An officer leads students Thursday, Dec. 7, 2023 into the UNLV student union building where they had to leave behind their belongings as a shooter opened fire at the university yesterday killing three people.
Friday, Dec. 8, 2023 | 2 a.m.
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Saturday, less than 72 hours after a deadly shooting on the UNLV campus and just 20 miles away, the Las Vegas Motor Speedway will host the Crossroads of the West gun show. According to its website, Crossroads of the West Gun Shows, which visit multiple cities and venues across the West, attracted more visitors last year than any other gun show in America.
Tracy Olcott, president of Crossroads of the West, expressed sympathy for the victims of the UNLV shooting and said she was open to ideas for how to honor them, but told us there are no plans to cancel, postpone or otherwise adjust the show in light of Wednesday’s rampage.
While Las Vegas is no stranger to gun shows, staging one in the same city as a highly visible shooting that occurred just days earlier is heartless and prioritizes the opportunity to profit from the sale of deadly weapons above the basic decency and respect of honoring those lost and those who continue to recover from the tragedy. To its credit, Crossroads of the West canceled its show in the immediate aftermath of the Route 91 Harvest festival massacre Oct. 1, 2017. But that decision only seems to underscore that it has the ability to cancel, postpone or otherwise modify its schedule when deemed necessary, making the decision to push forward with this year’s event all the more out of touch.
Unfortunately, having the show right after the Las Vegas shooting isn’t shocking. It’s a vivid example of how America’s addiction to guns and the pro-gun industry’s utter lack of concern over gun violence (despite claims to the contrary) will continue the cycle of death until voters demand that politicians stop this madness.
The lives of America’s children (and thus everyone else) have become a conveyer belt of bodies all discarded in the name of gun commerce. Events like Crossroads of the West epitomize that commerce unbound by any reasonable safeguards. With the existence of the “gun show loophole,” for all we know the next gun killer might well be buying guns at this weekend’s show. Yet the show’s organizers continue to offer nothing but empty platitudes.
“We feel for the victims,” Olcott said in a phone call with a member of the editorial board. “Especially students,” she continued. “They shouldn’t have to fear for their life to go to school.”
We agree. But as we stated in Thursday’s editorial, “while thoughts and prayers may console the bereaved, they will not stop these senseless murders. Only the actions of good, decent and clear-eyed citizens intent on stopping this insanity can do that.”
The gun industry has repeatedly refused to take action or offer support for even the most reasonable regulations on gun ownership. Instead, Crossroads is a self-described “proud supporter of the right to carry” that has “lobbied extensively to establish and extend that right to all.”
It’s ironic given that Crossroads’ website “respectfully ask(s) that you not carry loaded at the gun show.” The website goes on to explain that “Our request that you not carry loaded at the gun show is motivated solely by concern for your safety and the safety of everyone at the show.”
Clearly the event’s organizers understand that the products featured at its shows are dangerous and that public carry is inherently perilous. Yet they lobby extensively against any form of regulation.
Crossroads’ lobbying efforts include promoting gun show loopholes that allow gun buyers to legally avoid background checks. They have also filed multiple lawsuits to force communities that don’t want to host gun shows into providing public lands on which they must be allowed to occur. It wouldn’t be surprising if, in the future, we see Crossroads requesting to host a gun show at UNLV. After all, Crossroads did just win a lawsuit in California overturning a law that prevented the sale of firearms and ammunition on state property. It is shamefully disrespectful to the victims who lost their lives in the UNLV shooting to offer condolences and then turn around and host a gun show mere days later and just miles away, where a felon or someone with a frightening psychiatric record might buy a gun without a background check. It’s shamefully disrespectful to the members of the UNLV and greater Las Vegas community who spent the past 48 hours wondering if their friends, family members, professors and mentors survived the attack to then watch the gun industry seek to profit from the weapon that caused our community’s fear and pain.
We’re past asking the gun industry to stop proliferating instruments of death or asking their customers to reflect on the unbridled lethality that these shows represent. We, as a people, must demand our lawmakers put a stop to this cycle by passing reasonable laws to ensure guns don’t wind up in the wrong hands.
Gun violence is no longer rare or unimaginable. It happens daily and our lawmakers must take action to address the cycle of guns and violence before the gun industry’s carousel of death takes another turn around the graves of innocent Americans. With 600 mass shootings in a year, every gun show, everywhere, is occurring on the heels of another depressingly consistent drum beat of lethal gun violence in America. Lawmakers must close the gun show loophole now and pass reasonable regulations on gun ownership and possession.
