Bob Costas Defends Gun Control

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[url="http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/live-feed/bob-costas-defends-gun-control-397547"]http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/live-feed/bob-costas-defends-gun-control-397547[/url]

The NBC host, spurred by the murder-suicide of Kansas City Chiefs linebacker [b]Jovan Belcher[/b] and wife [b]Kasandra Perkins, [/b]quoted a column by the sportswriter [b]Jason Whitlock[/b] that decried the current "gun culture" in America. Critics were fast to call Costas' comments uninformed and inappropriate, and as debate raged on Monday, Costas defended his words in an [url="http://mediadecoder.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/12/03/at-halftime-costas-put-spotlight-on-guns-by-morning-the-spotlight-was-on-him/?smid=tw-share"]interview with[/url] the [i]New York Times[/i].

"I am emphatically not backing off from anything I said," he told the newspaper. While not advocating for the repeal of the Second Amendment, or the right to have guns under "reasonable circumstances," Costas said "I think most reasonable people think we do not have sufficient controls on the availability of guns and ammunition."

To solve the problem, he called for a mix of legislation and a change in the gun culture that Whitlock decried.


The NY Times article:
[url="http://mediadecoder.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/12/03/at-halftime-costas-put-spotlight-on-guns-by-morning-the-spotlight-was-on-him/?smid=tw-share"]http://mediadecoder.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/12/03/at-halftime-costas-put-spotlight-on-guns-by-morning-the-spotlight-was-on-him/?smid=tw-share[/url]

Bob Costas recognized that he was likely to be walking into a minefield with his commentary during halftime of the Sunday night National Football League game on NBC. Prompted by the horror of a murder-suicide carried out the day before by a Kansas City Chiefs football player, Mr. Costas quoted approvingly, and extensively, from a sports column that decried Americans’ easy access to guns.

But Mr. Costas says he has been given the freedom by NBC to editorialize on subjects related to football and sports — views that the network neither specifically endorses nor opposes. And he was convinced, he said in a telephone interview on Monday, that “it was likely that these two people would not be dead” if there hadn’t been a gun available that made it easy to take a life in a moment of anger.

After a flight overnight Sunday back from Dallas, where the Cowboys hosted the Philadelphia Eagles on Sunday night, Mr. Costas said he woke to “a zillion text messages and phone messages” about his commentary. Most of them were supportive, he said, but there was also a torrent of harshly critical comments from defenders of gun ownership, whether online or on TV shows like “Fox and Friends” on the Fox News Network. Some of those critics called for NBC to fire him.

[sois]

Howcome a lot of people made a big deal out of this, I didn't think anything of his comments until I saw everyone on the internet was extremely ass hurt about this.

[Jamie_B]

Here is the Whitlock article he was referencing.

http://msn.foxsports.com/nfl/story/jovan-belcher-kansas-city-chiefs-murder-suicide-tragedy-girlfriend-self-leave-orphan-daughter-why-still-playing-sunday-120112

[quote]
Football is embarrassingly tone deaf.

