toldailytopic: Bob Costas makes an anti-gun rant on Sunday Night football. What did y

[Nathon Detroit]

The TheologyOnline.com TOPIC OF THE DAY for December 3rd, 2012 12:05 PM

toldailytopic: Bob Costas makes an anti-gun rant on Sunday Night football. What did you think of it?

Take the topic above and run with it! Slice it, dice it, give us your general thoughts about it. Everyday there will be a new TOL Topic of the Day.
If you want to make suggestions for the Topic of the Day send a Tweet to @toldailytopic or @theologyonline or send it to us via Facebook.

 

[Nathon Detroit]

BOB COSTAS: Well, you knew it was coming. In the aftermath of the nearly unfathomable events in Kansas City, that most mindless of sports clichés was heard yet again: Something like this really puts it all in perspective. Well, if so, that sort of perspective has a very short shelf-life since we will inevitably hear about the perspective we have supposedly again regained the next time ugly reality intrudes upon our games. Please, those who need tragedies to continually recalibrate their sense of proportion about sports would seem to have little hope of ever truly achieving perspective. You want some actual perspective on this? Well, a bit of it comes from the Kansas City-based writer Jason Whitlock with whom I do not always agree, but who today said it so well that we may as well just quote or paraphrase from the end of his article. "Our current gun culture,"Whitlock wrote, "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." "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. In the coming days, Jovan Belcher’s actions, and their possible connection to football will be analyzed. Who knows?" "But here," wrote Jason Whitlock," is what I believe. If Jovan Belcher didn’t possess a gun, he and Kasandra Perkins would both be alive today."

- source

 

[Nathon Detroit]

Yes Costas was quoting Whitlock but he was quoting him because he agrees with it 100% (as he clearly indicated).

 

[Nick M]

He is a liberal. I don't think much of what he is saying unless he is sticking to the actual game.

 

[Granite]

Whitlock's bit about undisciplined gun owners--shoot first, ask questions later types--is on the mark. But I don't think it was a good choice for Costas to step up to the bully pulpit last night. Time and place for everything, Bob.

 

[Lighthouse]

"But here," wrote Jason Whitlock," is what I believe. If Jovan Belcher didn’t possess a gun, he and Kasandra Perkins would both be alive today."

- source

What a load of manure; Mr. Belcher could have just as easily killed Ms. Perkins with anything available to him, even if it wasn't created as a weapon. Jason Whitlock and Bob Costas are complete and utter morons to think the availability of guns and the culture surrounding them are to blame for the issues people have that cause them to escalate their arguments to lethal ends. Especially when the issue is caused by a TBI. You have to wonder if some of these commenters haven't suffered minor brain injuries themselves with the ignorance they spout.

The problem lies more in the fact that athletes who suffer from a TBI do not tend to get the medical attention they need, but rather the injuries are ignored to keep them in the game. This isn't about gun worship, it's about hero worship.

 

[PureX]

A pontificating sports announcer? The absurdity meter is melting down.

 

[kmoney]

As Granite said, time and place. I don't think he should have used that venue to get into the gun issue.

 

[HisServant]

As Granite said, time and place. I don't think he should have used that venue to get into the gun issue.

Agreed.. his network should kick him off the air for a while.. go make him sit in the timeout chair for a month or so.

 

[Cruciform]

"If Jovan Belcher didn’t possess a gun, he and Kasandra Perkins would both be alive today."

Apparently, Costas is under the dellusion that a gun is the only available means of committing murder and/or suicide, a laughably ridiculous non sequitur. Belcher could just as easily have strangled or stabbed his girlfriend and then slit his own wrists or throat. He could have drowned her in the bathtub, bludgeoned her to death with a lamp, or run her over with his SUV. Then he could have leaped from the nearest tall building or bridge, hung himself, ingested a bottle of pills, or sat in a sealed garage with his SUV's engine running---etc., etc., etc...

