Some Missouri state legislators are speaking out against a policy instituted by the new University of Missouri football coach that guts the Second Amendment rights of his players. Reports this week revealed that Coach Barry Odom introduced a team policy that no player can own a handgun if they play for him.
“It seems to me that the university and the MU Athletic Department believe these student citizens may be just football players,” state Republican Sen. Brian Munzlinger told The Missouri Times. “But 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.”
Republican state Rep. Joe Don McGaugh was also outraged. “I am concerned these players’ rights and all student citizens’ constitutional rights are under attack by a publicly funded state university which has pending lawsuits against it regarding self-defense on campus from both a law professor and the attorney general,” McGaugh said. “Not only do we have a university that clearly ignores state law, now we have the football coach wants to deny a legal age citizen their constitutional rights regardless of where they live?”
