What do dildos and handguns have in common?
Absolutely nothing, unless you’re protesting the campus carry law like students at the University of Texas in Austin and like other college students should be.
The Texas Legislature passed the “campus carry” law last year that allows licensed students and faculty to carry guns on campus but also gives the school some discretion on how the law is implemented. Concealed carry will be permitted in classrooms and other buildings open to the public.
The law takes effect on two-year campuses next August, but it’s legal in four-year schools now.
While allowing the schools a little bit of freedom as to how it’s implemented is a good start, it still isn’t enough.
The “Cocks not Glocks” protest was to highlight the absurdity of allowing guns on the campus while any obscene display, like a group of students carrying dildos, is not.
The sentiment isn’t far off.
Allowing students to carry guns on campus seems counterproductive in the fight to control gun violence.
What happens when one of the students with a gun gets into a heated fight with another student or teacher on campus? What’s to stop that person from shooting? It’s a more radical example of what could go wrong, but incidents like that need attention.
There is also the party culture involved with college to consider. When drugs and alcohol get involved, the ability of the student to make sound choices is impaired.
What happens when one of these students is carrying a gun because the law permits him/her to?
The death or injury of others in a situation like that might be avoided if the gun wasn’t allowed on campus. The law prevents the student from carrying the gun into establishments that make most of their money on alcohol sales. The law will stop most of these incidents, but it only takes one.
Not every student can handle him or herself properly with a gun, period. It’s going to create a culture of fear on campuses, and that keeps students from feeling safe and comfortable in a learning environment.
Even the chancellor of the UT system, William McRaven, opposes the gun law. He told CNN that even with his extensive history with guns that he didn’t believe campuses were the right places to have them.
In fact, 94 percent of university faculty and 74 percent of college students oppose the new law according to the American Association of State Colleges and Universities. With numbers like that, how could the law even go into effect?
Three UT professors initial attempt to block the law was denied by a federal judge. They filed for the injunction because of conversations about sensitive subjects that often occur in their classrooms.
While the campus carry law doesn’t currently affect TCC campuses, it is still something that students should learn about because it will in the future.
While we shouldn’t take to the streets in dildo-wielding riots, we definitely should question the new law and the safety issues it brings out.
Students and faculty should find a less startling way to get people’s attention before this is something that affects our campuses.
