DALLAS — Less than two weeks after a gunman killed eight people and wounded seven more at the Allen Premium Outlets, a gun show scheduled in the city this summer has been called off.
The city of Allen and Premier Gun Shows, the Fort Worth-based company organizing the event, said the Allen Gun Show planned for July 15-16 will not proceed after a mutual agreement. City officials and the company did not elaborate on their agreement or say whether the cancellation was related to the shooting.
The company hosts gun shows in parts of Dallas-Fort Worth as well as Central Texas and the Houston area. One of its biggest events is the Original Fort Worth Gun Show, a two-day event held six times yearly, that draws thousands of attendees, according to its website.
The next Fort Worth gun show is slated to take place Saturday and Sunday at the Will Rogers Memorial Center. A show in Bedford the following weekend has been canceled.
The company’s schedule has two more shows slated for Allen this year, in September and November, promising more than 500 tables of guns, knives, ammunition and shooting supplies.
On its website, Premier Gun Shows’ mission statement says its objectives are to support the ability of law-abiding people to own and enjoy firearms; to promote shooting sports, hunting, firearms collecting and other gun-related activities; and to promote safe firearm ownership and use.
The community in Allen continues to grieve following the shooting. A makeshift memorial outside the mall grew with a cluster of crosses, flowers, stuffed animals and handwritten letters before eventually being taken down.
Volunteers plan to distribute the mementos for each of the victims to their family members. Funerals and services have been held to remember the lives of the eight people who were killed, and the mall remains closed.
Authorities are still investigating the shooting, including the motives of the gunman. Half the people killed were of Asian descent, and Asian American advocacy organizations called on authorities to determine whether the shooting was motivated by race.
Hank Sibley, the Texas Department of Public Safety’s North Texas regional director, said the gunman may have targeted the location — not necessarily a group of people.
Authorities have said the shooter, Mauricio Garcia, took eight weapons to the mall and had obtained them all legally, but they have not identified the weapons. A police report said Garcia fired a .223-caliber AR-15 rifle.
