He said that Slide Fire, where he and his wife used to work, breathed new life into a dying town.

“It’s kept the community going,” Jed Cottle said, extending his hands toward the football field. “Everybody shows up here on Friday night. Slide Fire has kept it going.”

He said he had not spoken to his brother in several months, and could not comment on what his brother might think about the shooting. Jeremiah Cottle did not respond to messages left for him with his employees.

“He’s upset about it, he’s lost sleep about it,” said Mr. Taggart, the mayor, who works at Slide Fire along with his wife. He described the company as a pleasant place to work, where birthdays are celebrated and many veterans and volunteer firefighters are among the employees.

The Cottle family has a history in Moran that dates back to the late 1800s. A street is named for them, and a historical marker commemorates Cottle No. 1, an oil and gas line that supplied Abilene beginning in 1908. Residents repeatedly pointed to that and to the solid reputation of Mr. Cottle’s late grandfather. They see Slide Fire as the latest chapter of the Cottles bringing jobs to Moran, and doing it with a firm grounding in something they believe in, the Second Amendment.

Mr. Martin, the county commissioner, said that residents were excited to see Slide Fire grow into a success, with new trailers moving in, a new building going up, and the frequent, rapid-fire sound of Slide Fire employees testing their products.

“It was amazing to see how his little invention turned into millions of dollars and mass production,” Mr. Martin said, recalling a visit he paid to the business before it even had office furniture. He scorned any move to ban bump stocks as an unconstitutional regulation that could wipe out dozens of local jobs.