December 3, 2012 by David K. Sutton
We Will Talk About Gun Control
I’m talking to you card-carrying NRA member or anyone who says “now is not the time to talk about gun control.” This is the standard refrain after each violent high-profile event involving guns. Quite honestly, I’m tired of hearing it.
– NFL linebacker kills his baby’s mother, then himself as coaches look on
Jovan Belcher had been a success story, an underdog done good. An undrafted free agent from the fringes of the college football universe, he not only made the Kansas City Chiefs’ roster, he made his mark — playing every game since 2009, rising from special teams ace to starter, recording more and more tackles each season, and winning over teammates and fans along the way.
On Saturday, it all came to a bloody end.
Belcher first ended his girlfriend’s life, police said, before taking his own just outside the front door of the Chiefs’ practice facility. He and the woman he killed left behind a 3-month-old daughter.
We will talk about gun control whenever and however often is needed, and we do not require your permission. It is with that I give you these remarks on gun control by Bob Costas (quoting a Fox Sports article by Jason Whitlock) during Sunday Night Football on NBC:
Our current gun culture simply ensures that more and more domestic disputes will end in the ultimate tragedy, and that more convenience-store confrontations over loud music coming from a car will leave more teenage boys bloodied and dead.
In the coming days, Belcher’s actions will be analyzed through the lens of concussions and head injuries. Who knows? Maybe brain damage triggered his violent overreaction to a fight with his girlfriend. What I believe is, if he didn’t possess/own a gun, he and Kasandra Perkins would both be alive today.
That is the message I wish Chiefs players, professional athletes and all of us would focus on Sunday and moving forward. Handguns do not enhance our safety. They exacerbate our flaws, tempt us to escalate arguments, and bait us into embracing confrontation rather than avoiding it. – Jason Whitlock (as quoted by Bob Costas on Sunday Night Football)
Hardly controversial to those who value life above material possessions.
It is a sad statement when there is more controversy surrounding remarks by a TV personality then there is for the gun violence that provoked those remarks.
