Police unions across the country are asking the National Football League to rescind its ban on guns for off-duty and retired officers at games following a series of terror attacks in Paris.
Three police unions in Detroit are drafting a letter against the “ill-advised” policy, The Detroit News reported Friday.
“Current events, not least the unconscionable acts of terrorism we have recently experienced, only add to the desirability of having readily available armed law enforcement officers even if they are not officially ‘on duty,'” a draft of the letter read, as quoted by the newspaper.
The National Fraternal Order of Police, the nation’s largest police union, had sent a letter to NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell on Nov. 20 that cited attacks on “well-attended venues and areas” by “radical killers” in asking him to rescind the policy.
The Fraternal Order of Police of Ohio also sent letters before last week’s games to the owners of the Cleveland Browns and Cincinnati Bengals, asking for the end of the ban on off-duty and retired officers from bringing guns into NFL stadiums.
“Each day our world is changing and becoming more and more dangerous. We do not have to look too far to see attacks by terrorists groups,” union president Jay McDonald wrote.
NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell prohibited firearms in any NFL facility beginning in 2013 and a Minnesota appeals court upheld the league’s ban this year. In October 2013, Jeffrey Miller, the league’s chief security officer, told the National Fraternal Order of Police that the league believes “public safety inside our stadiums is best served by limiting the carrying of firearms to on-duty law enforcement” assigned to work each game.
The rule has two exceptions, MLive.com reported Sunday. Off-duty police officers can carry guns at the homes of the Dallas Cowboys and the Houston Texans.
