At the store's entrance, five round grills the size of truck wheels greet customers.
A first warning: everything is gigantic in the Oasis Outback supermarket.
Once inside, one can start by buying a Hawaiian print tripleXL shirt and swimsuit set, then head to the restaurant for a double burger.
And for dessert, end up in the back area buying an AR15 semi-automatic rifle, a weapon of military origin capable of firing more than 30 bullets in less than a minute.
A similar plan must have been followed in this store by the murderer of the Uvalde primary school who left 21 dead this Tuesday.
The Texas authorities have confirmed that, in mid-May, Salvador Ramos came to the Oasis supermarket to buy his arsenal: two rifles and 375 bullets of ammunition.
She had just turned 18 and celebrated at this popular establishment a 10-minute drive from her home.
That's how familiar Texas's relationship with guns is.
Uvalde and the entire southeastern area of the state, surrounded by streams and natural parks, is famous for sport hunting.
The shelves of the Oasis supermarket are an overwhelming display of fishing rods, professional bows, fiberglass arrows, pistols and rifles of all ranges.
The firearms area has its own room in the store, with stuffed animals hanging on the walls: bison heads, deer, and even a six-foot black bear.
“What weapon do you want, gentleman?” asks the clerk.
He is a paunchy man in his sixties with a graying goatee, camouflage vest, and ranch hat.
The reporter is interested in the AR15 rifles, placed in the center of the display case as the jewel in the crown among the more than two dozen long weapons that are sold in the store.
“It is versatile, very reliable and precise.
They are the ones who ask us the most”, he says.
The basic model costs $700.
Asked if he remembers selling two of these rifles a couple of weeks ago to the young man who opened fire at the village elementary school, the clerk is silent for a few seconds.
“We are already collaborating with the police in the investigation and we are not going to say anything more.
If you have more questions, better read what the law says.”
Access to weapons is one of the founding myths of the United States enshrined as a right by the Constitution for all adults.
The regulation in each State differs in some details but none can prohibit it.
Texas, one of the historic strongholds of the Republicans, has some of the most lax legislation.
In some States the minimum age to access these rifles is 21 years.
But, in Texas, anyone over the age of 18 can buy a long gun.
a stalled debate
Texas Governor Greg Abbott arrived in Uvalde the day after the tragedy, the worst school shooting in more than a decade.
During the press conference at the school's own facilities, the governor transferred responsibility for the event to a mere matter of mental health, thus shielding the inviolable right to arms.
“The freedom for an 18-year-old to buy a rifle or a rifle has been protected for more than 60 years in Texas,” he said.
In the US, there are more weapons on the street -almost 400,000- than inhabitants -330,000-.
And Texas leads the list by states.
Last year, Abbot further facilitated the market by eliminating even the obligation to have a license for handguns, pistols, in addition to allowing anyone to carry them holstered on the belt or walk in public with them in hand,
As happens every time a traumatic shooting cyclically hits the country, the political debate goes up in revolutions.
But it is almost always bogged down by high thresholds in parliament to impose greater control on the arms industry, one of the country's biggest lobbyists.
The reaction to the Uvalde tragedy by President Joe Biden, with a political history prone to greater regulation, last Tuesday pointed directly to the core of the conflict: “Arms manufacturers have spent two decades aggressively marketing assault weapons, which They are the ones that bring them the most benefits.
For God's sake, when are we going to take on the gun
lobby
?
The spokesman for the Democratic senators, Chuck Schumer, called this week for an agreement with the Republican parliamentarians: “Please, damn it, put yourself in the place of the relatives of the murdered children for once!” he asked.
The toughest sector of gun advocates is meeting this weekend precisely in Texas.
The annual convention of the National Rifle Association, one of the largest sponsors of the RRepublican Party, will feature former President Donald Trump in Houston on Saturday, escorted by Texas Senator Ted Cruz and Governor Abbott himself.
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