Few thumbs down for Tech’s ‘Guns Up’
MINNEAPOLIS – Well before tip-off in the NCAA men’s basketball championship game Monday night, Texas Tech fans will thrust their hands into the air for their “Guns Up” salute.
The hand signal is a school tradition that has fueled celebration and controversy and continues to draw support from Tech’s basketball players, even one recently affected by gun violence.
Brandone Francis, a guard for Texas Tech, said Sunday that he was grieving as third-seeded Texas Tech prepared to play top-seeded Virginia at U.S. Bank Stadium. Francis has been mourning the death of Nipsey Hussle, a rapper and friend of Francis’s family who was shot to death in Los Angeles March 31.
But Francis, a senior from the Dominican Republic, said he had no objection to the “Guns Up” salute, when index fingers and thumbs extended upward to create the shape of a pistol. “It’s part of school history, tradition,” Francis said. “But when it comes down to the streets and the real guns that are affecting our world, I’m not OK with that.”
Avery Benson, a guard for Tech, said, “It was a devastating loss for Brandone and his family.” He also said the tradition should not be viewed as support for gun violence. “When we say, ‘Get your guns up,’ there’s no relative meaning to hurting anybody with an actual gun,” he said. “It’s just a saying we have.”
The tradition developed as a response to a rival school, the University of Texas, and the Texas Longhorns’ hand gesture and call of “Hook ’em horns.” Texas Tech’s mascot, Red Raider, often fires up the crowd with the “Guns Up” salute.
After Texas Tech beat Michigan State 61-51 Saturday in the national semifinal, coach Chris Beard walked toward cheering Red Raiders fans and acknowledged them with a “Guns Up” salute.
Asked Sunday about people who might politicize the gesture, Beard said, “We’re trying to win Monday night. No comment on that one.”
In 2013, Michael Grant, an alumnus, complained about then-Texas Tech President Duane Nellis using the phrase “Go Texas Tech, and Guns Up!” in his official signature line on his weekly emails to university alumni, the Lubbock Avalanche-Journal reported.
“I find it quite embarrassing to admit that I earned two degrees from an institution that employs the offensive slogan (sic) ‘Guns Up’,” Grant wrote in an email to Nellis, according to the Lubbock Avalanche-Journal. “I will never contribute while that pattern remains,” he continued.
“The romantic ‘Wild West’ context of gun violence continues to cause great harm to a great number of individuals, especially children (Guns Up, kids!).”
Nellis, who stepped down as university president, changed his tag line from “Guns Up!” to “Wreck ’Em!”
The Lubbock Avalanche-Journal’s report about the incident triggered a backlash online from Texas Tech supporters and also suggested there might be objections in Minneapolis.
The university received two email complaints about the “Guns Up” gesture during the 2012 football bowl game between Texas Tech and the Minnesota Golden Gophers, according to the Lubbock Avalanche-Journal.
But Dave Pinto, a state congressman in Minnesota and the chief author of two of the leading gun violence prevention measures, said he has no objections to Texas Tech’s tradition.
“The salute itself doesn’t concern me,” Pinto said. “In my view, taking steps to take guns out of the hands of dangerous people doesn’t need to in any way impact how the folks who are using firearms responsibly. So I don’t have any concerns with the gesture.”
According to Texas Tech guard Parker Hicks, the “Guns Up” salute should not be misconstrued.
“It’s just a symbol, like our mascot, Red Raider,” Hicks said. “It shouldn’t be taken as anything else. It means that we’re ready to just get after it.
“Get your guns and be ready to get after it.”