The word written in red was striking: “Murderer.”
Days before Concord’s gun show that had been planned for months at city-owned Everett Arena, an 18-year-old gunman killed 19 students and 2 two teachers in Uvalde, Texas. After the mass shooting, someone more than 2,000 miles away in Concord went around the city and spray-painted a message on the yellow signs promoting the show.
“They might not like what we do, but we’re not murderers, which is what he wrote on them,” said Walter Norris of Concord, who was organizing the gun show through his group New Hampshire Arms Collectors. “There’s no need to do that.”
The signs were all over the city and nearly two dozen of them were hit.
“He got quite a few of them,” Norris said. “He had to drive around.”
The vandalism drew coverage from WMUR the day before the show, which was held on May 28. Norris said some people misunderstood what happened and thought the arena was vandalized and the gun show was canceled. He called around to assure vendors and people he knew that the event would go on – too much time and money had been spent preparing and organizing to just cancel, he said.
“Some people stayed away, but it also gave us some extra attention,” Norris said. “In the end, I think it helped us.”
Nearly 2,000 people showed up.
Besides, why should they cancel? The shooting in Texas had nothing to do with him, his group, or any lawful gun owner in New Hampshire, Norris said.
“Nobody wants to see teachers or kids killed,” he said. “It’s not guns that are the problem, it’s the people who shouldn’t have them.”
He cited the mass shootings in Uvalde and Buffalo, New York.
“No one in their right mind is going to go out and kill anybody,” he said.
Owning a firearm does not make someone a bad person, Norris said. He’s a target shooter who collects antique weapons. Other members of his group are avid hunters. Some own modern weapons, others historic ones. One thing they all have in common – they obey state and federal laws – in fact, it’s a rule of membership.
“Every time something like this happens, it ends up taking some of our freedoms and it’s not good,” Norris said of mass shootings. “It hurts everybody. It’s just terrible.”
Last week Congress passed a bipartisan gun bill that boosts funding for mental health services and school safety, enhances background checks for gun buyers under the age of 21, and includes incentives for states to pass so-called red flag laws which can be used to confiscate weapons from people deemed to be dangerous.
The day of the Concord gun show, a woman sent Norris a clear photo of a man who appeared to be spray painting the yellow signs. Norris called the police to report the vandalism. He said the signs were intended to be used annually and will cost about $500 to replace.
Last week, Concord police sent out the photo and asked for the community’s help to identify the man. Anyone with information is asked to call the Concord Police Department at (603) 225-8600.
The city of Concord requires groups renting the arena to follow all federal laws and local ordinances when hosting an event, and they must carry a certain amount of insurance.
In addition, the city can’t block an event at one of its public facilities based on content, like a gun show, if it meets the city’s permitting requirements. If it did, it could invite a lawsuit, City Solicitor Jim Kennedy said in 2018, after the mass shooting in Parkland, Florida, where 17 people were murdered.
The vandalism on the signs was another indicator to Norris of the growing divide in the country.
“I wish the United States wasn’t so pulled apart, so polarized,” he said. “I wish we could come back together as a country. It’s so unfortunate.”