Costas merely placed on public display a desperate need to stick to his day job. In any case, guns don't kill people; people with guns---or any number of other available means---kill people.



Gaudium de veritate,

Cruciform
+T+

 

[Grosnick Marowbe]

Take the guns out of the hands of everyone; only leaves
the guns in the hands of the criminals!!

"You'll only take my guns out of my "dead cold hands!!"
{Charlton Heston}

 

[Wile E. Coyote]

other[/I] available means---kill people.



Gaudium de veritate,

Cruciform
+T+[/FONT]

:up: :up:

 

[kmoney]

It's obvious that this tragedy could have happened even if Belcher didn't have a gun. There are many other ways to kill someone and yourself. But I do think there is something to the idea that guns can escalate matters and that without a gun in a situation there wouldn't be as many injuries or deaths. Guns are easy to use. And easy to use in a moment of anger or passion. Of course, there is a flip side. Guns can prevent incidents too. But I do think there is some truth to Whitlock's and Costas's comments.

 

[chatmaggot]

Why doesn't Bob Costas care about the dangers of Bows and Arrows and Knives?

...the younger man barged into his computer science class and shot him in the head with a high-powered bow and arrow.

Christopher Krumm had just stabbed to death his father's live-in girlfriend at the couple's home two miles away.

Story.

 

[This Charming Manc]

Don't know the guy, I don't the situation, I don't where he made his comments, but everyone i am sure everyone here knows my views on guns.

Broadly speaking if done at a national level with secure borders, gun control would reduce your murder rate significantly. The spoke the truth, comparisons to every other western democracy would show that higher levels of gun control would show improve safety.

Your murder rate blows ours away(forgive the pun), the single most significant difference in cultures in this regard is gun ownership.

If you want to own guns that fine, but don't lie to yourselves and others and say that it doesn't make a difference.

Compared to the UK

• Overall you are 4 times more likley to be murdered in the USA.
• US murder rates are similar for non gun weapons
• Virtually the whole difference in murder rate is accounted for by murders where a gun is weapon.
• Other levels of crime are not significantly different between the two countries

Look a owning a gun may make you feel safer, and more powerful but any analysis of the stats shows that isn't the case. i'm not saying its wrong , i'm just saying that it would not make a difference it is just untrue.

 

[This Charming Manc]

Would you say that if he made a pro gun comment?

Agreed.. his network should kick him off the air for a while.. go make him sit in the timeout chair for a month or so.

 

[Lighthouse]

Why doesn't Bob Costas care about the dangers of Bows and Arrows and Knives?

He doesn't oppose knives because he's scared of O.J.

 

[This Charming Manc]

However what this argument fail to realise is that guns kill people easier and more effectively than any other commonly available means. (that is whys your military bother to give people guns instead of letting them bludgeon people to death. )

A person with a gun is much more dangerous than a person without the gun. An armed populace murders a higher percentage of its people than a unarmed one.

Apparently, Costas is under the dellusion that a gun is the only available means of committing murder and/or suicide, a laughably ridiculous non sequitur. Belcher could just as easily have strangled or stabbed his girlfriend and then slit his own wrists or throat. He could have drowned her in the bathtub, bludgeoned her to death with a lamp, or run her over with his SUV. Then he could have leaped from the nearest tall building or bridge, hung himself, ingested a bottle of pills, or sat in a sealed garage with his SUV's engine running---etc., etc., etc...

Costas merely placed on public display a desperate need to stick to his day job. In any case, guns don't kill people; people with guns---or any number of other available means---kill people.



Gaudium de veritate,

Cruciform
+T+

 

[Lighthouse]

Apparently Mr. Manchester is unaware that the stats include instances of justified, legal deaths by firearm.

 

[This Charming Manc]

Did bows and arrows kill 9,000 Americans , and were used in over 250,000 different crimes in 2010 ?

Why doesn't Bob Costas care about the dangers of Bows and Arrows and Knives?

Story.