“The league doesn’t allow most bags in games, requiring fans to utilize clear plastic bags to bring items into games. It would be a stunning turn if the league suddenly allowed people to bring firearms into the stadium. And there’s the whole matter of fan safety, of course. We saw in Raiders-Chiefs that people aren’t afraid to fight in the stands of a football game following a couple of beers and a heated rivalry in a frigid night football game. Fighting in these situations is far from uncommon — adding bullets and guns to these situations literally has deadly potential.” – CBS Sports Senior Writer Will Brinson, A proposed law would let people bring guns into the Seahawks stadium [via cbssports.com]
What is this “allow” bullshit you keep referring to?
It private property, the owner can allow or disallow whatever they desire. Now if the owner is the government, then the public should have the usual rights of free public and act accordingly. Oh, and if it is private property and they take public money for improvements then it should fall into the second category, no guns means no public money.
Ah… “‘muh property rights”… Sorry bro, when you hang out a shingle inviting people into your business, you implicitly wave a large number of your property rights. That includes the “right” to decide who patronizes your business so long as they don’t break the law. “Gun Free Zone” signs have no more moral authority than “whites only” signs.
Except they can ask people to leave for any reason. Anyone who refuses is trespassing.
This case is slightly different though. The stadiums are private property on public land. Because of that, the state, as the landlord, can make this change.
We have enough pro-gun democrats in the legislature to maybe get this to pass, but I don’t think there are enough to override a gubernatorial veto.
So a business owner can ask blacks to leave for any reason? Good luck with that.
Oh good…so as a photographer I’m allowed to tell a gay couple that they should leave because I don’t do gay weddings?
I somewhat agree Omer. But, if the venue is partially funded by tax payer funds, then I think one should be able to exercise their rights.
At the same time if if a private owner disallows personal protections given to us under the US Constitution, and that private owner was not able to protect us from serious bodily harm or death, then they should be able to be held liable for such absense of protection.
They are in Tennessee, although I don’t believe anyone has had a court case yet to test the waters.
From a legal standpoint, there are only a few places on the Federal level a person cannot conceal carry legally. Now, if you have a gun at a business that forbids carry, they can ask you to leave at which point non compliance = trespassing. Some state laws may go above that, thankfully Utah is not one of them. Always best to read individual laws. I love this line btw from Utah.gov site about conceal carry.
What about private businesses? Can they post signs prohibiting someone from carrying a gun into their business even though the person has a concealed firearms permit?
Naturally, private property owners may apply whatever restrictions they want. Whether or not these restrictions violate one’s constitutional rights is for the civil courts to decide. But the only statutory restrictions on a permit holder are secured areas such as airports and federal buildings.
How can something that’s tax payer funded be private property?
Perhaps we should just ban professional sports. For the sake of the fans, you know.
I’ll just vote with my feet. Sports stadiums full of beer-swilling yahoos violates the “stupid people, stupid places, stupid things” rule anyway.
Hey now….some of my fondest memories involve beer swilling with stupid people doing stupid things..lol…
No kidding. Stadiums full of drunken partisan fans during professional football games may be my only acceptable restriction on the Second Amendment. Dumb, dumb places.
Perhaps the ‘deadly potential’ of armed fans might discourage people from starting fights in the first place.
I honestly think the deterrent effect in these situations is unlikely.
Stupid drunks do what stupid drunks do.
Especially when their team is down 28 to the Packers.
I could never wrap my mind around folks who bought a ticket to a game and summarily claimed ownership or ingroup status with the players…
This is what you get for your $300 million taxpayer financing.
If you are getting drunk buying their $10 beers and fighting over a stupid football game, you’ve got bigger problems than just my pistol.
$10 beers?
Last one I bought about 15 years back was $12 for a 16 oz tallboy…
In Hershey Bears games (AHL) it’s $8 for a 16oz yeungling draft. Last I was at anight MLB I think it was about that much for pint cans of light beer, more if you want something that doesn’t taste like piss.
BTW, if the League doesn’t like it then maybe they should build their own privately owned stadiums instead relying on taxpayers to provide them with publicly owned ones.
That is really a good point. A law that any stadium built with tax payer funding has to be open to be open to legal carry. If the sports leagues do not want to allow it then they have to fund the building of their stadiums privately. Make it retroactive that current stadiums that want to stay defense free zones cannot enforce that until they complete repayment of all public funding.
“… maybe they should build their own privately owned stadiums instead relying on taxpayers to provide them with publicly owned ones.”
That is a big-assed peeve of mine.
An NFL sports team worth an *average* of 2.3 billion (that’s two thousand three *hundred* million) dollars extort from local governments stadiums that cost in the hundreds of millions of dollars.
And those local taxpayers float bond issues or jack up local taxes and *happily* let them do it.
The last time they pulled that trick here in Tampa they demolished the stadium that they hadn’t even paid for yet to build the new one.
