Well, we all knew it was coming... Yeah Bob, we knew it was coming, just not from you, and just not in the middle of a football game for the love of Pete. By now, the whole world has heard NBC sportscaster Bob Costas go on his now infamous anti-gun rant. Not being a football fan, I was not watching, but I can only imagine, sitting on my couch, chilled out for the evening, drink in hand, maybe a snack or two, and all of a sudden...what? Where the hell did that come from?!
I don't know much about Bob Costas. Always liked him well enough. I think he has an awesome baseball mind, a walking encyclopedia of baseball knowledge. But now we all know something else about Bob, or at least we can pretty well surmise, that Bob is a liberal.
In the grand scheme of things, that's OK. Bob is an American citizen, and he is free to be as big of a raging liberal as he wants. But Bob has one giant advantage over the rest of America. He can go on TV at halftime, and tell the world what he thinks, about anything, and if you want to watch football, you either get up to get the new bag of chips, or you suffer through whatever Bob has on his mind.
What happened in Kansas City is horrible, tragic, sad, all of the above. Linebacker Jovan Belcher shot his girl friend, and the mother of his 3 month old daughter, Kassandra Perkins, then drove to the Kansas City Chiefs practice facility, and then shot himself in front of two of his coaches. It has been widely reported that Belcher was having trouble with alcohol and pain killers, and was dealing with several football related injuries. Costas quoted from a column written by Jason Whitlock, who argued that if he had not had access to a firearm, both Belcher and Perkins would be alive today.
It is such a flimsy argument, a breath of air can easily deflate it. Thousands of people die in automobile accidents every year, should we ban cars? We have heard this rebuttal all day. But the questions must be raised, now that Bob has brought this front and center. First of all, Jovan Belcher was a linebacker for the NFL. He weighed 250 pounds. If he wanted to kill Kassandra Perkins with his bare hands, he was probably more than capable of doing so. Secondly, why do the American cities with the most stringent gun laws have the highest crime rates? Has Bob been to Chicago or Washington DC lately? Why, in all of the places where conceal and carry is permitted, has the crime rate gone down? All of these statistics can be easily looked up and proven right. Why do the loudest voices against guns and gun ownership come from people who have no knowledge of either one?
The list of questions goes on and on, but the most important point here is that the right to keep and bear arms is a God given Constitutional right. But there are plenty of people who would like for this right to be eliminated. With any luck though, as long as the number of law-abiding, gun owning Americans outnumber the criminals who, I hate to break it to Bob and Jason, and all their friends, don't really give a rat's rear end about gun laws, or any laws for that matter, that right will be maintained and protected. Just a quick aside, Jason Whitlock recently compared the NRA to the KKK. As a card carrying member of the National Rifle Association myself, I find that highly offensive. In the NRA's monthly publication, there is column called "The Armed Citizen". It relates stories of regular Americans from all over, of how they defended themselves, and their homes and businesses against armed intruders, sometimes killing them, but quite possibly saving their own lives, and the lives of their families.
All of our hearts go out to Jovan Belcher's and Kassandra Perkin's families. A little girl just three months old will never know her parents. Bob Costas is absolutely entitled to his opinion. What he is not entitled to is lecturing the rest of us about gun control.
Save it for the Sports desk Bob.
I don't know much about Bob Costas. Always liked him well enough. I think he has an awesome baseball mind, a walking encyclopedia of baseball knowledge. But now we all know something else about Bob, or at least we can pretty well surmise, that Bob is a liberal.
In the grand scheme of things, that's OK. Bob is an American citizen, and he is free to be as big of a raging liberal as he wants. But Bob has one giant advantage over the rest of America. He can go on TV at halftime, and tell the world what he thinks, about anything, and if you want to watch football, you either get up to get the new bag of chips, or you suffer through whatever Bob has on his mind.
What happened in Kansas City is horrible, tragic, sad, all of the above. Linebacker Jovan Belcher shot his girl friend, and the mother of his 3 month old daughter, Kassandra Perkins, then drove to the Kansas City Chiefs practice facility, and then shot himself in front of two of his coaches. It has been widely reported that Belcher was having trouble with alcohol and pain killers, and was dealing with several football related injuries. Costas quoted from a column written by Jason Whitlock, who argued that if he had not had access to a firearm, both Belcher and Perkins would be alive today.
It is such a flimsy argument, a breath of air can easily deflate it. Thousands of people die in automobile accidents every year, should we ban cars? We have heard this rebuttal all day. But the questions must be raised, now that Bob has brought this front and center. First of all, Jovan Belcher was a linebacker for the NFL. He weighed 250 pounds. If he wanted to kill Kassandra Perkins with his bare hands, he was probably more than capable of doing so. Secondly, why do the American cities with the most stringent gun laws have the highest crime rates? Has Bob been to Chicago or Washington DC lately? Why, in all of the places where conceal and carry is permitted, has the crime rate gone down? All of these statistics can be easily looked up and proven right. Why do the loudest voices against guns and gun ownership come from people who have no knowledge of either one?
All of our hearts go out to Jovan Belcher's and Kassandra Perkin's families. A little girl just three months old will never know her parents. Bob Costas is absolutely entitled to his opinion. What he is not entitled to is lecturing the rest of us about gun control.
Save it for the Sports desk Bob.
No comments:
Post a Comment