Culture

Texas Uni Students Are Protesting Lax College Gun Laws By “Open-Carrying” Sex Toys On Campus

Carrying concealed weapons at Texas universities is legal, but carrying dildos around isn't.

by Alex McKinnon  12 October 2015

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In a country renowned for its loose gun laws, Texas is on a level all of its own. The state has no required waiting period to buy a firearm, no state firearms registry or ownership transfer requirements, no license requirement to openly carry a “long” gun like a rifle or shotgun, no restrictions on the sale or ownership of assault rifles or machine guns, and will allow the open carry of pistols from the start of 2016. Basically, if you’re a gun in Texas, you have more rights than a woman who wants or needs an abortion.

Adding to that fairly terrifying list, earlier this year the Texas legislature voted to allow concealed pistols on university campuses, making it the eighth US state to implement so-called “campus-carry” laws. In an especially classy move, the new laws will come into effect on August 1, 2016 — 50 years to the day since the infamous University of Texas at Austin (UT) Tower shootings, in which a man shot and killed 14 people inside and from the UT campus clock tower in one of America’s first college mass shootings.

The campus-carry laws are opposed by many Texas students and teachers, with groups like Gun Free UT arguing that allowing guns in the classroom unnecessarily threatens people’s safety and freedom of speech. But UT student Jessica Jin has come up with a more creative way of opposing the new laws, inspired by the fact that Texas prohibits people from “intentionally or knowingly display[ing] or distribut[ing] an obscene photograph, drawing, or similar visual representation or other obscene material”.

“Obscene,” according to the relevant Texas statute, is defined (among other things) as “patently offensive representations or descriptions of … a device designed and marketed as useful primarily for stimulation of the human genital organs”. Sex toys, in other words, meaning that from August next year Texas students will be allowed to carry handguns on campus, but won’t be allowed to carry dildos around.

In that spirit, Jin has come up with the delightfully-hashtagged #CocksNotGlocks movement, encouraging students to protest campus-carry by strapping big ol’ swingin’ dildos to their backpacks. “You’re carrying a gun to class? Yeah well I’m carrying a HUGE DILDO,” Jin writes in the Facebook event. “Just about as effective at protecting us from sociopathic shooters, but much safer for recreational play.”

Speaking to the Houston Chronicle, Jin said she got the idea after listening to debates on gun control on public radio. “I couldn’t believe that people could still sit there and defend their own personal gun ownership while watching families mourn the loss of their children,” Jin said.

Confronted with the double-whammy proposal of slightly curbed gun rights and women celebrating sexual agency, predominantly male gun enthusiasts have reacted by going off the fucking deep end. Jin’s home address and phone number have already been leaked online, and she’s been flooded with death and rape threats. “It has been absolutely fascinating that some folks seemingly feel threatened or angered at the thought of people carrying dildos around with them. They’re incredibly offended! So much outrage,” Jin told the Chronicle. “They’re calling for my head. People want me dead for a dildo.”

But so far she’s handling it all in style. She’s even leaving all the unhinged messages she’s getting up on the Facebook page rather than taking them down to prove that “assertions that the general public can remain calm while in possession of firearms in tense situations, when they can’t even handle a dildo, might be a bit off.” 

Which is not to say the response has been all negative. A solid 2,500 people are already attending the Facebook event, and local and national media have picked up the story.

“Most people are super supportive. I think it has caught on quickly because it resonates with them in a multitude of ways,” Jin said. “The gun puns and the humor have been remarkable, but this satirical employment of dildos has also sparked more serious conversations on topics like the perception of safety, the intersection of guns and sexuality, and even campus sexual assault.”

Most of all, though, #CocksNotGlocks has highlighted the absurdity of the fantasy that society all be safer if everyone was armed. “I need this proliferation of dildos to offer people a visual representation of what it would be like if we all carried guns. It should look ridiculous to you. That is the point. This is America,” Jin said. “If guns and bloodshed don’t wake people up, a public celebration of sexuality may just do the trick. We’re going to need a lot of dildos.”

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Feature image credit: Riley Swenson/Twitter.