Gun rights groups say they will conduct a mock mass shooting this weekend at the University of Texas campus as they try to end gun-free zones.
The Open Carry Walk and Crisis Performance Event will involve actors “shot” by perpetrators armed with cardboard weapons, said Matthew Short, a spokesman for the gun rights groups Come and Take It Texas and DontComply.com.
“It’s a fake mass shooting, and we’ll use fake blood,” he said. He said gun noises will be blared from bullhorns. Other people will then play the role of rescuers, also armed with cardboard weapons.
He said the group was not seeking any sort of permit for the event from Austin or UT. University officials were not immediately available for comment.
“Criminals that want to do evil things and commit murder go places where people are not going to be able to stop them,’ he said. “When seconds count, the cops are minutes away.”
Asked if he was worried the demonstration, which will be preceded by a walk through Austin with loaded weapons might appear in bad taste following the mass shootings in San Bernardino and Paris, Short said: “Not at all. People were able to be murdered people because no one was armed.”
Loaded weapons are currently not allowed on UT campus, but that will change next August when the new campus carry law goes into effect. The law will allow people with concealed weapons permits to carry their handguns into dorms, classrooms and other public university buildings, though universities may draft some campus-specific rules that may include limited gun-free zones.
Critics of the law have urged UT to take a highly restrictive approach, prompting the pushback from gun rights groups.
“We want criminals to fear the public being armed,” Short said. “An armed society is a polite society.”
“We love freedom and we’re trying to make more freedom,” he said.
The organizers of Gun Free UT, an organization supported by thousands of UT students and faculty that aims to keep guns out of the UT campus, were not immediately available for comment.
They make me feel so safe I'm volunteering to send them over to Syria to take out ISIS!
Seriously, though, what are the chances they've considered what will happen if someone doesn't get the memo it's fake and comes in shooting their own weapon trying to take these nuts out?
"People were able to be murdered people because no one was armed.”
Yeah, these geniuses sound like just the guys to save the "murdered people."
On a more serious note, this seems like a terrible, terrible plan. Even if they don't get shot by a wanna-be hero, they are going to absolutely terrify students, staff, and faculty at UT. Can the university stop them using public safety reasons?
I wonder how long before UT sees such a brain drain that they try to force the state to do something? If UT suffers, maybe they'll get rid of this idiotic idea.
Especially when at least 5, and likely soon to be 10, private institutions are able to opt out of the conceal carry law.
Texas Lutheran University has become at least the fifth private institution here to officially opt out of the state's new campus carry law.
The university announced the decision on Monday, saying it will continue its previous policy of banning concealed weapons on the Seguin-based campus. Rice University, Texas Christian University, St. Mary's University and the University of the Incarnate Word have opted out of the campus carry since it was signed this summer.
Leaders from five additional private schools - Baylor University, Southern Methodist University, Trinity University, Austin College and Paul Quinn College - have said they expect or plan to opt out of the new law.
The use of fake guns, fake blood, and gun sounds on the campus to "practice" how you would react in a fake situation on a college campus is just crazy IMO. Do you just want people to get complacent to gun sounds and the sight of blood on people around you?
My uncle taught history at UT-A. I think I shall post this to my wall after all.
My niece (brother's daughter) is going to a different college in Austin. My hesitance was because she's pro-CCW. I don't want to hear that she's participated or participating. I'm hoping she's too busy with her pre-med classes, her "small business" (MLM) and selling her puppies (one dog, papered with champion bloodlines and bred to a champion male so is that BYB?)
My uncle taught history at UT-A. I think I shall post this to my wall after all.
My niece (brother's daughter) is going to a different college in Austin. My hesitance was because she's pro-CCW. I don't want to hear that she's participated or participating. I'm hoping she's too busy with her pre-med classes, her "small business" (MLM) and selling her puppies (one dog, papered with champion bloodlines and bred to a champion male so is that BYB?)
Asked if he was worried the demonstration, which will be preceded by a walk through Austin with loaded weapons might appear in bad taste following the mass shootings in San Bernardino and Paris, Short said: “Not at all. People were able to be murdered people because no one was armed.”
What? This makes it sound like they allowed themselves to be murdered because they did not have guns. What the actual fuck.
(one dog, papered with champion bloodlines and bred to a champion male so is that BYB?)
Yes. Papers mean crap as do champion bloodlines if she's not showing the dog to ascertain breed conformity, nor if she is not doing genetic testing to assure that the dogs have no genetic deficiencies.
If UT tries to shut this down, they'll cry about free speech, too.
I agree that they won't be able to completely shut it down, but I think at the same time a huge group of students should do a Zombie crawl or something - so like they all go out where the gun weirdos have their cardboard guns in zombie clothes and covered in blood and slowly surround them while they blare "Monster Mash" or some weird song opposite of the gunfire noises. Oooo, maybe they could break into a flash mob-type dance after like 10 minutes also.
If UT tries to shut this down, they'll cry about free speech, too.
I agree that they won't be able to completely shut it down, but I think at the same time a huge group of students should do a Zombie crawl or something - so like they all go out where the gun weirdos have their cardboard guns in zombie clothes and covered in blood and slowly surround them while they blare "Monster Mash" or some weird song opposite of the gunfire noises. Oooo, maybe they could break into a flash mob-type dance after like 10 minutes also.
Nope, not the correct reaction. Sorry, in a school where there hasn't a bunch of dead and wounded people around from an actual mass shooting, where there aren't iconic pictures of survivors gathering afterward creating a sea of blank faces in shock, zombies might be okay, NOT HERE.
These FUCKING FUCKERS need their damn mamma's to take them home and beat some fucking sense into them.