A Provocative Protest Pits Pro- and Anti-Gun Activists

Ben Sklar for The Chronicle

It was all but impossible, on the first day of classes at the University of Texas flagship here, to know which students were taking advantage of a new state law by kicking off the semester armed with concealed guns. But it was obvious, from the giant multi-colored dildos dangling from some students’ backpacks, which ones thought guns and classrooms were a bad mix.

Students rallying behind the “Cocks Not Glocks” theme distributed nearly 5,000 donated sex toys, which they encouraged students to brandish during a raucous daylong protest on Wednesday.

By calling attention to the idea that displaying a sex toy could violate university rules, but carrying a gun into a classroom might not, “we wanted to fight absurdity with absurdity,” said Ana López, a sophomore who opposes a state law expanding gun rights on campus.

The “campus carry” law, which took effect at public universities in Texas on August 1, allows licensed gun holders to carry concealed weapons in most university buildings, including classrooms.

License holders must be at least 21, and university officials say that only a tiny percentage of the student population is likely to be armed. Still, that’s too many to people who feel that the presence of guns in classrooms makes everyone less safe.

The University Democrats took advantage of the quirky rally to encourage people to register to vote. Rosie Zander, a junior and campus director for the student organization, stood on a ledge waving a giant dildo, urging people to ask her about it and suggesting that “if this makes you uncomfortable, that’s how we feel about guns!”

Joining the protest, she said, “is an easy way to make a statement. Just strap on a dildo and walk around.”

Ms. López, who planned the protest along with its organizer, Jessica Jin, a UT graduate, explained what’s behind the ubiquitous symbol.

“We use the dildos as props not because it’s sensational and something weird but because it represents the toxic masculinity that’s implied in this law,” she said. “Mostly, the law protects the white male carrier who’s going to be the hero in any situation involving a gun.”

Ms. Jin has said that seeing people walk around with dildos does create a funny image of a distinctly unfunny prospect — of people walking around campus carrying guns.

Speaking Up for Gun Rights

Among those attending the rally were three members of a group called Open Carry Texas, which advocates for expanded gun rights. They stood at the entrance to the West Mall, the grassy corridor leading to the UT Tower, with a sign reading, “If licensed gun owners were a threat you wouldn’t be reading this” (a reference to the training that permit holders have to complete).

“We wanted to highlight the view that our self-defense doesn’t end at the border of the university,” said CJ Grisham, a junior at Texas A&M University who founded the statewide group.

A&M’s College Station flagship “gets it,” said Mr. Grisham, a 42-year-old Army veteran, whose camouflage cap was pierced by a fake bullet. He was referring to his campus’s less restrictive interpretation of the state’s gun law. Licensed gun holders are permitted on his campus to keep guns in safes in their dorm rooms, while they generally aren’t at the University of Texas flagship. And while professors at UT can simply inform students that guns aren’t allowed in their offices, those at A&M have to go through a lengthy process to prove their case to the administration.

Another gun-rights supporter, an Austin real-estate broker named Andrew Clements, took the protest a step further, strapping on an M4 assault rifle and holding a sign reading “To conquer a nation, first disarm its citizens: Adolph Hitler.”

At times, heated arguments broke out on the blistering summer day. Chris Ruud, a local physician whose cousin, Harry Walchuk, was gunned down by a sniper perched in UT’s landmark tower 50 years ago, was among them. Dr. Ruud was 14 when Charles Whitman, an engineering student at Texas, climbed to the top of the tower and opened fire in a massacre that killed 16 people and wounded dozens more.

He pointed across the street to the spot outside the University Co-op where his cousin, a doctoral student and father of six, died. He and Mr. Grisham sparred over whether having guns makes people more or less safe.

“These guys just don’t get it,” Dr. Ruud said, his voice trailing off.

Other Voices

Variations of the iconic Revolutionary War slogan “Come and Take It,” which became a symbol of defiance during Texas’ war with Mexico and later a rallying cry for gun rights, abounded.

