Note: This article was originally posted on NRA Blog: https://www.nrablog.com/articles/2016/9/toothless-tigers-mizzou-head-football-coach-forbids-players-from-owning-handguns/
USA – -(Ammoland.com)- Editor’s Note: Since the original publication of this article, a University of Missouri spokesman clarified Barry Odom’s remarks, stating: “Our program’s policy does not prohibit players from legally owning guns,” and rather, “If a player has a legal issue, and an illegal gun is involved as part of that legal issue, then the player is removed from the program.” Additionally, the school said, “They [Students] also have to understand that the University has a policy that guns aren’t permitted on campus.”
Missouri Tigers head football coach Barry Odom recently implemented an unorthodox new rule for his players, forbidding them from owning a handgun, even it was purchased “legally.”
You read that right. A well-paid new head coach of an NCAA Division I football program is commanding his unpaid talent, err, “student-athletes,” to forgo owning a handgun, denying their right to self-defense, hunting and recreational pistol or revolver shooting pursuits – Constitutional rights, mind you – for, well, “reasons.”
More puzzling even, Odom said that guns used “for hunting” were different from handguns, and didn’t mind if players owned them.
I guess Barry doesn’t know about the entire discipline of hunting using handguns, and probably hasn’t heard of any of these handguns for hunters.
Republican Sen. Brian Munzlinger, who himself uses a pistol to hunt, was quick to question Odom’s directive, blasting the coach and the Mizzou athletic department for unreasonably disarming law-abiding students.
“[In] Missouri and in the United States of America, these students are still citizens, and no publicly funded institution should have a policy that overrides our Missouri laws, our state constitution or the U.S. Constitution,” Munzlinger said in a statement.
Odom is telling his players outright that their right to self-defense doesn’t matter to him, the team or to the university, and that they need to choose between responsible, lawful gun ownership and lining up for Tigers this fall. If this is how Odom, in his first year as head coach after longtime coach Gary Pinkel left, plans to kick off the new era of Mizzou football, he’s making headlines for all the wrong reasons. His disregard for the legal rights of his players is most assuredly a penalty flag thrown against individual liberties.
See Related : “Gun Right Groups Launch Investigation into Public University and Sports Team Firearms“
Isn’t this the same university that has declining enrollment due to the absurdity of its social justice policies? Fewer and fewer people are going to pony up for a degree from this place. It will cease functioning as an institution of learning all by itself.
The ‘Show Me’ state should show Coach Odom the door. Shut up and coach!
What this clown is no coach, he’s signed up to be their mommie…… coach your guys in the game of football, leave the game of life to them.
How dare he deny athletes the right to have a shootout during the middle of training or a game.
Maybe the Twitter-verse needs to light up about this man. I suggest a campaign that sends him Depends. He surely needs them because he is full of it.
I live in Missouri.Once was a tiger fan then they moved to the SEC.I would not wipe my ass with MO Tigers.Close school.
I know literally less then zero about sports so this is a dumb question. But is this team so good that this guy can make a decision so controversial that the university administration would support him? Hell even Paterno was in the crapper for stupid decisions. Is this school so top end that their football team is the main source of alumni revenue and donations? Why would the school allow such a Constitutionally controversial thing to happen? Like I said I am not into sports and don’t quite get the process of how schools and sports jive together but… Sorry… Read more »
WHY is everyone advocating for firearms to be EVERYWHERE? Has the USA truly become such a lawless country, that NO ONE supports the police to do their job? That we must walk around w/weapons at the ready? I truly believe it comes from all of those TV Westerns that many of us watched as children. It seems as though many boys/men didn’t realize that those shows were MAKE-BELIEVE. In the civilized towns of the Old West, firearms were NOT ALLOWED w/in city limits. Anyone “heeled” would have his gun taken and/or put in jail. What everyone, making comments here, seem… Read more »
I see that you don’t get it. First of all it is a right to be able to defend yourself or own a handgun for recreation. The coach does not have the right to deny that right. It is known as the 2nd amendment and it is a right not a wish. If you don’t feel the need for a handgun then that is also your right to depend on some else to bail you out if you get into a sticky situation. If I was a player on that team I would ignore his stupid rule unless he wanted… Read more »
@RR51 you have it so backwards. It is the law that we have the right to firearms and their use for self defense. Advocating for firearms to be EVERYWHERE, is advocating for following the law. Someone saying that you can not have a firearm or defend yourself is advocating the illegal.
