Gun rights groups, in protest at Texas campus, plan mock mass shooting

A mock mass killing that organizers insist was planned far ahead of the San Bernardino shootings will be held at the University of Texas at Austin to protest efforts to restrict the right to carry firearms on campus.

Texas gun rights activists have taken steps to make the staged mass killing appear authentic, with fake blood, victims, attackers and “rescuers” armed with cardboard guns. Announcers using bullhorns will simulate the sound of gunfire.

The Open Carry Walk and Crisis Performance Event is being held Saturday at the Austin campus to oppose gun-free zones like the San Bernardino county office that came under attack this month, said Matthew Short, a spokesman for the gun rights groups Come and Take It Texas and DontComply.com.

“We’re doing this to demonstrate that gun-free zones kill people,” Short, 34, who works in construction in the Dallas area, told The Times on Wednesday.

“These mass shootings are getting out of control. There are a lot of politicians who are trying to use them to restrict people’s rights.”

Before the event, the gun rights groups plan to walk through town with antique guns and long guns (no modern handguns). Many will also be carrying concealed handguns during the event, Short said.

University officials said that use of the campus is reserved for faculty, staff and students and that the gun-advocate group does not have permission to use the facilities. The school said that the group would be asked to leave if it comes on university property and that if it refuses to disperse, police could be called.

Short said organizers began planning the event a month and a half ago, before the San Bernardino shooting, and about 50 people from across the state had already volunteered to participate. He said it’s not intended to offend anyone impacted by the San Bernardino attack.

“I’m offended that there’s politicians out there saying they want to take guns away,” Short said. “California already has restrictive gun laws, and it created a victim killing zone when police are minutes away.”

Even in Texas, which passed less restrictive gun laws this year, he said, more should be done to wipe out gun-free zones at schools, hospitals and other sites.

“I want the criminals to be afraid of an armed public,” Short said.

The group does not have a permit to protest on or off campus. A spokeswoman for the Austin Police Department said that they were aware of the event and that, as long as participants remained off campus and on the sidewalks, they did not need a permit.

Short said they wanted to be on campus, but “we’re still going to do it even if we have to stand on a sidewalk with UT in the background.”

Gun rights protests are not unusual in Texas, particularly this year as supporters repeatedly rallied to pass legislation expanding both the right to carry guns openly, and the right to carry them concealed on college campuses, the so-called “campus carry” law that takes effect next August.

But Saturday’s planned protest even angered some gun rights advocates.

Antonia Okafor, southwest regional director for Students for Concealed Carry, said she was “astounded” that those protesting Saturday think it’s a good idea to bring “fake blood and the sound of gunshots into a university community that is highly uncertain about the new campus carry law and understandably concerned about recent high-profile mass shootings.”

Wes Lewis, who served on Students for Concealed Carry’s board and helped plan its first protest using empty holsters, said the “so-called gun rights groups seem to be little more than anarchists cloaking their antics in the legitimacy of the 2nd Amendment.”

“If anything, I’d say these antics are responsible for making gun rights a much more partisan issue,” Lewis said, alienating moderates and stoking a public backlash.

Gun control advocates also found Saturday’s planned event offensive.

Christina Adams, a Gun Free UT supporter who lives in the area and whose son is a freshman at the university, was so upset she called the dean of students Wednesday to ask how they planned to handle it, but she said she didn’t get a straight answer.

She said Gun Free UT’s protests have not been about curtailing gun rights but rather “ending gun violence, smart gun regulation, keeping kids safe.”

She noted Saturday’s event comes during finals and two days before the third anniversary of the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting in Newtown, Conn., in which 20-year-old Adam Lanza killed 20 students and six teachers. He also killed his mother before committing suicide.

“It’s just insane, crazy they even want to stage this,” Adams said, particularly before the anniversary. “What kind of people are these? No conscience? They’re not students. They’re not faculty. They’re just adults who love their guns.”

Twitter: @mollyhf

ALSO

Planned Parenthood shooting suspect: ‘I’m a warrior for the babies’

San Bernardino shooters began plotting attack before their marriage, FBI chief says

San Bernardino shooter is believed to have planned previous attack, source says