AUSTIN, Texas _ Hundreds of demonstrators armed with sex toys gathered Wednesday at the University of Texas at Austin to protest a new state law that allows concealed handgun license holders to carry their weapons into public college classrooms.
The school religious, spirit and sporting groups that set up tables every year near the student union were joined by others handing out free sex toys. Protesters came and went throughout the afternoon, holding signs that read "wangs not bangs" and "guns do not equal freedom."
The contentious law, which went into effect this month, allows the licensed carrying of concealed handguns in most public university buildings.
Unlike private universities, state schools cannot completely opt out of campus carry. But public school officials can establish gun-free zones as long as they are "reasonable" and don't have the effect of generally prohibiting guns on campus.
Protest organizers said they handed out about 5,000 sex toys _ many at a raucous rally Tuesday night _ for students to carry around with them on the first day of classes. The festivities Wednesday included speeches decrying the law by legislators, professors, parents and students.
The demonstration's leaders said they were fighting "absurdity with absurdity."
"College students are supposed to be worrying about homework and relationships and parties," said Ana Lopez, vice president of Students Against Campus Carry. "They're not supposed to be worrying about whether their lab partner has a loaded gun in their backpack.
"I don't think that those who drafted the Bill of Rights thought that a 'well-regulated militia' started in my organic chemistry classroom," she said.
The exuberant crowd was met by a small number of gun rights advocates. And though leaders of one pro-carry group, Students for Concealed Carry, welcomed the demonstration, Forrest Sullivan, a junior chemical engineering student, said he thought it was "very childish."
"Firearms give women the ability to compensate for the inequality that nature has put on us," he said. "I have a fiancee that is 5 feet tall, and she is going through the process of getting her concealed carry because if a man decides to attack her, that is her only option of defense."
Campus carry _ passed with the support of Republican lawmakers _ remains tangled in legal disputes.
A federal judge denied a request Monday for a preliminary injunction by three UT professors hoping to keep guns out of their classrooms. A pro-carry group, meanwhile, has filed formal complaints over the decisions by many professors to ban firearms in their offices.
Even with all the controversy, the early hours of the big rally day were mostly a snooze.
The promised 8 a.m. start times for the protest and counterprotest produced a swarm of TV cameras, a steady stream of groggy college students and three open carry advocates holding a banner. In these still-quiet hours, not a sex toy was in sight.
Then Rosie Zander, a junior, arrived with a box full of flesh-colored phalluses.
"We're going to be the first ones shot," she joked.
Zander explained that she and others wanted a fun way to take on a serious issue.
"I don't think there is a need to have guns in class," she said.
C.J. Grisham of Open Carry Texas took the scene in stride.
"It's not about the dildos, it really isn't," he said. "It's about ... the right to defend oneself on a college campus."
Grisham, who said he didn't expect a lot of support, helped carry his group's banner: "If licensed gun owners were a threat, you wouldn't be reading this." He was eventually joined by another pro-gun protester who held up a poster that quoted Adolf Hitler.
Although the campus mall would later buzz with activity, many students tried to go about their business.
A group of Young Life members, who were handing out T-shirts nearby, bashfully declined to comment. A senior hoping to sign up new members for the school's mock trial team looked on with bemusement. And many students walked by the demonstration in a rush.
"I'm just trying to get to class," freshman Aman Patel said after snapping a quick photo.
