By Louis K. Bonham
I recall one of my Constitutional Law professors (I believe it was the late, great Wallace Mendelson of UT) once observing that the First Amendment protects the right to make a fool of yourself. Professor Mendelson is probably smiling somewhere, as his epigram was dramatically proven correct on the first day of fall classes at the University of Texas, Austin.
As you’ve probably heard, a number of social justice warrior-types at UT decided that the best way to protest the new Texas law legalizing licensed concealed carry on college campuses is by publicly carrying sex toys around (under the slogan “Cocks not Glocks”). The ostensible logic behind this protest was that carrying sex toys on campus is purportedly illegal under Texas law, but carrying a handgun is not.
The result was, well, kinda scary.
In fairness, not all the sex toy protestors appeared to be relatives of renowned uber-SJW Trigglypuff.
Meet Cristina Ocampo, a third year Radio-Television-Film student. I asked her what she and her colleagues hoped to accomplish by their protest. She replied that they wanted to demonstrate the absurdity of legalizing campus carry through their own display of absurdity. OK, I replied, but what do you hope to accomplish? She appeared a bit confused by the question, so I explained.
The UT administration says their hands are tied by the law (she readily agreed). The courts have refused to block the law (again, she nodded in recognition), and so the only solution will be to change the law via the state legislature (more nodding).
Did she think that this kind of demonstration was going to persuade an GOP-dominated legislature that they were wrong in passing campus carry? She said she was optimistic that carrying dildos would bring more attention to the issue, noting that the protestors were working to register more voters. Of course, the UT campus and surrounding areas are already in districts that have been liberal Democrat strongholds for decades, so how more voters in such a constituency would change anything isn’t really clear. Ah, the naive optimism of youth.
Of course, such naivety was hardly confined to the young. At the accompanying rally by Gun Free UT, there were the expected array of speakers (professors, students, the local head of Moms Demand Action, various local Democrat politicians and candidates, etc.). All decried the horror that is campus carry and how evil those old white guy Christian Republicans were for passing it in the first place. While one or two speakers recognized the obvious — that the Texas legislature is overwhelmingly Republican and unlikely to reverse course — most were happy to simply bark at the moon and play to their own crowd.
Typical in this respect was TTAG favorite Jorge Cañizares-Esguerra.
His speech centered around his four-year-old seeing a “Molon Labe” sticker on a pickup, with the image of a Greek hoplite helmet, and asking him what it meant. Cañizares-Esguerra explained that it (and campus carry) was actually indicative of a Ku Klux Klan/white supremacist mentality that reflected a tyranny of demography against people of color, including Hispanics, on the other side of a border that shouldn’t be there in the first place. You get the idea.
He concluded by claiming that the actual translation of “Molon Labe” isn’t “come and take it” but actually “take it and come,” which of course went over well with the assembled sex toy-wavers. Hopefully, he’ll be making his reconquista arguments to the legislature next year where they will no doubt be very well received.
Next up was Mia Carter, one of the professors who have sued to block the implementation of campus carry. I was surprised to see her speak: as an attorney, the last thing I’d want is one of my clients in a pending federal lawsuit giving a public speech on that matter. Professor Carter gave a textbook demonstration as to why that’s a very bad idea.
Her stated position in the lawsuit is that with campus carry now legal, she’s so afraid that one of her students will go postal in her class that she has to change how and what she teaches. Therefore her “academic freedom” is being infringed. Speaking to a crowd of like-minded individuals, however, she said, “I’m not afraid of my students. I’m afraid for my students.” While that line drew cheers, I suspect her attorney will be reaching for the Maalox, as that statement guts her legal position (and should severely undermine her credibility with the court).
Lest everyone think all of UT has gone completely around the bend, I’d note that enrollment at the university is over 50,000, but the crowd at this much-publicized event was only a couple of hundred at most (and at times the media seemed to outnumber the protestors). I didn’t see any sex toys being carried anywhere but at the demonstration. And even among the crowd there were campus carry supporters.
One was a third-year chemical engineering student, Forrest Sullivan, an articulate young man in a classic Gonzales “Come and Take It” shirt who was interviewed by many of the assembled media (this despite occasional efforts from some of the more unhinged Trigglypuff wannabes to photobomb or shout him down).
He indicated that while he supported the rights of the sex toy-wavers to make their voices heard, their efforts seemed to be more name-calling than attempts at rational discussion. I asked him whether any of his professors had expressed any strong opinions on campus carry. He responded with a smile that “engineers are too boring,” and indicated that they had better things to do.
But perhaps the best message was from Students for Concealed Carry, who silently unfurled this banner above the rally:
Kinda says it all. You keep your dildos, we’ll keep our guns, and we’ll all get along just fine.