[img]http://o.static.foxsports.com/content/fscom/img/2012/12/01/120112-NFL-Belcher-PI-AM_20121201174455523_202_97.JPG[/img]
[b] TRAGEDY IN KANSAS CITY[/b]
[list]
[*][url="http://msn.foxsports.com/nfl/story/jovan-belcher-kansas-city-chiefs-kills-self-suicide-kills-girlfriend-team-facility-120112"]Chiefs' Belcher kills girlfriend, himself[/url]
[*][url="http://msn.foxsports.com/nfl/story/kansas-city-chiefs-jovan-belcher-suicide-murder-no-reason-to-take-away-rights-120512"]Engel: Don't blame the gun[/url]
[*][url="http://msn.foxsports.com/nfl/story/jovan-belcher-kansas-city-chiefs-murder-suicide-tragedy-girlfriend-self-leave-orphan-daughter-why-still-playing-sunday-120112"]Whitlock: No time to play a game[/url]
[*][url="http://msn.foxsports.com/nfl/story/kansas-city-chiefs-jovan-belcher-shot-himself-behind-vehicle-murder-suicide-120312"]Police release details[/url] | [url="http://msn.foxsports.com/nfl/story/jovan-belcher-murder-suicide-slain-girlfriend-kasandra-perkins-families-talk-120312"]Families speak[/url]
[*][url="http://nmsn.foxsports.com/nfl/story/kansas-city-chiefs-defeat-carolina-panthers-jovan-belcher-murder-suicide-120212"]Chiefs get emotional win[/url] | [url="http://msn.foxsports.com/video/NFL?vid=318d8230-c791-44e9-81cc-91c3e2161dff"]Reaction[/url]
[*][url="http://msn.foxsports.com/nfl/story/jovan-belcher-undrafted-free-agent-turned-starter-nfl-maine-black-bears-120112"]Who was Belcher?[/url] | [url="http://msn.foxsports.com/nfl/gallery/kansas-city-chiefs-jovan-belcher-pro-career-years-gallery-120112"]Career in pictures[/url]
[/list]
[url="http://msn.foxsports.com/nfl/player/jovan-belcher/672347"]Jovan Belcher[/url], a starting linebacker for the Chiefs, murdered the mother of his child shortly before 8 a.m. Saturday. He hopped in his car, drove to the [url="http://msn.foxsports.com/nfl/team/kansas-city-chiefs/67049"]Kansas City Chiefs[/url] practice facility, thanked Romeo Crennel and Scott Pioli — and shot himself in the head in front of his coach and general manager around 8:10 a.m.
Within two hours, the NFL instructed the [url="http://msn.foxsports.com/nfl/team/carolina-panthers/67063"]Carolina Panthers[/url] to travel to Kansas City as scheduled in preparation for Sunday’s noon kickoff. By 3 p.m., the Chiefs announced that Crennel and team captains had decided to play Sunday’s game as planned.
Short of terrorist attack and weather disaster, nothing slows the NFL.
A 25-year-old kid gunned down his 22-year-old girlfriend in front of his mother and three-month-old child, and all he could think to do in the immediate aftermath is rush to thank his football coach and football employer. Belcher’s last moments on this earth weren’t spent thanking the mother who raised him or apologizing to the child he would orphan. His final words of gratitude and perhaps remorse were reserved for his football gods.
It should come as no surprise that Crennel, Chiefs players, Pioli, owner Clark Hunt and NFL commissioner Roger Goodell quickly agreed not to delay Sunday’s football congregation at Arrowhead Stadium.


[url="http://msn.foxsports.com/mlb/gallery/sports-deaths-of-2012"][img]http://o.static.foxsports.com/content/fscom/img/2012/05/02/050212-NFL-Junior-Seau-GETTY-PI_20120502154230193_202_97.JPG[/img][/url]
[b] [url="http://msn.foxsports.com/mlb/gallery/sports-deaths-of-2012"]IN MEMORIAM[/url][/b]
We remember [url="http://msn.foxsports.com/mlb/gallery/sports-deaths-of-2012"]those who have died in the sports world[/url] in 2012.
Football is our God. Its exaggerated value in our society has never been more evident than Saturday morning in my adopted hometown. There’s just no way this game should be played.
Twenty-eight hours after witnessing one of his starting linebackers take his life, Crennel will stand on the sideline as young men play a violent game. Twenty-eight hours after one of their best friends killed the mother of his child and himself, Chiefs players will take the field and play a violent game.
Football is a game of emotion. Football is a game in which the coaches and players preach about treating each other as family.
How can they play Sunday? Why should they?
Belcher and his girlfriend didn’t die in a car accident 30 minutes away from Arrowhead Stadium. This isn’t some tragedy Crennel and Pioli heard about. Belcher crashed his car through the gates of the Chiefs practice facility. He pointed a gun to his head in front of Crennel and Pioli. He killed himself within a quarter of a mile of Arrowhead Stadium, where the players and coaches work.
I just don’t get it. And I’m not trying to vilify the Chiefs for choosing to play Sunday’s game. It shouldn’t be their decision. Roger Goodell should’ve made this call. Crennel, Pioli and Kansas City players are justifiably still in a state of shock.
You may argue that we all grieve differently. You may argue that playing the game is the best way to move on and heal. You may argue that canceling or delaying the game would serve no purpose and would be unfair to the fans who traveled to Kansas City to see [url="http://msn.foxsports.com/nfl/player/cam-newton/1268594"]Cam Newton[/url] and the Panthers play the Chiefs.
I would argue that your rationalizations speak to how numb we are in this society to gun violence and murder. We’ve come to accept our insanity. 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.


