UK Edition
Obama gun control message 'not welcome in Texas' warn residents ahead of Dallas visit
President Barack Obama arrives in Dallas on Tuesday grimly experienced in greeting grieving relatives.
In the past year alone, he has addressed the nation six times after a mass shooting. His last visit to a traumatised city was three weeks ago, when he laid flowers at a makeshift shrine in Orlando.
But this visit will be different. For, unlike in other cities, many people here don’t want him to come.
“Oh my God – is he coming?” said Bill Burch, a former army intelligence officer. "I think he needs to be retired pretty quickly.”
Mr Burch, who makes a living selling guns at auction, admitted that it was “a sad time.” But, surrounded by AK47s, AR-15s and a camouflage weapon endorsed by the stars of “redneck” reality show Duck Dynasty, he said Mr Obama’s gun control message was not welcome in his state.
“Look at Chicago,” he said. “They control guns, and it becomes a crime capital. Look at Australia – they tried to control guns, and crime went up.
“We are protecting ourselves and our families.”
The president’s name is invoked reluctantly in this staunchly Republican part of the US.
He will speak at a memorial service in Dallas to pay tribute to the five fallen police officers killed by gunman Micah Johnson last week, after he opened fire during a Black Lives Matter protest rally.
The president will visit at the request of Dallas Mayor Mike Rawlings in a bid to help restore unity and quell the ongoing protests nationwide over racial discrimination and police brutality towards America’s black population. But also, he is expected to raise once more the need to tighten gun laws in the wake of another mass shooting.
When he attends the Morton H. Meyerson Symphony Centre he will be accompanied by former President George W Bush and his wife, Laura.
According to those at the Fort Worth gun show, where Mr Burch was selling his wares, any appeal to the local population to lay down their arms will fall on deaf ears.
In fact, it will do the exact opposite.
A 30-minute drive from the scene of America’s latest tragedy, down an interstate lined with American flags fluttering at half mast in the hot Texas air, the gun show - one of the biggest in the state - was doing a roaring trade over the weekend.
Hundreds wandered between the stalls in a cavernous overly air-conditioned events hall, slurping on fizzy drinks and munching peanut cones in the colours of the Confederate flag while perusing the lethal weaponry on display. The open carry laws of Texas mean those who had already bought a rifle could simply stroll out with it into the afternoon.
A man with a beard and black bandana pushed his two-year-old son in a pram, waving an AK47 above his head. The semi-automatic weapon, which can fire off a 30-round magazine in a matter of seconds, is for sale to anyone who wants it - so long as they can stump up $800 cash in hand.
“We founded this country with our guns and now we need them more than ever,” says the seller, who is aged in his mid-20s, while his son squirms with boredom in the pram.
“Without our weapons somebody would have invaded this country a long time ago.
"I think Obama needs to keep his nose out of our gun rights.”
As the many branded t-shirts for sale among the thousands of weapons attest, this is gun country, where the right to bear arms is treasured as a basic democratic and human right. “If you come for mine,” reads a message on one t-shirt above a picture of an assault rifle. “You better bring yours.”
For many families, a visit to a gun show is a regular day out. Children barely out of their teens were trying on body armour and examining rifles and shotguns while their parents proudly looked on. Women comprised a sizeable proportion of the buyers – gun-concealing lingerie among the items on display.
Matthew and Stacy Jewett attended the show with their seven-year-old son - already “a scarily good shot with .22 rifle” - one of about 70 guns the family keeps at home.
“This is our culture,” said Mrs Jewett. “This is all normal to us. Even if you banned all the guns now the only people that would actually hand them in would be the good guys.”
Carl Leonard, a 40-year-old from Fort Worth, was looking for a pistol for his wife.
"I already have a 12 gauge shotgun but she told me a few weeks ago she wanted one for herself,” he said. "I'm a Christian and the right to protect myself is a foundation of our Christian values."
All of the arsenal which former soldier Micah Johnson deployed for his Dallas killing spree was on sale: the AR-15 assault rifle; the high-capacity magazines of which he had stuffed so many into his pockets that witnesses described them falling out as he ran; and the body armour.
Jim Chase, from Arlington in Texas, was manning one such stall selling body armour and machine guns. Survivalists, he said, are the principal buyers.
“They like to get ready because they think the government is going to come and take our guns and they will refuse to hand them over.”
Over Mr Obama’s visit, Mr Chase was unequivocal, saying he and his “anti-gun” message should stay away from Texas.
“The police are over-stretched as it is, dealing with funerals and overtime. Tensions are too high.”
Ask those here what the president’s Texan foray will achieve in a state – and country – awash with weaponry and the answer is the same for if Hillary Clinton takes over the White House in November – more guns.
“If she wins the rush to buy weapons will be unprecedented,” says Edward Wendorf, 42, an Army veteran and gun seller.
“The thing about saying you will take something away from somebody is it makes them only want it more.”
Mr Wendorf is proud of his rigorously filed accounts and insists he only sells to people he is 100 per cent convinced will be responsible owners. Like others here he disputes the notion of the so-called “gun show loophole” often highlighted by campaigners – where private sellers trade weapons cash in hand.
This claim of a conspiracy is, however, somewhat undone by the presence of the man with the AK47 appealing for the highest bidder. All he is required to do is note the buyer's social security number and address. What he does with that information is not specified.
And while all the official traders run instant background checks on those wanting to buy a weapon, from an outsider’s perspective there is nothing seemingly to stop any buyer then re-selling that elsewhere – to anybody.
But these are the signs of a truly toxic debate, the point when logic on both sides had long become insurmountable.
A poster near the exits had the final word. “If guns really kill people, then how come anybody ever comes out of a gun show alive?”