Which is more harmless — a handgun or a dildo? Surprisingly, this seems to be a question that stumps a lot of Americans. Last June, the Texas state legislature passed the “Campus Carry Law,” which allows students at University of Texas campuses to carry guns on campus with a concealed carry permit. Meanwhile, it is against university policy to display anything or engage in any public demonstration that is “obscene.” Therefore, students on the Austin campus decided to protest the new law with a Campus Carry of their own.

The Campus Carry, responsible for the trending #CocksNotGlocks on Twitter earlier this week, encourages students to carry dildos in their backpacks to make a statement about what should be considered obscene and dangerous. But it is not just students who are joining the protest. A professor has announced that he will quit teaching next year due the new law, which he believes will jeopardize his safety on campus. Even William McRaven — Chancellor of all University of Texas locations and former Navy SEAL admiral who helped organize the Bin Laden raid — stated “I like guns, but I just don’t think having them on campus is the right place,” according to CNN.

This law and subsequent protest bring up a lot of discussions concerning America’s ongoing struggle with the limits of the Second Amendment and how to truly keep students safe on campus (Hint: it's not by allowing them to secretly carry their own guns). But the issue also brings up the idea that Americans are more frightened and uncomfortable with the presence of genitalia than of violence and possible death.

When the film Fifty Shades of Grey was released in the United States, the public debated whether it would receive an R or NC-17 rating from the Motion Picture Association of America. After cutting certain scenes, it would go on to receive an R. In France, meanwhile, Le Centre National du Cinéma intended to release the film without any restriction, but it was concerned that BDSM relationships were portrayed poorly in the film. Ultimately it was given a "12" rating, meaning anyone over the age of twelve was allowed to view the film, even without a parent or adult accompanying them. Violence tends to earn films a more restricted rating in France; for the United States, sex is the greater evil.

Allowing your young child to watch a movie like Fifty Shades of Grey probably isn't the best parenting choice. But it's also probably not healthy for them to watch the Dark Knight Trilogy, each of which received a PG-13 rating despite its portrayal of intense violence and psychological fear. Why are Americans so willing to accept violence as an everyday situation, while sex and even nudity remain taboo? Surely, it is more detrimental for young people to see advertisements and propaganda displaying weapons and violence than it is for them to see a pair of breasts.

The United States, which has had 294 mass shootings this year, needs to reevaluate its stance on the norm of violence. Between 1968 and 2011, almost 1.4 million Americans died from firearm deaths. For perspective, the combined number of casualties for every war fought by Americans is 1.2 million. Perhaps if we taught our children that loving is more normal than killing, those numbers would decrease.