When the Moslems try to take over this country, I look forward to seeing a headless body, bleeding in the gutter, with a sign on it that reads, “I was Ridgerunner 51.” See Koran 8:12
Bye Felecia.
This is DEFINITELY the WRONG forum for you to be posting on!!!! The backlash you are about to receive will either change your mind or cause you to change your forum name!!!!
Shove off TROLL, go watch Oprah.
RidgeRunner51, it has been said that a 9mm is faster than 911. If you don’t get the point of that statement I can’t help you. Just remember when someone is breaking into you house the police will do their job and hunt down your killer. Police can not be everywhere all the time so we defend ourselves. Got it?
RRr, Your comments remind me of the old adage. If a bear is attacking, you don’t have to run faster than the bear. You just have to run faster than your buddy. When unrest comes to your neighborhood, those will weapons will be protecting their homes and families. You will be fair game. During the Rodney King riots, the Korean shop owners who had weapons were able to protect their property.
Remember, when seconds count, the police are only minutes away.
@Idadho, you are quite right. I was there for the Rodney King riots, and the Koreans took up firing positions on top of their stores. They were successful. Others put signs on their store reading, “Black Owned Business”; the black rioters ignored them. Meaningful defense = success. All else = defeat, loss, and even death. Oh, and LAPD and LASO, wisely, did not interfere.
NO we do not trust police with our safety. It took over 15 minutes for police to call me back asking if I still needed a police car to respond to my call about a woman being beaten up in front of my house. I would have gone out to help her but the last time I went to someones aid I was almost arrested for trying to help. It takes over ten minutes in most cases for the police to respond to a call in my neighborhood. In that time I could be dead if an armed intruder broke… Read more »
Your hyperbole suggests you’ve been heavily influenced by leftist talking points. First, the U.S. isn’t lawless and is among the safest nations. Besides, differences between the best and worst are measured in thousandths of a percent. Secondly, regarding police, only the BLM demonstrates widespread distrust of them. Additionally, because they cannot possibly protect everyone all the time, most support and in fact depend on armed citizens to defend themselves during initial confrontations. Thirdly, leftists often liken the hundred million owners of firearms as children who never outgrew left their television fantasies, particularly the cowboy shows. Of course that’s absurd unless… Read more »
You are wrong about all nations are close in safety. The risk of violence in the riskiest countries is more that 20 times the safer countries. The US is in the top 20% for safety.
There may not be many AR’s slung over a shoulder but there are plenty of concealed firearms and a substantial number of open carried firearms.
In 1993 the number of murders in the U.S. were seven per hundred thousand. That number was reduced to 3.8 per 100,000 by 2014 and of 218 nations measured, the U.S. now ranks 98th, about in the middle. Stated another way, your chances of being murdered in the U.S. are 38 thousandths of a percent (.000038). In the U.K., your chances are .8 thousandths of a percent (.000008). That’s a difference of 30 thousandths of a percent. Some nations are so small, e.g., Andorra and Monaco, they have no murders and aren’t comparable. But although Honduras has a murder rate… Read more »
If you go about in public in MY state, you can safely figure that one in ten adults you happen across anywhere you happen to be will be carrying a concealed handgun. Look at the line for checkout at Costco…. with two hundred adults waiting there, and having just finished checking out and on the other side the registers, there will be at least twenty armed. Nearly everyone who IS armed also knows how to use that tool well and quickly. I feel quite safe in such places. At my church, where I was today, I believe some 70% of… Read more »
You sure mess with the numbers when you try to compare. When you start using percents, you distort the perception by using all of the zeros. Population statistics are most commonly presented as x per 100,000. My research says the average murder rate over the past 20 years is 4.7 per hundred thousand. Of the 4.7, somewhere between 60 and 80% are gang related murders. Even using 3.8 per 100,000 and .8 per 100,000, the ration of US to UK is 3.8 to .8 or 4.75 times the UK rate. Tell those 3 per 100,000 that their lives don’t matter… Read more »
Clueless, you are. If all those overpaid coppers were DOING their jobs to perfection, there would BE no crime. Since there is crime, they are NOT doing their job. Go and re-read your copy of the Constitution (you DO have one, don’t you? If not, shame on you GET ONE and READ it). Turn toi that Second Article of Ammendment.. it says right there on the page the “security of a free state ” i(means simply “society” or “political subdivision”) is the task of THE PEOPLE (the only meaning of the word “militia”). It is NOT the job of government,… Read more »
What an idiot. He should be reprimanded and told if he insists on violating players rights he will be terminated.