On the day of the demolition the demo crew didn’t quite set the charges right and when the dust cleared one of the concrete spires was still standing.
The Tampa Tribune reported: “It looked like the old stadium was giving Tampa the finger…”
The old Sombrero!
Yep.
To this day I refuse to spend discretionary income in Hillsborough county if I can help it…
And then they have the gall to declare public property a 2nd Amendment free zone. I’ve got the same beef with public universities though.
I believe him when he talks about the danger to the fans. I am sure the armed criminals lurking around the stadiums to rob unarmed people on the way back to their cars after to game are huge fans of the team that helps them make a living. He obviously cares deeply for the safety of those “hard working” fans waiting outside and just off property away from event security.
Nah, they don’t need to rob the fans. They just need to break into the cars to steal the guns the law abiding citizens were forced to leave in their vehicles because of the stupid Gun-Free-Zones.
Because this would put Raiders fans in a distinct disadvantage …
Ok, cut the crap, Brinson.
The whole “bag check” thing is to assure compliance with the prohibition of personal food and beverages, which would cut into the revenue from the league’s obscenely overpriced concessions.
Only imbeciles go into those stadiums anyway. Not much to loose even if the whole things started dropping into sinkholes.
“Lose”
Still sucks to be me.
So you’ll prohibit the great equalizer and let the alcohol fueled fan violence sort it out via the physically strongest beating the weak? But you wouldn’t stop selling alcohol now would you to prevent fan violence? Not at those profit margins.
Maybe you need to background check your fans before they come into the stadium? Your description of them implies they are a sketchy lot.
This point needs to be made at every opportunity.
Those lawfully carrying firearms have passed multiple background checks. They aren’t felons, wife beaters, habitual drunk drivers, dope heads or mental defectives.
The brawling drunks probably couldn’t survive such scrutiny. It’s a completely different subset of their fan base.
It’s not violence in the stadium I’m worried about.
It’s walking in an inevitably bad neighborhood at 11:30pm once the game is over, with my gun locked uselessly in my car where it hopefully hasn’t been stolen yet.
*not worth it*
They are currently finishing the new Braves stadium new me with loads of public money and special benefits that I am forced to help finance. In more than twenty yeaes of living in the area I never went to a Braves game and now I am required to help pay for the damn stadium. At least we put the primary politician responsible for it out of office in the recent election.
I’ll pass. Stupid people-stupid places. If I want to watch overpaid dudes play I turn on the Idiot Box(anyone say THAT anymore?). I might violate my rule to see the CUBS win?
Seems to me that a few drunks offing themselves in shootouts might be good for the gene pool.
if you go to a Seahawks game and buy a (plastic) bottle of Coke, they hand it to you without the cap on it. You can’t have the cap. Apparently the ballistics of a hand thrown capped bottle are much better than one without a cap. And you, great citizen, are not allowed to have a cap.
So now people bring their own caps. Some enterprising people bring a bunch and sell them so that you can then cap your bottle and keep the debris out of it.
There is no way this law passes in Washington.
Hmmm,…, before they installed metal detectors at Century Link and Safeco Field, I carried concealed on several occasions. I harmed no one. Parking is expensive near the stadiums, free parking is some distance away and in some of the shadier areas. Now I have to carry a walking stick for protection. No one questions a cane.
Colt Magnum,
The cane idea is a somewhat decent approach if you and everyone in your party are young, strong, and fast … and everyone in your party has canes. Even then, a robber armed with a firearm still has a commanding advantage over you.
I agree that I’m at a disadvantage against someone with a firearm. What I meant by “no one questions a cane ” is that I’ve never been denied access, by security, anywhere it’s against the law to have a weapon. Having a stick is better than nothing. By the way, it’s an Irish blackthorn walking stick. Light, hard as nails, and sharp nubs down the shaft, plus a knob handle.
Several commenters above provided outstanding comments … too numerous for me to reply with a “+1” to their comment.
Those of you who keep up on the comments may have noticed me harping about Big Money lately. This is yet another example of Big Money winning the day.
Let’s be honest: why will that stadium be a “gun-free” venue from this point forward? Because the people who declared that policy command hundreds of millions, if not billions, of dollars. That is plenty of money to pay-off enforcers, politicians, and judges. Note that the mainstream media, which is all too willing to advance advance civilian disarmament, needs no pay-offs.
Translation of “no guns in stadium” policy:
We wish to protect the lives of, what shall we call them … exuberant, yeah that’s it! … exuberant fans who want to be able to deliver debilitating blows with their fists and feet to other fans without risk of being shot.
Here is a novel idea:
Tell fans in no uncertain terms that if they start a brawl, someone will shoot them. Watch how fast brawling behavior stops.
I think I’ll just stay home and watch it on TV, and not have to pay $10 for a crappy beer or have to stand in the cold for 3 hours, and I’ll get to keep my guns near me.
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