This week, The Daily show did a segment about the University of Texas students protesting the new law allowing students to carry concealed handguns on campus.
Correspondent Roy Wood Jr. talks to Jessica Jin, the creator of the protest. The goal was to strap dildos to their backpacks as a protest, but it turns out that it is illegal to openly brandish a dildo in Texas.
The students went ahead with the protest and the clip shows a number of creative uses of the dildos in the protest, including a nice juggling bit.
Animated juggling version
Jin says they are "fighting absurdity with absurdity." Then she talks about how the gun nuts handled the absurdity of the protest--by issuing death threats to her. Wood describes the seriousness of the threats and shows some of the footage from the film that a pro-gun person released of someone murdering a dildo protester.
I wrote about that violent film here Gun Nuts Can’t Handle Cocks Not Glocks Protest and put together a clip without the graphic scenes the Daily Show included.
The clip opens with Woods talking to open carry gun nut C. J. Grisham. Grisham talks about the immaturity of college students, who used dildos to protest the state law that allows guns on campus, then describes the maturity of college students, who can now carry guns on campus. The piece ends with Woods giving Grisham a dildo while he talks about how uncomfortable it makes him.
I'm really glad that this story aired because it's a way to keep the issue in the public eye without a mass shooting. In an article in the Dallas Morning News, one of the other protestors, Ann Lopez talks about the point of the protest. “The end game is to get this law repealed,” Lopez said.
Ultimately, Lopez hopes people take Jin's movement seriously. Jin hopes the silliness of her protests lends credence to the ongoing legislative and legal fight against campus carry. But that's an uphill battle at the state Republican-dominated Legislature, which is likely to push to allow guns in more places next year.
That made me wonder. "What would it take to repeal campus carry in Texas?" I've reached out to a few people in the community to see if they have any ideas or how the efforts to repeal the laws are going.
Meanwhile, I'm enjoying the protest. It makes me want to dig into my closet and find my juggling balls.
