NFL recommends armed officers and weapon screening at team facilities

The NFL late last week sent all 32 teams a memo in the wake of the shooting at its headquarters in midtown Manhattan, recommending teams begin to upgrade security protocols at their facilities.

The memo, first obtained by the Athletic and portions of which were reviewed by OutKick, outlines guidance on key suggestions to prevent a mass shooter from attacking any of the league’s team facilities – particularly at this time of year when clubs open some of their practices to sometimes thousands of fans.

The protocols include:

• The presence of armed officers at team and league facilities whenever players or staff members are present.
• Weapons screening for anyone seeking entry into a team or league facility, including the use of walk-through magnetometers and X-ray scanners for bags, similar to the process for obtaining entry into stadiums prior to games.

NFL club owners were sent the memo and teams and stadium security have already been forwarded the recommended changes. While this is seemingly an urgent matter, the protocols may not be enacted until a special league meeting at the end of August.

It should be noted that all teams currently have security at their practices and, for years, much of that security detail has been armed – either openly as off-duty uniformed police, or even club security, some of which carry concealed weapons.

None of this is controversial. It makes perfect sense for people in America to protect themselves from crazed or violent assailants carrying guns and the NFL has that right following the July 28 attack that left four victims dead and others injured, including one NFL staffer. 

But mass shootings in America are also a left-right issue that politicians, activists, and even media sometimes use to advance their worldview.

And usually, that worldview is to advocate for disarming Americans, with the first step of that process being a ban on so-called semi-automatic rifles.

Enter NBC’s Mike Florio. He wrote about the NFL memo and took the opportunity to amplify an opinion he and many leftists have for years bellowed at every opportunity following a tragic shooting: That long guns such as AR-15s should be outlawed.

Florio Wants To Take Your Tactical Rifles

This is what Florio, who does great work covering the NFL when he’s not puking his political bent on readers, wrote: 

“None of the [proposed NFL] measures suggested by the league would have kept a man with an AR-15-style rifle from wreaking havoc at any team or league facility.

“The building where the attack happened had armed officers. But they were outgunned. That’s the problem. Civilians have access to stronger and better guns than police officers carry.

“We know it’s a political issue, even if it shouldn’t be. The right to bear arms shouldn’t include the right to bear overwhelming weaponry.”

Florio, a lawyer, is one of those folks who doesn’t agree with the entirety of the Constitution of the United States. He apparently sees the Second Amendment as a problem.

The Lawyer Should Read The Constitution

The Second Amendment reads:

“A well-regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed.”

I am not a constitutional lawyer. But I read the operative clause of that amendment and do not see a limit on the type of arms – including tactical rifles – that people are allowed to own.

So Florio apparently believes he knows better than the Founders but hasn’t mustered a Constitutional Amendment movement to back up his opinion. I think the Founders were God-anointed wise men, and I’m good with the Second Amendment as-is.

I get to have that opinion, by the way, because that right is enshrined in the Constitution. It’s somewhere in the First Amendment – you know, the amendment about free speech that is so important, that the second thing the Founders decided was that we should protect it with no limit on guns.  

Beyond his tired opinion, Florio is also wrong on some of his facts:

Florio Says Cops Are Outgunned

He wrote that civilians have access to stronger and better guns than police. Not true.

New York City beat cops do not carry so-called assault weapons. But many are shotgun-certified and carry those in their vehicles. And the NYPD definitely has units armed with tactical rifles such as the M-4, AR-15 variants, and the MP5 submachine gun.

Also, if the NFL and the other tenants at 345 Park Avenue had concerns about a mass shooter attack prior to this one, they could have hired upgraded private security that meet the stringent New York City licensing laws for carrying upgraded weaponry. It would be logical for the tenants of that building to do that now.

That’s upgraded weaponry that would not have had the good guys outgunned on that tragic day. 

The idea of security armed with tactical rifles in the NFL building or across league facilities is a scenario that probably makes Florio’s head explode. But it’s already a fact of life elsewhere. 

Tactical Units Are A Fact Of Life

Tactical units at major airports such as JFK use rifles for counterterrorism readiness. Federal office buildings around the country have security teams armed with tactical rifles. The White House has rifle-carrying security. 

Sporting events abroad and at home, by the way, often employ sniper teams armed with the longest-range guns available. It’s actually kind of common in soccer.

That last paragraph probably makes people on the left crazy. Because they refuse to acknowledge that violent crazies are often stopped by deadly force.

Witness the Greenwood Park Mall Shooting in 2022. 

And the Michigan Church shooting in June.

The Crime Prevention Research Center (CPRC) suggests civilians stopped 51.5 percent of active shootings in areas where carrying is allowed – sometimes outperforming law enforcement in such zones.

NFL Should Gear Up To Protect Itself

I’m not advocating the NFL office or NFL teams should resort to a Wild West scenario where people carrying guns are invited into their facilities or buildings. That’s madness. Quite the opposite is about to happen.

But I am saying the most obvious way the league can protect itself is to gear up rather than beg, “something must change,” as Florio advocated.

NFL fans are not going to blanche at the site of NFL armed security carrying rifles at club facilities, buildings or events.

Neither should they be prevented from owning rifles to protect their homes and families from any and all intruders.