I’m with ya, Bob Costas.

Image: Delexas Williams/Showme

Let me start by saying I am not anti-gun.

My dad, my grandpa, my uncles, and my brothers are hunters; I grew up around guns.  I even learned to shoot one when I was a kid.

I don’t believe in banning firearms or revoking our right to bear arms.

I do believe that there has to be firmer control over guns though.

It is a proven fact that the states with stricter gun control laws have fewer deaths related to gun violence.

There are people who can argue all day long that “guns don’t kill people; people kill people,” but the truth is people kill each other much easier and in a much more reactionary manner when they have a gun.

It is another fact that although the United States is unusually violent for a first world country, especially the South. The least violent is the northeast — yes, where New York City is located. In fact, according the American Bar Association, we have eight times as many gun-related deaths than our economic counterparts.

But when Bob Costas spoke about the tragedy of Jovan Belcher killing his girlfriend and then killing himself, he wasn’t calling for an end to the Second Amendment.

He wasn’t even really talking about tighter gun control, although he later admitted he believes we need it.

No, he was talking about this country’s fascination with guns.

From cowboys with their pistols to mafia bosses with their tommy guns, America loves a guy with a gun. We glorify “bad guys” that shoot things up.

We talk about this “right to bear arms” as if we all need to exercise the right because you never know who might be ready to shank you on your weekly trip to the grocery store.

There are those who have tried to argue that if Belcher’s girlfriend had been armed, maybe she wouldn’t be dead. I find this hard to believe. It’s not like she was expecting it. Even if she DID have a gun somewhere in the house, how is she going to get it after she had been shot dead out of nowhere by the person she is supposed to be able to trust most in this world — the father of her child?

I am not sure what it is that is so alluring about owning a gun. And why does it seem that these men who could punch a homie out, need to also pack heat?

I have to ask, is being in the NFL really that life-threatening that carrying a weapon is seen as a necessity?

Like I said, I get having guns. Locked up. In a safe. Either for hunting or purely as a collectible. But why conceal and carry?

The Harvard School of Public Health found that high income nations + more guns = more homicides.

Even with all the facts, with all the tragedies, gun control is not popular. According to Gallup, in 1990 78% polled were in favor of making gun laws stricter, whereas of 2010, only 44% were in favor of tighter laws.

Bob Costas posted this in his closing paragraph on Real Clear Politics on Wednesday, December 5 in response to the backlash of his statements during Sunday Nigh Footbal:

Tony Dungy, one of the most respected in all of sports, on our program on Sunday night said that one year when he coached the Colts, he had 80 players before they cut the roster down. 80 players in training camp. He said, ‘How many of you guys own a gun?’ And roughly 65 hands went up. Even if all those guns were obtained legally, you can’t have 65 guys in their 20s and 30s, aggressive young men, subject to impulses without something bad happening. And I posed this question. I didn’t have time to pose it Sunday night but I’ll pose it here. Give me one example of an athlete. I know it has happened in society. But give me one example of a professional athlete who by virtue of his having a gun took a dangerous situation and turned it around for the better. I can’t think of a single one. But sadly, I can think of dozens whereby virtue of having a gun, a professional athlete wound up in a tragic situation.  source

Yes, Bob. I sadly and completely agree with you.