Gun groups move mock shooting off Texas campus after warning

Two pro-firearm groups had sought to carry out the fake gun rampage on a campus belonging to the University of Texas on Saturday but this was blocked by officials who said such a demonstration would be “highly insensitive” given the university’s history.

“It’s a fake mass shooting, and we’ll use fake blood”, Matthew Short, the spokesperson for Come and Take It Texas and dontcomply.com, told the Austin American-Statesman.

Initially, the group, which is comprised of over 100 activists from Come and Take It Texas and DontComply.com, had planned “mock shooting” to take place on the UT campus December 12, but after the administration threatened possible arrests, they’ve announced they are moving it across the street.

Opponents and supporters cite the 1966 mass shooting at the University of Texas, when Charles Whitman killed 16 people and wounded dozens more from his perch atop the campus clock tower.

“These target rich environments are letting our children be murdered by evil people”. Actors will play rescuers, armed with cardboard weapons.

“We want to educate the public on the dangers of gun-free zones”. Asked if Short was anxious the demonstration would be in bad taste given recent events, he said: “Not at all”. A university representative has told reporters the event would be seen as a “criminal trespass matter”, according to the Associated Press.

“The only possible way to avoid this result would be for the University to provide gun lockers at strategic points around campus”.

“People were able to be murdered people because no one was armed”, he said. The Statesman reported the group has not requested a permit for the event from the city or from the University of Texas.

“Here we are where everybody gets distracted with the anti-protestors talking about emotions and how guns make them feel”.

Concealed handguns would be prohibited inside University of Texas dorms in most cases — but allowed in classrooms — under recommendations sent to the school president Thursday under the state’s pending campus-carry law. Now the idea of these gun-free zones has Short and others literally up in arms. Private universities can opt out of the law, which goes into effect in August.

More than 380 shootings have taken place across America this year so far, and, as of October 2015, there had been 1,052 mass shootings in 1,066 days.

“People are already scared with everything that’s going on in the world and it’s kind of nice to have a safe place which I feel like UT is”.