Bob Costas is in trouble with football fans, a large majority of which are gun owners, and his insulting attempt at an apology is only adding fuel to the fire.
But let’s start at the beginning. It all started with FoxSports.com columnist Jason Whitlock.
In the wake of the media frenzy surrounding Jovan Belcher’s murder of his girlfriend and subsequent suicide, Whitlock penned an article in which he launched a scathing attack on the Second Amendment and those who value it.
He starts his rant with an assertion that the Second Amendment is threatening to the very liberty it purports to protect.
“We’d prefer to avoid seriously reflecting upon the absurdity of the prevailing notion that the second amendment somehow enhances our liberty rather than threatens it.”
He then moves on to repeat the absurd cliche that the Second Amendment is irrelevant as a bulwark against an oppressive government because they could simply nuke the entire country.
“How many young people have to die senselessly? How many lives have to be ruined before we realize the right to bear arms doesn’t protect us from a government equipped with stealth bombers, predator drones, tanks and nuclear weapons?”
Not satisfied to stop there, he goes on to imply that domestic violence could not possibly end in death if a gun were not involved.
“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.”
Now … while numerous commentators have noted that a man of Belcher’s size and strength would have little difficulty taking a life without a gun, Whitlock seemed determined to blame the instrument rather than the man who, in a fit of murderous rage, killed the mother of his child.
But he certainly isn’t alone in holding that strange opinion. Bob Costas dragged a very reluctant NBC into the controversy by expounding on Whitlock’s article during Sunday Night Football.
Since Sunday, NBC has been flooded with calls for Costas’ removal and today, he attempted to backpedal only to once again be goaded into attacking the heart of the Second Amendment.
“Here’s where I stand: I do not want to see the Second Amendment repealed. … People should be allowed to own guns for their own protection. Obviously, those who are hunters. … Access to guns is too easy in some cases. I don’t see any reason a citizen should be able to arm himself in some states in ways only police or military should — to have a virtual militia [by] mail order or gun shows. Why do you need a semi-automatic weapon? What possible use is there? … Whitlock wrote about a gun culture. That’s what I was focusing on.”
What possible use is there Bob? This single comment demonstrates just how far out of the mainstream that Costas is. And there are many others just like him.
They know nothing about the realities of the 20,000+ gun laws that are already on the books.
They know nothing about the laws that already prevent mail-order purchase of firearms unless they are shipped to a licensed dealer where a background will be performed.
They know nothing about the popularity and commonplace nature of semi-auto firearms, which make up a significant majority of the guns sold today.
They know nothing about the growing popularity of the shooting sports.
They just … know nothing.
Thankfully, there are just as many professional athletes who are willing to stand up and let their voices be heard. As reported in the NY Daily News, Chief’s defensive lineman Shaun Smith said:
“If you have daughters, you should [have a gun] …. You have to protect yourself. You work so hard to get to where you’re at, I’ll be damned if I’ll just let someone take it from me.”
Chief’s linebacker Brandon Siler joined Smith in his support for gun rights.
“Well, a majority of people own one, especially in the places where they’re legal. Most of the time they’re for self defense or sport.”
I want to thank those players for standing up for gun rights, and for the rights of their fellow athletes.
And I want to make one other thing perfectly clear … I will NEVER watch another sporting event if Bob Costas is in the booth.
UPDATE: At the end of the interview quoted above, Costas is reported to have turned to the Aurora Colorado shooting.
“There are those who believe that denying a semi automatic weapon or an assault rifle is the first step down a slippery slope in denying an old lady a gun for her own protection, … There are people who honestly believe that in Aurora if only a dozen or so people there to watch the Batman movie had been packin’, they would have been able to take down the nut job in full body armor with military-type guns.”
I don’t even know where to begin with this bucketful of nonsense. Costas actually believes that over a dozen armed citizens, who I might add would be carrying the same handguns that law enforcement would, could not take down a single shooter armed with a semi-auto rifle (NOT military full-auto) and wearing paintball pads (not full body armor).
Perhaps I have overreacted to this entire affair. Perhaps instead of criticizing, I should be donating to a fund to support ole’ Bob in his dotage. He clearly is already disconnected from reality.
Any time someone mentions “Second Amendment” and “hunting” in the same statement, they immediately lose credibility as a supporter of the Second Amendment.