The Cocks Not Glocks camp were selling T-shirts that read “Take it and come.” Then, there was the campus Lutheran pastor, the Rev. Brad Fuerst, whose sign read “The God of Peace Invites You to Come and Take It” with a depiction of the Eucharist.

Wearing a clerical collar and a Longhorn cap, Pastor Fuerst said he was amused by the dildo protest and shared the demonstrators’ objections to guns in the classroom. But he wanted students to consider “a different type of appetite — the kind you experience coming to the Lord’s table.”

“I’m not out here being a prude,” he said, “but the appetite for guns and sex has run amok.”

Along with swarms of local and national reporters, the crowd was interspersed with armed campus police officers and a few private security guards who scanned the crowd for trouble.

Jason Shuster, a financial adviser and part-time student at Brigham Young University who supports expanded guns rights, squirmed during an interview with Comedy Central’s The Daily Show as he spoke into a microphone mounted on a phallic toy. The Cocks Not Glocks protest, he said, is “a little weird, kind of like talking into a dildo.”

Forrest Sullivan, a UT junior wearing a “Come and Take It” T-shirt, was one of a handful of gun supporters who challenged the crowd. “If a psychopath wants to commit a crime, he’s not going to stop because of a sign,” he said as a crowd of protesters gathered around to debate him.

Mr. Sullivan said he’s all for free speech, but he called the sex-toy theme “childish.” And he said that a gun is the only way that women can protect themselves from men who are bigger and stronger than they are.

Legal Wrangling

Brandishing sex toys may, at least in theory, violate university conduct codes that prohibit displays of obscenity on campus. Under Texas penal code, dildos and similar sex toys are considered obscene.

Nevertheless, a university spokesperson, J.B. Bird, said the dildo protest was being treated as protected political speech.

What’s less clear is what will happen to faculty members who try to ban guns from their classrooms. A federal judge this week rejected a request by three faculty members to temporarily block the law while their lawsuit against it proceeds.

In his ruling, Judge Lee Yeakel of the U.S. District Court here said the professors had failed to demonstrate “a substantial likelihood” that their case, which argued that guns would stifle free speech, would ultimately succeed.

Lawyers for the university and the Texas attorney general’s office have warned that a professor who tries to ban guns from the classrooms “is subject to discipline,” although it’s unclear what that would mean. The campus spokesman, Mr. Bird, said any complaints would be taken up on a case-by-case basis.

University officials, who strongly opposed the campus-carry law, are in a difficult position having to enforce the rules now, and officials have suggested privately that they’re unlikely to crack down on professors who are seeking creative ways to keep weapons out of their classrooms.

On the stairs of the Tower, professors holding signs like “Books Not Bullets” or “Geographers Against Guns” chanted as a series of politicians, academics and activists urged the protesters to continue fighting to get the state law overturned.

Many were members of Gun-Free UT, a group of faculty and staff members, students, parents and alumni. Among the crowd wearing bright orange “Gun-Free UT” T-shirts was Kristen M. Harris, a professor of neuroscience. She called the campus-carry law “unconscionable” and said it had made her seriously think about leaving the university.

“I’m not worried they’re going to shoot me,” Ms. Harris said, adding that she gets glowing reviews from students.

“As a neuroscientist, I know about mental health issues,” she said. “I’ve had students who were suicidal and I got them through their Ph.D.s. If they’d had a gun, it’d be all over.”

She plans to strongly discourage students from bringing guns to her class, and her syllabus warns students that during the class, they’ll have to move around the room and could be separated from their guns if they leave them in a purse or backpack.

The Gun-Free UT website suggests that faculty members point out on their syllabi that in such cases, students risk violating the law.

And don’t even think about bringing any other weapons, including knives, clubs, spears, machetes, metal knuckles, or explosives. Those, the website points out, are still off-limits.

Katherine Mangan writes about community colleges, completion efforts, and job training, as well as other topics in daily news. Follow her on Twitter @KatherineMangan, or email her at katherine.mangan@chronicle.com.