The Gun Control Halftime Show...

[momosa]

If I want to kill someone, a claw hammer will do the trick…

[Ibn_Warraq]

@momosa

If I want to kill someone, a claw hammer will do the trick…

True, which is why the US homicide rate isn’t substantially different from Canada, the UK, Japan, France, Germany, Italy, or Norway.

Similarly, the dumbest movie line in the whole history of Hollywood was Sean Connery’s moronic “Just like a Wop! Bringing a knife to a gun fight!” from The Untouchables.

Of course, a knife can kill just as easily as a gun. The Untouchables was pretty clearly written by some limp-wristed liberals who knew nothing about the real world.

[Jackmannii]

Costas’ dumbest line was this: “If Jovan Belcher didn’t possess a gun, he and Kasandra Perkins would both be alive today.”

Of course - a guy who was out of control enough in college to put his fist through a window over a relationship problem, would be totally incapable of beating a woman to death, strangling her etc. :dubious:

The gun control angle is not what ticks me off most about the handling of these deaths by the sports world, or the leap to assume that concussions were involved in his actions. The story has been treated as though Belcher and his girlfriend are somehow equivalent victims, or even like the girlfriend’s murder is a lesser story. Case in point - the ESPN full-screen graphic showing Belcher’s picture with date of birth and date of death - nothing like it for his victim. Or “moments of silence” for domestic violence victims (in whose number we are apparently supposed to include Belcher). Or the Chiefs’ hour-long memorial service for Belcher.

The guy’s a murderer. Honor his victim instead.

[FoieGrasIsEvil]

Sorry, I just don’t want anything political or non-football related to interrupt my three hours worth of keening over my Ginger Jesus like Mr Smithers after a hot oil massage by Monty Burns.

[Marley23]

@Jackmannii

The story has been treated as though Belcher and his girlfriend are somehow equivalent victims, or even like the girlfriend’s murder is a lesser story.

There have been places where that happened, but a lot of it depends on what you’ve watched and how you feel about it. This was discussed on ESPN and Sunday Night Football because the murderer was a football player, so that angle is going to appear in the story.

Or “moments of silence” for domestic violence victims (in whose number we are apparently supposed to include Belcher).

I don’t know where you’re getting this. The Chiefs made what appears to me to be a very thoughtful decision - rather than honoring the player who committed suicide after killing killed someone, they asked for a moment of silence for victims of domestic violence (hint: Perkins, not Belcher) and you’re assuming it was supposed to include Belcher somehow.

Or the Chiefs’ hour-long memorial service for Belcher.

The Chiefs didn’t hold a memorial service. Some of the players went to his funeral.

[JXJohns]

@Marley23

There have been places where that happened, but a lot of it depends on what you’ve watched and how you feel about it. This was discussed on ESPN and Sunday Night Football because the murderer was a football player, so that angle is going to appear in the story.

I don’t know where you’re getting this. The Chiefs made what appears to me to be a very thoughtful decision - rather than honoring the player who committed suicide after killing killed someone, they asked for a moment of silence for victims of domestic violence (hint: Perkins, not Belcher) and you’re assuming it was supposed to include Belcher somehow.

I was at the game Sunday. I can confirm that the moment of silence did not mention Belcher at all. It was a moment of silence, the National Anthem and then a flyover to get things rocking again.

[RTFirefly]

@ExTank

Your original point implied (heavily) that the gun was the cause of the violence; that the presence of a firearm caused someone to be violent.

I can understand how you’d interpret it that way if you just read that one post. But just to clarify, here’s what I’ve been saying on this point earlier in the thread:

@RTFirefly

Even for a guy like that, it’s still a hell of a lot easier to kill someone, and the odds of success a lot more certain, by shooting them full of bullet holes than to kill them with their bare hands, or with whatever blunt instruments are lying around the room.

Don’t know how accurate it is, because there weren’t links to follow back to the source, but it says here that women who are victims of domestic violence are five times more likely to be killed if their abuser owns a firearm.

But the common sense of it seems hard to argue with, regardless of the multiple. I think Atrios said it best: "this isn’t really debatable. As human beings we’re capable of losing our shit, especially if we throw some drugs and alcohol into the mix…I get that people (mostly wrongly, but it isn’t totally insane) think that there’s some value in owning a gun for self-defense, but to deny the obvious - that in heated situation, if gun, death more likely - is mind boggling.

“It’s really easy to kill somebody with a gun. It’s pretty hard otherwise, even if you really want to.”

@RTFirefly

how can it be anything but a statement of the obvious that it’s easier to kill people with guns than with knives, blunt instruments, one’s bare hands, or whatever? How can it be anything but a statement of the obvious that even the best of us occasionally lose our tempers, but the consequences are more likely to be nonlethal if we don’t have a gun when we get upset? Goddamn, it’s just plain denial of the obvious to say otherwise.

[YogSothoth]

momosa, what misinformation did Bob Costas espouse on that show?

[Ibn_Warraq]

It’s worth noting that Costas said nothing about gun control and very deliberately did not quote the parts of Whitlock’s article where Whitlock made explicit pro-gun control arguments.

Instead, Costas merely talked about how America’s “gun culture” contributed to so many homicides.

Squealing that he’s going on a gun control rant because of the statements he made would be like accusing him of calling for the banning of fast food if he’d lamented the the obeisity rate in the US.