Cocks Not Glocks: Students in Texas and Kansas fight back as guns allowed on campus

“Less than 10 months from now, I will wake up in the morning and drive to school like I do every day. I will go to class and eat lunch like I do every day. I will go to the student centre and library and stadium. Only this time I will be just a little more aware of where I am: the perfect target for shooters.”

The campaign “Cocks Not Glocks” started from just a Facebook event page. Although it started as a joke, it quickly grabbed the attention of thousands of students at the University of Texas in Austin, the state’s capital. Cocks Not Glocks was named to satirise the absurdity of weapons being allowed on campus, while the “display of obscene items”, such as dildos, is illegal.

Jessica Jin, a 24-year-old University of Texas graduate, told the IPF that it began when she “cracked the dumbest dildo joke”.

“I was just like, ‘Here’s something stupid that I discovered: Texas is clearly more afraid of its own body than it is about guns’. When I woke up the next morning, thousands of people had joined the cause and the media was breathing down my neck.”

Jessica and her co-organisers were recently invited to the White House to talk to senior officials about the core issue behind their campaign. However, little progress has been made on a legislative level. Jessica told the IPF that Texas governors have promised to make constitutional carrying of guns a priority in 2017.

Jessica and other activists from across the country outside the White House [Image credit: Jessica Jin]

“This is an ongoing thing,” Jessica said. “This is not over. It’s more of a cultural battle than it is a legal battle because I don’t think that dildos will change the law, but we’re still doing it and working on it really hard.”

Americans ignore gun culture

As a native Texan, Jessica admits she didn’t know much about gun culture because she was accustomed to the idea of having a gun. However, she said that the reason why many people in the United States avoid discussing gun control is often related to a social stigma and closed mindset.

“I was another one of those Americans that didn’t bother to do the research on how atrocious our gun culture has become.”

Nathan Simmons, a former student at University of Texas, also participated in the Cocks Not Glocks protests. He has been sceptical about campus carry since he was in high school, when there was an attempt to pass the law in 2010.

Thousands of students gathered at University of Texas, Austin, to protest new gun law [Image credit: Marshall Tidrick]

“When that bill was defeated, I thought that the whole debacle was decided and that they wouldn’t waste their time going over it again,” Nathan said. “And, come 2015, boy was I wrong!”

“A few defenders of the law tried to argue that the worst thing to do would be to prevent people from defending themselves and that if we can send 18-year-olds off to war, then they should be able to handle a gun on a college campus. This argument makes absolutely no sense.”

Nathan was infuriated about the concealed carry law being passed based on those contradictory arguments and that a majority of students’ concerns over this bill had been ignored. This triggered him to join Cocks Not Glocks movement.

Cocks Not Glocks gains momentum

“One day, I was scrolling through Facebook, and I saw a friend’s post about the Cocks Not Glocks event,” he said. “And for the first time in a long time, I laughed. I laughed at how absurd the whole situation was.”

Nathan estimates that at least 4,500 dildos were passed out when he went to the campaign site.

Organisers give away thousands of dildos to University of Texas students [Image credit: Marshall Tidrick]

“I lost track of how many students were there. What stood out to me was how many people were in unison on how they did not like this law.”

Cocks Not Glocks even found itself creating ground in Kansas. Governor Sam Brownback had ratified a law authorising the carrying of concealed handguns – without a license or training. This would apply not just on campuses, but everywhere in Kansas. It is due to go into effect in 2017.

Local resident Carol Anne Smock explained that carrying and owning guns is not a foreign concept for her – neither is it absurd. She grew up playing with water guns, paintball guns, and some of her friends even go hunting. But despite this, even she can’t imagine a world in which guns are accessible to the public with “practically no requirements”.

“I cannot fathom the idea of sitting next to a stranger in class who just turned 18, has never been through a background check, and is carrying a lethal weapon.”

Carol is already fearful about the prospect of attending school next year when schools will officially open to firearms. She points out what people won’t realise or maybe just won’t want to accept is that the shooter could be a student.

“Less than 10 months from now, I will wake up in the morning and drive to school like I do every day,” Carol said. “I will go to class and eat lunch like I do every day. I will go to the student centre and library and stadium, only this time I will be just a little more aware of where I am: the perfect target for shooters.”

Looking ahead

While Cocks Not Glocks has clearly touched a number of young Americans, spearheading the campaign turned been a rough ride for Jessica.

Jessica Jin at Cocks Not Glocks protest at University of Texas [Image credit: Marshall Tidrick]

“Some people would get really mean and say evil things,” she recalled. “They see a woman of colour and say, ‘This is a male-dominated space and you’re not allowed to make the rules around here because we’ve made them since the beginning of time.’ They see somebody who is a minority walking in and just mocking them and they get really upset, irritated and feel insecure about what this is implying.”

Despite the negative messages and death threats, Jessica said she is able to survive through it all because it only highlights what Cocks Not Glocks stands for: safety for all.