More recently, high profile crimes that weren’t racially motivated but happened to target Asian Americans also sparked fear. In January, separate mass shootings in Asian communities in Southern and Northern California killed a total of 18 people. In February, when the woman robbed and paralyzed in Bellaire, Kuo remembers seeing the video go viral on WeChat, a popular social media app among Mandarin-speaking Americans.
L: Arthur Kuo checks the inventory at his gun shop, Super Armory, April 5, 2023, in Houston's Asiantown. TOP: Mingfang Cheng takes the Texas License to Carry class with instructor Arthur Kuo on April 9, 2023. BOTTOM: Brian Guidry checks out a handgun at Arthur Kuo’s gun shop in Asiatown on April 5, 2023.
He spent the next three decades collecting and shooting guns as a hobby while he traveled and worked in real estate. In 2015, he witnessed a new type of gun shop open in Houston: one owned by two Asian American law enforcement officers that served mostly Asian American clientele. When customers enter the store and ask to look at one of the unloaded display guns, Kuo watches them carefully. He observes how people hold the gun, where they point it — signs that tell him whether customers have been educated about guns. Very often they haven’t been, and he’ll direct them toward his class.