Oh, you’re just saying that because you have read the 2nd amendment as well as some of the other documents written by the same authors, and you’re not adding in or taking away things to change the context. Stop bringing your solid reasoning in to this emotional argument!
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Bob Costas has gone “one bridge too far” and has effectively burned the timbers of this one beneath his feet.
Time to find a replacement who will stick to the job he was hired to do w/o stealing sponsor’s air time with misinformed rants, thereby insulting his viewers. I’ll not come back until Costas is gone.
Bob and Jason both agree with the KKK that blacks are inferior and can’t be trusted with firearms.
Next up: you have to comment on the citizen-hero who saved his manager from possible death only to be subsequently fired because of the corporation’s leftist “zero-tolerance policy”.
(Autozone employee fired…..)
Costas needs a “Zumbo moment” – anybody know if Ted Nugent is available to do give him the education that he needs?
JPFO, Inc. at http://www.jpfo.org has posted an article by Gus Cotey, Jr. Titled, “The
Seven Varieties of Gun Control Advocates”. This includes Elitists, Authortarians,
Criminals, The Fearful, Ideological Cameleons, Security Monopolists, and The
Dysfuntically unwordly.” At JPFO’s web-site scroll down to left hand corner of
column to read. So, what kind of these is Bob Costa? A political elitist perhaps?
Since 1968 when our worst ever president in American history Lyndon B. Johnson
(LBJ) signed into oppressive federal legislation the odious vile 1968 Federal Gun
Control Act, a punitive vindictive culture war has existed against honest innocent
American gun owners and our Second Amendment heritage! Two commentaries
written by myself have already addressed this “LBJ/KGB” socialist political agenda
of civilian disarmament and subjugation. Titled, “Anti-gun agenda is class warfare”
(ADT: Friday, Janurary 9, 2009) and “The War on America’s Gun Owners” (ADT:
Monday, August 3, 2009) respectively, these remained archived and can be read
online at http://www.dailytidings.com. These are posted in the Ashland Daily Tidings in
Ashland, Oregon. Finally, while at JPFO’s web-site (www.jpfo.org) be sure to read
“Gun Buybacks Endanger Citizens, Help Crooks and Crooked Officials” and also
“Dial 911 and Die!” which exposes the fallacies, failures, and myths of police protection
and emergency response. —- James A. “Jim” Farmer Ashland, Oregon
Gee, and all this time I thought the 2nd Amendment was about protecting ourselves from tyrannical government, how foolish of me. Good evening, John.
“and wearing paintball pads (not full body armor).”
I have heard several different internet reports the the NutJob that committed the Aurora shootings was not wearing soft body armour. Would love to be able to use that little factoid in debates/discussions.
Do you have a source for confirmation?
Jim,
He was wearing this tactical vest (which is NOT bulletproof)
http://tacticalgear.com/blackhawk-urban-assault-vest
The ST Louis Post Dispatch has the receipt where he purchased the gear.
http://www.stltoday.com/tacticalgear-sales-receipt-for-james-holmes/pdf_d886da6e-d2dd-11e1-a574-0019bb30f31a.html
NOT body armor, NOT bullet proof, NOT capable of withstanding return fire from even a single armed citizen.
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IN CONGRESS, July 4, 1776.The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America,When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.–That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, –That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.–Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of Representation in the Legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only.He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their public Records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures.He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people.He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected; whereby the Legislative powers, incapable of Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their exercise; the State remaining in the mean time exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within.He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands.He has obstructed the Administration of Justice, by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary powers.He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone, for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harrass our people, and eat out their substance.He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures.He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil power.He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation:For Quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:For protecting them, by a mock Trial, from punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States:For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world:For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent:For depriving us in many cases, of the benefits of Trial by Jury:For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offencesFor abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighbouring Province, establishing therein an Arbitrary government, and enlarging its Boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these Colonies:For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws, and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments:For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us.He has plundered our seas, ravaged our Coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.He is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to compleat the works of death, desolation and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty & perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation.He has constrained our fellow Citizens taken Captive on the high Seas to bear Arms against their Country, to become the executioners of their friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands.He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages, whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A Prince whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.Nor have We been wanting in attentions to our Brittish brethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations, which, would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace Friends.We, therefore, the Representatives of the united States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these United Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States; that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do. And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.
Please, no wall of text.