Gun Nuts Find a New Target: The NFL

[SecularMotion]

As 2013 comes to a close, gun advocates can count up their impressive string of victories this year. They defeated the strongest push for new federal gun laws in a generation, handing President Obama an embarrassing defeat and defying the will of 90 percent of the American public. They saw Illinois, the last state to ban people from carrying guns in public, finally loosen its laws. They successfully mounted a recall effort to remove two Colorado lawmakers from office for supporting new gun restrictions. Yet gun advocates may have finally found an opponent they can’t beat: the National Football League.

This week, Guns & Ammo magazine broke the story that the NFL rejected a proposed Super Bowl advertisement for Daniel Defense, a gun manufacturer based in Georgia. The ad, which features a handsome young father explaining that he’s “chosen the most effective tool” for defending his family from harm, was dinged by the NFL for violating the league’s policy on advertisements. That policy prohibits any ads that feature “firearms, ammunition or other weapons.” Although Daniel Defense’s ad doesn’t show any actual firearms—though it does feature the company’s logo, which is an artistic rendering of a military-style rifle—the league barred Fox, the network that will air the Super Bowl, from running it.

To gun advocates, this was nothing less than a declaration of war. Alex Jones, who last made headlines with a notorious anti-gun control rant on Piers Morgan’s show, said the NFL’s decision proved the league was “anti-family,” “anti-liberty,” and “anti-American.” Worse yet, Jones said, the NFL was in cahoots with the imperialistic Obama Administration, which is using the Super Bowl as a venue for political propaganda, just like Hitler did with the 1936 Munich Olympics.

This isn’t the first time the NFL and its broadcast partners ran afoul of gun advocates. Last year, they were furious when sports commentator Bob Costas, during halftime of a Sunday Night Football game, blamed the “gun culture” after Kansas City Chiefs linebacker Jovan Belcher shot and killed his girlfriend before taking his own life. Challenging the very essence of gun rights ideology, Costas had the audacity to say that “handguns don’t save lives.”

http://www.newrepublic.com/article/115834/nfl-bans-gun-ad-two-americas-favorite-things-go-war

[ManiacJoe]

1. Was there something about the article you wanted to discuss?

[blueridge3210]

2. Not likely; just another drive-by posting. (NT)

[Packerowner740]

7. I've been here a short time and I know this poster never comments on his/her own posts

[ManiacJoe]

8. Very true, but I keep hoping he will see the light.

[gejohnston]

9. seeing the light

reminds me of the greatest movie of all time.

[ManiacJoe]

10. Love that movie!

[ileus]

3. We'll probably hit the range Super Bowl Sunday.

Enjoy a little family fun time at the range before the game.

[jimmy the one]

4. a 'Shootout' at lambeau field

article: Gun advocates have also seen the NFL’s hostility to the right to bear arms in its policies on guns at games. In 2011, Wisconsin, the home of the Green Bay Packers, changed its laws to allow people with a permit to carry concealed weapons in public. Gun advocates unsuccessfully tried to pressure the Packers’ Lambeau Field to allow the same... a gun blogger accused the NFL of being “officially anti-gun.” Then earlier this year, the league adopted a new security policy that requires fans to use transparent bags if they want to bring anything into stadiums. The reason for the policy, according to the NFL, was “to provide a safer environment for the public.” To gun advocates, however, the policy did the exact opposite. What could be safer, they ask, than a stadium full of lawful gun owners? You know, more guns, less crime.

I'm gonna barf, they ask what could be safer than a stadium half filled with gun owners (no way could they all be 'lawful')????? duh, how about no guns at all in the stadium? what are they afraid of that's happened so far at football games? how many dropped guns going off as people clamber over others to get to their seats? (any so far?) how many 'oh it was just a tragic accident' scenarios would we need endure?
They'd need create a new penalty - replay due to gun discharging in the stands. A 'shootout' would take on new meaning, & the shotgun offense would make the umpires glance about nervously.
OMG, sudden death would become an NFL double entendre'!

Alex Jones has called for gun rights supporters to boycott the NFL. “Americans have to decide,” Jones insists, “Are you going to roll over and put up with this because you love watching your football so much? Or are you going to boycott the NFL because of their anti-American agenda?”

I suppose the NFL policy might lead (accd'g to alex) to another insurrection to defend the 2ndA? or at least another alex outburst on piers morgan/cnn. What inane hyperbole & ridiculous exaggeration from this rightwing gunnutted fruitcake.

[gejohnston]

6. No but,

the NFL pissed on the Chicago PD union.
http://chicago.cbslocal.com/2013/10/14/nfl-moves-to-block-off-duty-cops-from-carrying-guns-at-games/

[Eleanors38]

5. I support t.v. ads advocating gun safety. Do you?