Students at the University of Texas at Austin are furious about a new law that allows concealed weapons to be carried on campus and they're protesting it in a bold way: By organizing a campus-wide "Cocks Not Glocks" demonstration in which students will carry sex toys around campus in effort to, according to organizers, "fight absurdity with absurdity."
The group was organized last year after the Texas legislature first approved the campus carry measure. Texas Governor Greg Abbott signed the bill into law in June of 2016, and it officially went into effect on August 1—a date that coincided with the 50th anniversary of the 1966 UT-Austin Tower Shooting, the first campus gun massacre in U.S. history. Aside from angering students, the law has been a point of conflict for UT-Austin faculty members, three of whom attempted to block its implementation and another who resigned from his post over the new legislation.
The students behind Cocks Not Glocks knew they had to protest the law, and luckily for them, policy at UT-Austin gave them the perfect inspiration. The school now permits firearms on a campus that still enforces a public ban on significantly less dangerous objects: sex toys.
"The State of Texas has decided that it is not at all obnoxious to allow deadly concealed weapons in classrooms, however it DOES have strict rules about free sexual expression, to protect your innocence," the group posted on a Facebook page tied to the event. "You would receive a citation for taking a DILDO to class before you would get in trouble for taking a gun to class. Heaven forbid the penis."
Ahead of the planned rally, the group distributed thousands of sex toys on Tuesday evening—many of which were donated by local sex shops who supported the cause.
“This isn’t just a local issue,” UT-Austin sophomore and Cocks Not Glocks organizerAna López told The Texas Tribune. “Gun violence is a public health issue that affects everybody. It resonated with a lot of people, and since certain groups had the props we needed, they generously decided to reach out and help.”
Lopez added that she hopes Wednesday's protest will not be a one-time event and instead will continue to inspire fellow UT-Austin students (and students throughout the country) to make sure their voices are heard.
“Hopefully students are empowered to take this message and turn it into their own demonstration...I feel like this is something that can be huge and spread to not only other campuses in Texas but to schools across the nation,” she told the Tribune.
Whether the hot new trend in states with lax gun laws becomes carrying sex toys attached to your bag remains to be seen, but the protest comes at a time when gun control is an issue that continues to dominate political discourse. The debate over stricter gun control legislation has been a major talking point for both presidential candidates, and according to Everytown for Gun Safety, a gun violence prevention advocacy group, an average of 91 people are killed by guns every day in the US.
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