[b] FOX SPORTS POLL[/b]
[list]
[*]
Should the Chiefs play Sunday after the Jovan Belcher tragedy?
[list]
[*]Yes
[*]No
[*]Depends how the Chiefs players feel

[/list]
[/list]
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?
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.
But we won’t. We’ll watch Sunday’s game and comfort ourselves with the false belief we’re incapable of the wickedness that exploded inside Jovan Belcher Saturday morning.
[/quote]

[Orange 'n Black]

Meh. It's just a self-righteous "guns are bad, m'kay" circlejerk by Whitlock. If an NFL linebacker wants to kill his girlfriend, lack of a gun isn't going to stop him.

[mongo]

I don't think halftime of a football game is the proper place to discuss the 2nd Amendment. I don't think a single-sided commentary is the appropriate avenue for 'discussion.' I think it smacks of using a sad event as an opportunity to push a political agenda, and that should never be the focus of an entertainment program.

I would also like to call bullshit on Whitlock and Costas' assertions both people would be alive if no gun had been handy. People, in a fit of rage, kill with knives, hammers, baseball bats, bricks, and anything else that is handy.

[CincyInDC]

He should have used his car to kill her. We shouldn't regulate those things, either.

[sois]

Hand guns are made for killing, ain't no good for nothing else. And if you like to drink your whiskey, you might even shoot yourself.

[Jamie_B]

I dont have a problem with either commentator saying what they felt needed to be said.

I did like this particular line from Whitlock though...

"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?"

[gatorclaws]

I prefer politics to be kept out of my sports viewing

[|Bunghole|]

[quote name='mongo' timestamp='1354654783' post='1188719']
I don't think halftime of a football game is the proper place to discuss the 2nd Amendment. I don't think a single-sided commentary is the appropriate avenue for 'discussion.' I think it smacks of using a sad event as an opportunity to push a political agenda, and that should never be the focus of an entertainment program.

I would also like to call bullshit on Whitlock and Costas' assertions both people would be alive if no gun had been handy. People, in a fit of rage, kill with knives, hammers, baseball bats, bricks, and anything else that is handy.
[/quote]

This is exactly how I feel.

[big_dish]

[quote name='mongo' timestamp='1354654783' post='1188719']
I would also like to call bullshit on Whitlock and Costas' assertions both people would be alive if no gun had been handy. People, in a fit of rage, kill with knives, hammers, baseball bats, bricks, and anything else that is handy.
[/quote]

Exactly. People dont seem to get that. Murder didn't come about with the advent of guns, it just became a little easier. If you want to kill, you will use whatever you want.

[quote name='Jamie_B' timestamp='1354657664' post='1188732']

"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?"
[/quote]

At the time of the second amendment, the same arms were available to both citizens and government (for the most part)... Yeah, times have changed drastically and the people would have a tough time defending against 21st century technology... however, its still nice to have some kind of a fighting chance instead of being relegated to just roll over. Besides, if shit really hit the fan, it would be nice to be able to protect yourselves from the roving bands of thug mercenaries. Kind of like modern day Detroit.

