Walt Rubel Commentary: City should end relationship with gun show

On Oct. 23 and 24, the taxpayer-funded Las Cruces Convention Center will be used once again to pump more guns onto the streets of Las Cruces and southern New Mexico.

Those are the dates of the Sunrise Lions Club 2022 Semi-Annual Gun and Crafts Show, which takes place every spring and fall. Before delving into that event, I’d like to take a moment to praise Lions Clubs.

The only “club” I’ve ever belonged to as an adult was the Royal Gorge Lions Club in Canon City, Colorado, so I’m well aware of the good work that they do. The Sunrise Lions Club operates a summer camp for deaf children; provides eye exams and glasses for the needy; and funds scholarships at NMSU, among its many philanthropic activities.

Our club in Colorado ran the concessions stand at the adult softball field every summer. Each of us would take a week or two working at the stand, which is where I learned how to operate a popcorn machine. I’m sure we didn’t make as much money as the Sunrise Club does, but we never had to worry that one of our hotdogs would fall into the wrong hands.

The term “gun show” is misleading. People go to car shows to look at cars. People go to gun shows to buy guns. For most of the local gun show’s history, that included guns sold without a background check. State law passed in 2019 finally ended that practice; except, of course, in the parking lot.

I haven’t been to the local gun show since they added the “crafts” part, so I shouldn’t prejudge. Maybe the assault rifles have been pushed to the corner and now it’s all about leatherwork and macrame. But I doubt it.

The show has always been a celebration of gun culture. It brings gun lovers from throughout the region to Las Cruces, and it always results in more guns being put on the streets.

I recognize that the Sunrise Lions Club is perfectly within its right to host the event, but I don’t think it should be held in a taxpayer-funded building.  

The recent school shooting in Texas, coming so soon after the supermarket shooting in Buffalo, N.Y., has rekindled the same sense of hopeless frustration I get everytime I hear these same stupid arguments being repeated.

I gave up after Sandy Hook. The slaughter of elementary school students in 2012 has only resulted in a loosening of gun laws and an explosion of gun sales in the years since, especially the sale of military-style weapons and ammunition whose sole purpose is to kill people.

The Las Cruces City Council certainly must understand that sense of hopelessness. The state Legislature recently passed a law preventing people from bringing guns into the Roundhouse, but we still have a law on the books preventing local governments from banning people from bringing guns to their meetings.

There isn’t a heck of a lot the city can do. City Council members were considering an advisory vote several years ago when the meeting drew enough armed protesters for a Central American coup.

Moving the gun show out of the convention center would be a token gesture. The Lions Club would find a private facility to hold the event, and the show would continue pouring weapons onto our streets. But at least the city wouldn’t be culpable.

I desperately wish that we could do more than just token gestures. But that would require a cultural shift on guns that no amount of carnage has thus far been able to generate.


Walter Rubel can be reached at waltrubel@gmail.com

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