“Futile”. That’s the word Fritz Dickman, 63, spontaneously uses to describe the fight for greater gun control in Texas. Whenever a drama involving a shooter occurs, the man who has resided in Houston for 40 years writes to his political representatives. “All I get back is a thank you for my message,” he blurts out.
Changing things in this Republican state deeply attached to its gun culture seems a daunting task, but the feeling that it is in vain does not prevent him from continuing to get involved in the cause. ” I have to do it. It’s horrible. I have to make myself heard, he says. I love democracy, I love life and I love children. »
Uvalde’s drama shocked him. The day before, hundreds of people demonstrated in front of the convention center where the annual meeting of the National Rifle Association (NRA) was held from Friday to Sunday. Three days earlier, 19 children and two female teachers were killed at Robb Elementary School by the bullets of an 18-year-old gunman, who had legally obtained two AR-15s and hundreds of rounds of ammunition. “Usually you don’t see demonstrations of this magnitude here,” said Fritz Dickman, who participated.
But it will take more to move policymakers, and the weight of the NRA and its five million members nationwide weighs heavily on this southern US state.
“It’s harder to change things in Texas than in most other American states,” said Katherine Chen, 18, spokesperson for the Houston chapter of March For Our Lives, a movement launched in 2018 in the city. aftermath of the shooting at a high school in the town of Parkland, Florida.
The group is calling for a firearms registry, a ban on assault weapons and better background checks. “Part of the problem lies in the fact that the current leaders are resistant to change”, underlines the one who will obtain in a few weeks her diploma from the secondary school Bellaire, located in the agglomeration of Houston. According to data released May 26 by the non-profit organization OpenSecrets, the NRA spent just over US$2.5 million between 2015 and 2021 to lobby the Texas Legislature, or more than double what she paid in any other state.
During this period, Texas, led by elected Republicans, expanded the rights of gun owners and sellers. Last year, the requirement to have a license and training to carry a handgun in public was skipped.
Senators and deputies representing the state have meanwhile received more than $14 million in contributions from gun-related interests during their careers, much of it from the NRA, still. according to OpenSecrets. Added to this is the fact that the organization exercises considerable indirect influence through its members on elected officials.
“It gives me hope when you see more and more people speaking out against gun violence since the Uvalde tragedy,” says Katherine Chen nonetheless. “What happened could be reflected in the election results this fall, and we will have elected officials who will be more concerned with doing prevention,” she hopes.
Texas voters will notably be able to vote for a new governor at the head of the state on November 8th. Current Republican Governor Greg Abbott won 55.8% of the vote against his Democratic opponent in 2018, who for his part won 42.5%. Greg Abbott, who is running for re-election, has nevertheless come under fire from his opponents since Uvalde because of his close ties to the NRA and his policies making guns more lax.
A sign that the subject could take up more space in the campaign and that the Democrats want to drive home the point, the Democratic candidate who hopes to snatch the post from him, Beto O’Rourke, made a splash during a press conference of Greg Abbott last Wednesday, shouting at him that “the time to prevent the next shooting is now and [qu’il ne fait] nothing “.
Inspired by the gesture, Benjamin Hernandez, a 39-year-old activist, challenged Republican Senator Ted Cruz about his gun stances when he happened to be at the same restaurant in Houston two days later. an exchange that circulated in videos on social networks. “We need to challenge our elected officials, no matter where they are. And we see that more and more, he said in an interview with the To have to. If you are an elected official and you continue to have extreme positions, you must be held accountable. »
Benjamin Hernandez took part in the protest outside the NRA’s annual meeting that day, as Ted Cruz gave a speech inside. “In this country, we idolize people who enforce the law, and guns. We have to rise above that, he says. We must mobilize to defeat elected officials who ignore reality. The majority of Americans are in favor of background checks. »
He is an activist with Indivisible Houston, which, according to its website, “fights for a more equitable and progressive world through political pressure.” He also works as a consultant for a few Democratic candidates. He is aware that changing the situation politically is a challenge, in particular because “Republicans are making it harder for people to vote”.
“The biggest challenge is convincing people that their vote will make a difference,” he said. Politicians adopt rules that benefit them, and many question the idea of going to vote because it is always the same people who are elected anyway. »
This report was financed thanks to the support of the Transat International Journalism Fund.The duty.