[Jamie_B]

[quote name='big_dish' timestamp='1354666599' post='1188766']
Exactly. People dont seem to get that. Murder didn't come about with the advent of guns, it just became a little easier. If you want to kill, you will use whatever you want.



At the time of the second amendment, the same arms were available to both citizens and government (for the most part)... Yeah, times have changed drastically and the people would have a tough time defending against 21st century technology... however, its still nice to have some kind of a fighting chance instead of being relegated to just roll over. Besides, if shit really hit the fan, it would be nice to be able to protect yourselves from the roving bands of thug mercenaries. Kind of like modern day Detroit.
[/quote]

yeah you really think you have any kind of fighting chance against the advanced weaponry of the armed forces? really?

[|Bunghole|]

[quote name='Jamie_B' timestamp='1354669710' post='1188781']
yeah you really think you have any kind of fighting chance against the advanced weaponry of the armed forces? really?
[/quote]

He's talking about the collapse of government and in the absence of governmental control, being able to withstand the hordes of armed looters, rapists, opportunity seekers and the like. And yes, an armed and quasi united local populace could stand against something like that. I know it's an improbable scenario, but it isn't impossible.

[|kennethmw|]

[quote name='Bunghole' timestamp='1354677544' post='1188810']


He's talking about the collapse of government and in the absence of governmental control, being able to withstand the hordes of armed looters, rapists, opportunity seekers and the like. And yes, an armed and quasi united local populace could stand against something like that. I know it's an improbable scenario, but it isn't impossible.
[/quote]

Bullshit, the guys with the big guns would take over. I've got a 16 gauge pump, a .410, two 30.06's and a couple of handguns, but when the guys come with the light anti-tank weapons that are right down the street on Gettysburg, I'm fucking through. You are too, don't bullshit yourself.

By the way, Whitlock was right!

[Jamie_B]

[quote name='Bunghole' timestamp='1354677544' post='1188810']
He's talking about the collapse of government and in the absence of governmental control, being able to withstand the hordes of armed looters, rapists, opportunity seekers and the like. And yes, an armed and quasi united local populace could stand against something like that. I know it's an improbable scenario, but it isn't impossible.
[/quote]

I didnt get that interpretation at all.

[|Bunghole|]

Ken, you need to keep training! Set up a perimeter!

[Vol_Bengal]

[quote name='Orange 'n Black' timestamp='1354654579' post='1188718']
Meh. It's just a self-righteous "guns are bad, m'kay" circlejerk by Whitlock. If an NFL linebacker wants to kill his girlfriend, lack of a gun isn't going to stop him.
[/quote]

Exactly. If the guy has decided the best avenue is to kill his girlfriend, the mother of his baby, and then proceed to kill himself... all that is to be determined is means. Dude had a couple millions dollars... he could have A) bought them illegally, B ) strangled her to death, C) used blunt instrument, D) just bashed her head in with his brute muscle, etc He's not going to tell himself - geeh, I don't have a gun so forget about it - lets go do dinner.

[quote name='mongo' timestamp='1354654783' post='1188719']
I don't think halftime of a football game is the proper place to discuss the 2nd Amendment. I don't think a single-sided commentary is the appropriate avenue for 'discussion.' I think it smacks of using a sad event as an opportunity to push a political agenda, and that should never be the focus of an entertainment program.

I would also like to call bullshit on Whitlock and Costas' assertions both people would be alive if no gun had been handy. People, in a fit of rage, kill with knives, hammers, baseball bats, bricks, and anything else that is handy.
[/quote]

And, thank you. Whitlock is an idiot, always has been an idiot, and until I see different always will be an idiot. This is the same dipshit that called the NRA the new KKK because its "arming the black youth with guns"... I don't see many, or ANY for that matter, inner city urban NRA initiatives. According to the media narrative I thought the NRA was the redneck, back country hillbilly good ole boy fraternity... now it's arming the black youth???

