Houston has serious gun collectors and a strong museum culture, but no major permanent firearms exhibit. Opinion Editor Evan Mintz asks why.
Houston Chronicle
When the Marquis de Lafayette returned from France in 1824 for his grand tour of the newly formed United States, he journeyed to the town of Kingston, New York, which had served as the state capital in the early years of the Revolutionary War. While there, he met with a man known as Chief Tunis, an Iroquois who had served as a guide during many of Lafayette’s wartime expeditions. Lafayette gifted him a Kentucky rifle engraved with the words “Presented to Chief Tunis by Lafayette at Kingston NY 1824.”
As I squinted to read those words under the fluorescent lights of a back room at Collectors Firearms on Westheimer Road, I couldn’t help but remember the classic Indiana Jones line: “It belongs in a museum.”
Danny Clark, the owner of Collectors Firearms, shows opinion editor Evan Mintz a Kentucky rifle once owned by the Marquis de Lafayette and gifted to Native American Chief Tunis. The rifle is engraved with the words “Presented to Chief Tunis by Lafayette at Kingston NY 1824.”
Sharon Steinmann/Houston Chronicle
Of course, I could have also said that about the silver dueling pistols that Collectors Firearms President Danny Clark generously showed me, or the seal-hunting rifle that was taller than I, or any of the historic and fascinating weapons I saw during my tour of a gun shop that Clark touts as the biggest in Texas. A former Barnes & Noble on Westheimer Road, the store already feels a bit like a museum. Who needs to exit through the gift shop when the exhibit itself is on sale?
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Collectors Firearms, owned by Danny Clark, is the largest gun store in Texas. The store is photographed on Monday April 13, 2026.
Sharon Steinmann/Houston Chronicle
The Wallace Collection in London is a national museum that houses masterpieces of arms and armor.
Evan Mintz/Houston Chronicle
The Wallace Collection in London is a national museum that houses masterpieces of arms and armor.
Evan Mintz/Houston Chronicle
Guns are on display at Collectors Firearms, owned by Danny Clark in Houston, TX. The store, located on Westheimer Road, already feels a bit like a museum.
Sharon Steinmann/Houston Chronicle
Still, I had to wonder, why isn’t there a similarly impressive firearm collection on permanent display at any of Houston’s major museums?
I’ll admit that despite being a lifelong Texan I’ve never fired a gun, but I do love learning about fascinating artifacts in museums — and that includes guns. In fact, a few weeks ago my wife and I visited the Wallace Collection in London, a private collection donated to the public that includes room after room of historic martial weapons and firearms from India, Turkey and all across Europe.
The Wallace Collection in London is a national museum that houses masterpieces of arms and armor.
Evan Mintz/Houston Chronicle
Something seems wrong when London, a city where handguns are basically banned, beats the biggest city in Texas when it comes to lionizing the history and aesthetics of firearms.
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Yes, you can find some impressive weapons on display at the Corps of Cadets museum at Texas A&M University in College Station or the Bryan Museum in Galveston. The Buffalo Soldiers National Museum on Caroline Street is an old armory and has some guns but is currently undergoing a remodel and isn’t open to the public. No doubt there are museum-worthy private collections to be found in the mansions of River Oaks or Memorial. But Clark told me that he had seen people try — and fail — to donate their impressive private collections to serve as permanent displays at museums.
So what’s getting in the way of Houston having a world-class firearm exhibit at our museums?
Dirk Van Tuerenhout, curator of anthropology at The Houston Museum of Natural Science stands on front of a folding screen that depicts colonial Mexico City after the clashes between the Aztecs and the Spanish colonizers during the 16th century. The screen is a replica that will be exhibited as part of the La Virgen de Guadalupe: Empress of the Americas at the Houston Museum of Natural Science. The exhibition will open Dec. 11, 2015. Tuesday, Nov. 24, 2015, in Houston. ( Marie D. De Jesus / Houston Chronicle )
Marie D. De Jesús/Houston Chronicle
I reached out to Dirk Van Tuerenhout, the director of collections at the Houston Museum of Natural Science, to see if I could solve that riddle.
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He helpfully pointed out that the HMNS had hosted several temporary displays about weapons, such as one exhibit about samurai and another about medieval knights. But there are a whole lot more steps involved for creating a new permanent exhibit. The board of trustees would have to agree that the exhibit fits the museum’s mission and, perhaps more importantly, they would need to find space to accommodate the new exhibit. Basically, a permanent exhibit on firearms at any Houston museum would probably require not only building a new wing to display the wares, but also proper storage for any parts of the collection not on display. So even if someone donated hundreds of historic firearms, the museum would still face a hefty fundraising challenge.
Customers look through the shelves at Collectors Firearms, owned by Danny Clark. The store, according to Clark, is the largest gun store in Texas. The store is photographed on Monday April 13, 2026. A former Barnes & Noble on Westheimer Road, the store already feels a bit like a museum.
Sharon Steinmann/Houston Chronicle
And, I would guess, raising funds for a museum display on guns might be more difficult than your usual expansion to make room for more coelacanth fossils or impressionist paintings, but not for lack of donors. That’s because there is a sharp social divide around firearms. Research shows that one of the best predictors of whether someone owns a gun is to look at their friends and family. If you’re surrounded by gun owners, then you’re probably packing, too. If everyone around you is pistol-free, then you’re likely unarmed as well. And, I would bet, that social divide likely cleaves a good deal of the pro-gun folks from the museum fundraisers and curators — especially given that educational attainment has become a strong predictor of political alignment.
That’s too bad. Guns have become a powerful partisan wedge issue for both Republicans and Democrats, and I think that we would all be well-served by having a museum exhibit on firearms that everyone could appreciate. Gun owners who feel like social elites treat them with contempt would see the weapons they care about elevated to a level of cultural respect. Non-owners would have the opportunity to learn about the history, science and artistry of firearms.
Swords are on display at Collectors Firearms, owned by Danny Clark in Houston, TX. The store, located on Westheimer Road, already feels a bit like a museum.
Sharon Steinmann/Houston Chronicle
Heck, maybe there’s some well-heeled gun fan in Houston right now for the NRA convention who could write a check to make it happen — to present firearms in a way that isn’t provocative, aggressive, or political. To show the public that sometimes guns can just be pretty darn interesting, even if you’ve never shot one.
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Because a city like Houston, a place known for its philanthropy, in a state known for its guns, would be the perfect location to host this kind of museum exhibit.
Until then, the collection at my local neighborhood gun shop will have to suffice.