Costas just doesn't get it.
Barkley to Costas: 'I Carry a Real Gun' ... 'I Just Feel Safer With It'Former NBA star Charles Barkley discussed the Jovan Belcher murder-suicide and Bob Costas' controversial gun control comments on Costas Tonight.
Barkley blasted what he called a "crime culture" in the black community that leads to violence, such as in the case of Belcher, and said that he carried a gun in order to make himself feel safer.
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COSTAS: You live in Arizona where you can legally carry a gun.
BARKLEY: Even when I lived in Philadelphia, I've had a gun, I've carried a real gun in my car every year in my life since I was 22, 21. Never had to use it.(continue reading...)If you get a chance, actually watch the clip that is included in the story.
Barkley cites numerous reasons why he "feels safer" by having carried a firearm for the past 30 or so years, including people getting robbed, road rage and other extreme circumstances that could happen to everyone. He also cited reasons that might be more specific to sports players or other celebrities, saying that people know when they have cash, know their schedule, know when they're away and when they're coming back from road trips, etc.
Costas then tip-toes around what he said said and claims that he wasn't laying the whole situation at the feet of the "gun culture" and gun ownership. To quote his original rant, with which he said he wholeheartedly agrees, "
If Jovan Belcher didn't possess a gun, he and Kasandra Perkins would both be alive today." Whether he believes that there may or may not have been other contributing factors to the situation, that is most definitely placing it on the gun.
Costas continues with an anecdote relayed from Tony Dungy, who apparently gathered his Indianapolis Colts together, with 80 guys, and said "raise your hand if you have a gun" and 65 guys raised their hand. Costas continued with his misguided opinion, "
even if every one of those guys had a gun legally, you have to believe that more bad things than good are going to come out of it."
As usual, the anti-gun crowd fails to use logic or facts with their arguments. Of the 30 odd years that Sir Charles has carried a firearm, how much bad has come of it? Of the over 81% of Colts players who have guns, how much bad has come out of it? Of the many, many millions of guns in the United States, how much bad comes out of it? Only the relatively few incidents that we hear being blown out of proportion by the anti-gun media. Compare that the the rate fatal vehicle crashes or any number of other "
dangerous" things.