CHICAGO (CBS) — A union for New York police sergeants has begun pressuring the NFL to drop its ban on guns inside stadiums, and a local concealed carry instructor has been asking people in Chicago to back the effort.
NFL security policy prohibits anyone, even off-duty police officers, from carrying concealed weapons in league-affiliated stadiums and facilities. Only designated security staffers and on-duty police are allowed to carry firearms on NFL team property.
Concealed carry instructor James Cadell, owner of Next Level Range in Medinah, said the NFL policy is “insane.”
“When the NFL says not even police officers can carry, it’s like people who are psychotic are running the insane asylum,” he said. “During this time of terrorism, when ISIS just put out a public announcement across the Internet that they’re going to kill thousands of people in America, you might as well put a bull’s-eye on the back of every NFL fan in the United States at any game.”
When the NFL enacted the policy in 2013, the president of the Chicago Fraternal Order of Police said it was an insult to police officers.
Cadell said the terrorist attacks in Paris – particularly the deadly assault inside a crowded concert hall – make this change logical.
“What would have happened if one or two of the people that were in the audience would have been concealed carry license holders, and they were armed?” he asked. “Do you think that those people would have been able to just go bang, bang, bang; killing one person after another?”