Oasis Outback, where Ramos bought his guns, has stayed open and its barbecue restaurant did its usual brisk Friday night business. The gun shop at the back of its sporting goods section was temporarily closed out of respect to victims’ families, according to a posted sign.
An Oasis employee who declined to give her full name said the store has been getting angry calls blaming it for the attack, but the callers’ phone numbers were not from the area.
Support for gun rights is strong in Uvalde, which is roughly halfway between San Antonio and the border city of Del Rio. But some parents and relatives of victims are calling for change.
“I just don’t know how people can sell that type of gun to a kid 18 years old. What is he going to use it for but for that purpose?” said Siria Arizmendi, a fifth grade teacher whose niece, Eliahna Garcia, was killed. She spoke in her dining room shortly before Eliahna’s great-grandparents, also Uvalde residents, arrived.
Javier Carranza, a 43-year-old gun owner and Army veteran whose daughter, Jacklyn, was killed, said it was “kind of ridiculous” to sell such firepower to an 18-year-old and that better background checks are needed.
Uvalde sits amid flat fields of cabbages, onions, carrots, corn and peppers, but mechanized farming replaced many jobs. Construction material companies are among its most coveted employers.
The city is home to a Border Patrol station that operates a highway checkpoint and monitors freight trains in what has suddenly become one of the busiest corridors for illegal crossings. A massive camp of Haitian migrants that sprang up under a bridge in Del Rio last year made headlines around the world.
Many residents can trace their family’s presence in Uvalde through three or four generations, creating a cherished sense of community. On one Friday night each month, stores stay open late and food vendors occupy the central square outside a neoclassical courthouse.
“Uvalde Strong” messages adorn store windows, T-shirts and lawn signs. Curbs and sidewalks are less common the farther one gets from the central square, with roosters walking on cracked pavement near Robb Elementary School.
Ruiz, the Templo Crisitano pastor whose children and grandchildren live in Uvalde, asks new parishioners about their ancestry to get to know them better.
Before Tuesday, occasional traffic deaths were the biggest tragedies to befall Uvalde.
“We’ve had individuals murdered, but not on a mass scale like this,” said Tony Gruber, pastor at Baptist Temple Church.
No Comment