by Andrew Linn
Clash Daily Guest Contributor
On Saturday, December 1, Kansas City Chiefs linebacker Jovan Belcher fatally shot his girlfriend Kasandra Perkins. Soon afterward, he committed suicide in the parking lot at Arrowhead Stadium.
In the aftermath of this tragedy, the gun control crowd wasted no time in coming out of the woodwork. In fact, during halftime of the Cowboys-Eagles game, NBC’s Bob Costas decided to echo Jason Whitlock’s message that gun control laws would have prevented this tragedy (Jason Whitlock is a writer for foxsports.com).
I disagree with such a message on several grounds.
First, more gun control laws will not make everyone safer. As the saying goes “if you outlaw guns, then only outlaws will have guns.” Criminals do not turn in their guns when cities ban them (Chicago’s crime rate would be a prime example).
Second, having a gun did not result in Belcher choosing to kill his girlfriend. The details are sketchy, but it appears they had a strained relationship. Meanwhile, who’s to say that Belcher would not have used a knife or some type of bludgeon to commit murder (anyone remember Nicole Brown Simpson)?
Third, why is Bob Costas echoing a gun control message during the halftime show of a football game? I suppose it is NBC policy to advocate a ban on guns, especially during any sports event. After all, NBC aired a commercial for Mayors Against Illegal Guns (starring New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg and Boston’s Mayor Thomas Menino) during this year’s Super Bowl. And why is Jason Whitlock bringing up the issue of gun control?
In either case, network personnel should not be mixing politics with sports, particularly in the aftermath of a tragedy where all the facts have yet to be determined. It’s bad enough Madonna was telling people at her concerts to vote for Obama.
People might ask why Belcher had a gun. This question reminds me of when I was watching Super Bowl XLI with my brothers. Late in the game, the issue of Tank Johnson’s legal troubles (a result of Illinois’s strict gun laws) was brought up, when my oldest brother asked “why does he have so many guns?”
“Because he’s a thug” was the reply. I then joined this discussion by saying that he had a right to bear arms, echoing the gun enthusiasm of Boston Legal’s Denny Crane (portrayed by William Shatner).
But the gun control advocates won’t care. Just as with the Columbine High School shootings, they want to exploit a tragedy to push their agenda.
Since Obama has been re-elected (albeit due to voter fraud, voter intimidation, and disenfranchisement of those serving in our military) he will no doubt view this tragedy as a crisis not to be wasted. And with Hillary Clinton working to push through the Small Arms Treaty in the United Nations, he could succeed in taking advantage of the situation.
The question is how will the American people view this tragedy? Will they wait for the truth, while expressing their condolences? Or will they side with the gun control advocates and try to take advantage of the situation?
Image: Conman33; courtesy of Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported license.
Andrew Linn is a member of the Owensboro Tea Party and a former Field Representative for the Media Research Center. An ex-Democrat, he became a Republican one week after the 2008 Presidential Election. He has an M.A. in history from the University of Louisville, where he became a member of the Phi Alpha Theta historical honors society. He has also contributed to examiner.com and Right Impulse Media.
