a mess of words when I need appropriate words.
“Yes, it has been hard. My wife’s best friend was a teacher at the school. She stayed home that day.” His look said it all.
Damn.
Inside the show, I talked to hordes of people who love guns. I had a long conversation with an autistic kid who told me five Joe Biden jokes, a rancher who owns 147,000 acres of a cattle farm, and a biker who has been married for 49 years and just beat stage four prostate cancer. He likes beer and looks like Santa Claus.
I worked side by side with a Green Beret while drinking coffee from a company started by a Green Beret. He told me guns don’t kill people, people kill people. The protestors outside thought otherwise.
Outside the show, I spoke to protestors who oppose guns. I talked to teachers, mothers, fathers, and even a man dressed as Santa Claus. One man told me he has a large collection of guns but is angry about gun regulations in the United States.
“Too soft,” he said.
Does this country have a gun problem or a people problem? Should it be a constitutional right for citizens to own guns? Does anybody have the answers?
I think there are good people everywhere and a few bad seeds among us all.
277 miles away from the conference, a bad seed bought two assault weapons designed for war and destroyed a community, a community where my new buddy with the fishing shirt lives.
“What are they going to do about the school,” I asked.
“Tear it down,” he replied.
Trey