[quote name='gatorclaws' timestamp='1354658977' post='1188736']
I prefer politics to be kept out of my sports viewing
[/quote]

Thank you. Just let me watch the game. Lets talk about that, or about what drives a person to decide that killing his baby's mother and then himself is the best course of action, etc. Where did we fail there? Let's talk about that... broken families like the one he grew up in, etc.

[bengalrick]

[quote name='Jamie_B' timestamp='1354669710' post='1188781']
yeah you really think you have any kind of fighting chance against the advanced weaponry of the armed forces? really?
[/quote]

The Afghani's seem to have figured it out.....

I know we are not in the same mindset as people conducting Guerilla Warfare but nonetheless, big guns doesn't always mean everything. And Bung's point needs to be taken because it is very much a fact.

[Jamie_B]

[quote name='bengalrick' timestamp='1354727501' post='1188896']
The Afghani's seem to have figured it out.....

I know we are not in the same mindset as people conducting Guerilla Warfare but nonetheless, big guns doesn't always mean everything. And Bung's point needs to be taken because it is very much a fact.
[/quote]

The Afshani's also live in a turrain that makes fighting them with advanced weaponry very difficult.

Fact? It's chimera. We are no where near the absense of government, as much as the tea party may wish to have it.

[|Bunghole|]

[quote name='Jamie_B' timestamp='1354734537' post='1188932']
The Afshani's also live in a turrain that makes fighting them with advanced weaponry very difficult.

Fact? It's chimera. We are no where near the absense of government, as much as the tea party may wish to have it.
[/quote]

I agree that we aren't near anything like the absence of government, but why not let people that wish to buy a ton of guns and ammo do so "just in case" if it makes them sleep better at night. It's in the Constitution so it isn't going to go away. I don't completely disagree with Costas or Whitlock on some of their points but using a football game as the platform to spew those ideals, especially in the absence of a dissenting opinion to debate the matter was just wrong-headed in my humble opinion.

[Jamie_B]

[quote name='Bunghole' timestamp='1354743510' post='1188971']
I agree that we aren't near anything like the absence of government, but why not let people that wish to buy a ton of guns and ammo do so "just in case" if it makes them sleep better at night. It's in the Constitution so it isn't going to go away. I don't completely disagree with Costas or Whitlock on some of their points but using a football game as the platform to spew those ideals, especially in the absence of a dissenting opinion to debate the matter was just wrong-headed in my humble opinion.
[/quote]

I dont much care what folks do but I think pretending that the 2nd amedment as intended by our forefathers is still applicable today is silly.

I also think we do have a gun culture that is out of control as well.

[|Bunghole|]

[quote name='Jamie_B' timestamp='1354743994' post='1188974']
I dont much care what folks do but I think pretending that the 2nd amedment as intended by our forefathers is still applicable today is silly.

I also think we do have a gun culture that is out of control as well.
[/quote]

Well, we do have the right to bear arms. We also have an obligation to defend our nation and ourselves from enemies foreign and domestic. And I don't think this "gun culture" is out of control. There are certainly plenty of Ted Nugent types out there...just as there are plenty of liberals out there that wish to ban all guns. I am in the middle, along with most of the country.

[Jamie_B]

[Img]http://lh4.ggpht.com/-15ZuZwxMKbg/TtclENn8_0I/AAAAAAAAIms/UpAK_VZ5BbQ/v3%25257Camused%25257C_img%25257Cthe-right-to-bear-arms.jpg[/img]

[|Bunghole|]

[quote name='Jamie_B' timestamp='1354747939' post='1189005']
[img]http://lh4.ggpht.com/-15ZuZwxMKbg/TtclENn8_0I/AAAAAAAAIms/UpAK_VZ5BbQ/v3%25257Camused%25257C_img%25257Cthe-right-to-bear-arms.jpg[/img]
[/quote]

[mongo]

'Gun culture' is the catch phrase for those that prefer a 'Police State.' It's political idiom warfare.