Hey coach. Come drinking with us tonight.
No wonder that enrollment is doing 23% in that wonderful bastion of liberal intelligence… Hopefully a few more years like 2015-2016 and they can close the doors s are fire all those liberal genius administrators.
They have been running in the red for a couple of years. They have stuttered buildings and dorms because they don’t have the budget.
Hope they go bankrupt soon.
Sounds like its time to charge the arrogant bastard rat with a civil rights violation. I hope some NRA attorneys are taking a close look at this. Look at the big slop gut on that toad who demands that his players be fit.
Fire the idiot! He’s way way over the line! He’s just a coach not a dictator. Although I” ve known a few coaches who acted like dictators in their little universe!i am ready to buy a handgun any handgun for the first player to step up and question his authority to limit a constitutional right! It’s ludicriuos that this is even being allowed stick with us free Americans c’ min brethren let’s arm the entire team with handguns
First year and likely LAST year as coach 🙂
why wait,get rid of this stupid ass now…..
Thank God natural, civil rights affirmed in our constitutional republic aren’t up to this ignorant, arrogant control freak. What’s next for Mizzou? No guns for those enrolled in Journalism 101? What about the janitors? Can their natural, civil rights, affirmed by constitutional guarantees, be just as easily swept aside? Obviously, Mizzou’s disregard for the Constitution suggests it has joined the community of oppressors and is well on its way to supporting the many dictatorships in the world. Perhaps it’s the New Fourth Estate as opposed to the old one that was charged with watchdog responsibilities aimed at protecting our republic.… Read more »
Must be screwing that Raggedy Ann looking SJW professor Melissa Click .
Or the AG from Massachusetts.
I guess they are not required to stand for Our Flag and County!
Mizzou has become Ground Zero for being involved in controversy. I live in Missouri and will not be writing any Tuition checks to this University for my child to attend. They would rather support protests and infringing on the student’s rights rather than focus on providing an education for the students. This University has become an embarrassment for the state and I know a lot of Alumni have stopped financially supporting the college. The other factor is that most of these student athletes are there due to a Football Scholarship and if they do not conform to this non-academic requirement,… Read more »
Seems racist to me. He wanted to say that young black men should not have handguns but realized that would expose his racism. So he banned all athletes. Shades of Black Codes.
Maybe he selects thugs for his team and doesn’t trust any of his team members to be honest.
They need a new coach.
It’s the university for sissies, girly boys and kids with daddy issues. The state should close it.
Mizzou is getting more PC all the time. What a shame. Missouri is called the Show Me state and Mizzou is showing us something very BAD!
And just how is he going to implement such a foolish “rule”?
House to house search of each Players Home followed by immediate
execution/dismissal.?
Ve have vays. Za secret polize vill find your veapons.
He will institute a replacement of the shotgun formation with the Safe Place formation using the long snapper with the QB back 10 yards in a sumo suit.
Next week, he will announce a requirement that players take an oath that they believe in man caused global warming that results from white privilege.
Barry Odom Needs to be relieved of his position as head coach of the Missouri State football team immediately for his only unwarranted and completely legal transgressions against second right amendments . A college football coach has no business dictating whether or not his players can exercise their constitutional rights and he should be booted immediately no chance for an apology no chance to come back just gone this type of thing is just exactly what cannot be tolerated at all get rid of him immediately