Are There Snipers at Sporting Events?

Shooting sports are competitive activities involving shooting stationary or moving targets with firearms. Competitors need a high level of skill, accuracy and concentration. Shooting sports are enjoyed by young children to adults alike as a social as well as physical activity; some organized by professional associations with their own governing body while others are practiced casually in recreational settings. Engaging in these shooting sports offers many advantages for development such as hand-eye coordination, mental focus and self-discipline.

Sniper training is an integral component of law enforcement’s ability to secure public venues and large crowds, from sporting events and rallies to rallies and political protests. Training snipers includes tactical deployment, securing overwatch positions, using covert and overt hides and rally points. Communication with air assets must also take place with final firing position (FFP) selection being an emphasis of TacFlow Academy’s Police Sniper Response to a Public Venue (PSRPV) course providing training at over 25 public locations nationwide as well as Canada for training snipers providing overwatch during sporting events or large gatherings.

Law enforcement agencies also train extensively for situations like the Super Bowl to be ready in case there is a threat at large stadiums and other public venues. SRT Arizona from Arizona Department of Public Safety’s State Level Hostage and Emergency Response unit stood ready to support local mission requests at Super Bowl 50 with specialized firearms, defensive tactics, and helicopter rope suspension techniques on standby.

Sporting events are unquestionably some of the most crowded and tightly packed environments on earth, drawing large audiences of TV viewers. Because these events attract so much media coverage and viewer interest, they become prime target rich environments for an adversary seeking to cause significant damage or send a statement.

Images posted to social media following Super Bowl XLVI in Indianapolis showed an Indianapolis SWAT sniper using a custom-built Remington M700 in an XLR Industries chassis mounted atop an Alamo Four Star DCLW tripod at Raymond James Stadium. Although these photos quickly came under criticism, such preparation and surveillance are routine for major sporting events and part of their security effort.

Jerry Jones recently told reporters that he deliberately built Cowboys Stadium with multiple sniper nests from its inception, using Mike Gibson’s Stadium Bullet Traps throughout to ensure no bullet fragments reached fans inside of the stadium. In Miami’s Hard Rock Stadium was protected with multiple sniper’s nests deployed throughout using KF Armory’s MIB2S modular interlocking ballistic barrier system for.308 Winchester and 50 BMG shots; trained snipers at these events could utilize these systems so they would remain aware of all possible avenues through which an actual threat might manifested itself.