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Adam Winkler is a professor of constitutional law
at the UCLA School of Law he is the author of gunfight
the battle over the right to bear arms in America
Adam gray is always to talk to you we have now a little bit of controversy
involving gun advocates and the
NFL which has decided to reject an advertisement submitted by Daniel
Defense which is the gun manufacturer
on
it's been a long road getting here on
on
a lot has changed since I got back lemme
now this is the center of my world on
my family safety %uh
the is my highest priorities
it
%uh I'm I am responsible for their attention on
the and no one has the right to tell me how to defend it
%uh
so I've chosen the most effective tool for the job
Daniel Defense defending your nation defending your home
some gun advocates are going as far as saying that we need to but we had a need
to boycott the NFL
I wanna kind of split our conversation into two parts
the first is first amendment we often hear
accusations when there are advertisements rejected or abuse
criticized that somehow someone's first amendment rights are being violated so
let's get that out of the way first I have a feeling it's the simplest
question
is anyone violating anyone else's first amendment rights by the NFL rejecting
this ad
%uh no absolutely not I am
the first amendment to the Constitution restrains the government's ability to
censor people
it does not relate at all to do private parties and private action so much
the NFL's private entity and is not a government or state actor in Los
it is not bound by the first member I remember your seventh grade civics class
the first man says Congress shall make no law abridging the freedom of speech
congress is not made any lawyer the NFL just as adopted its on policy
for its own broadcast okay so let's talk about that and then the issue becomes
is the NFL making decisions about advertisements in
consistently based on what their policy is so
what does the NFL and or box which is going to be the broadcaster above
the Super Bowl this year what is the policy say
about what type of content will the world will not be
accepted within advertisement well the NFL
imposes on Fox on very detailed list
up prohibited advertising categories
%uh a list the different kinds of things that the NFL does not want to advertise
arm the Super Bowl well on one of those things relevant to this case
is a restriction on advertisements for firearm firearms
ammunitions or other deadly weapons and Daniel Defense
is a gun manufacturer Daniel defense is arguing that they fit under an exception
to this policy however because
while rule does restrict any advertisers
up from advertising firearms or ammunition
or other weapons it does provide I there's an exception
if you are our a brick-and-mortar store that sells
other items other than firearms so thing a sporting goods store that happens to
some arms
they can start advertise on the Super Bowl
and an awesome bass claims that they have up brick-and-mortar store that
sells things other than
firearms including branded merchandise like sweatshirts and t-shirts and mugs
and
a they are arguing that was what was really being
I advertise and not the firearms okay so you could make the argument that
if Walmart can advertise on the Super Bowl which sells
a bunch of stuff including firearms
then Daniels defense should be allowed to advertise because they sell firearms
among the long list about the thing so
looking at that policy it may not be consistent
it may not be consistent but there's another element to the policy that may
be at issue here to you
so another feature that the NFL has its prohibit advertising policy
is that you cannot advertise for social causes or
issue advertising they basically don't want political ads
on the Superbowl they don't want to alienate any of their viewers
and it was really interesting although the ad itself does not appear to be
an ad that is one for a social cause its release
shows a features are handsome young husband coming home and seeing his
family in saying you know
%uh I'm going to protect them in any way I can I'm
but and they air the owner again defense came out and said
that this at was about exercising their First Amendment rights to support the
second amendment
well that starts to sound like they're taking sides in a political issue
and one that the NFL probably is right to avoid
endorsing yes oh there it becomes very very clear because they're being
completely up front that this is an ad designed to get people thinking and
talking about the Second Amendment which is a very political issue
the question then becomes is it still consider a consistent policy
or let me present a different way should you only be looking as the NFL
at the content up the add when making these decisions
or is it there to consider what the
creator of the ad has said about their intention
well i i think is probably fair up in the NFL consider all information with
regards to its policy and its proposed ask
now granted if you see this ad david kaczynski retain at its really
kinda boring for Super Bowl ad actually just this guy coming home and seeing his
family and hugging is child
well the voiceover talks about importance of family and defending your
family yeah
but it's pretty tame in comparison to so many advertisements we see on the
Superbowl
that are extremely violent that have a lot overtly *** material even though
the NFL policy
words aghast overly *** material so i cant blame those in the firearms
industry for saying
is at least I i head of hypocrisy here to buy
to say well you can't talk about defending your home
but if you have a cross fighting dog you can put in your beer at it
I it can do whatever content violence loss
yeah and then this really kind of gets to the broader societal question what
we've been talking about
since Janet Jackson's *** popped out on the Superbowl
which is what really is good or bad
usually it's children right there discuss what's good or bad for the
children to see our kids lives ruined
if they see a breast or a crotch bitten
or someone being shot in either a cartoonish or non cartoonish way
and when we look at it from that point of view it seems like there there are
these kinda but nebulous are grey areas within society for what is acceptable
and what isn't during prime time TV
well that's absolutely right and although our ban of
NFL football I have to say that probably the most hazardous things for kids to
watch during a football game
is the game itself right %uh just incredibly by a game we're finding out
'cause
so many more devastating injuries and each
on the NFL has good cause to be concerned even though it's the most
profitable sports league in the country by far
I you know what the number of people who are signing up for Pop Warner which is
like little league football
I has declined about 10 percent last two years in
parents are increasingly worried about the violence that comes with the NFL
the gun rights people their issues really they see the NFL
as being consistent in one sense consistently anti-gun
like this this ad is part of a larger pattern hostility by the NFL to gun
owners
well it seems to me and you tell me if you agree that this one is not going to
go back in favor of those who are pushing for the Daniel Defense add her
to run it seems like it's just not going to happen
it's not clear to me even the daniel has really wants to run is at its extremely
expensive to run a Super Bowl ad
and they won't be the first ones to submit an ad rather cheaply to the NFL
and try to make a little free publicity on the rejection on the act by the NFL
I alex Jones is a big gun rights advocates
got together went on a notorious anti-gun rafter and appear
piers Morgan show yeah are after Newtown as really call for this boycott of the
anti Liberty NFL but
you know the NFL may have been good at taking down a rock Obama's proposal at
defeating candidates in Colorado and elsewhere
but I think they're really finally met their match with the NFL americans love
their football
even more than they love their guns alright Adam Winkler professor of
constitutional law at the UCLA School of Law check out his book gun fight the
battle over the right to bear arms in America thanks Adam
thanks for having me