Friday, December 7, 2012

Bob Costas: Poster Boy For Gun Control

English: US President George W. Bush speaks wi...
English: US President George W. Bush speaks with Bob Costas of NBC Sports during an interview ``while attending the 2008 Summer Olympic Games in Beijing. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Bob Costas, sports journalist at NBC, knows a great deal about the Olympics and is well known for his knowledge of the Games. He has also recently shown himself to be an advocate for gun control. During a monologue to the United States public regarding the Second Amendment, Costas borrowed an article by Jason Whitlock (quoting him directly) regarding the murder/suicide of Jovan Belcher and Kasandra Perkins. During his 1 ½ minute recital, Bob Costas insisted that the two would still be alive if not for the right of U.S. citizens to own a gun privately.

Many journalists and Americans consider this to be spurious logic. What Bob Costas fails to point out is that, while the Jovan Belcher situation was a tragedy, guns are far less dangerous than cars. For instance, Olympic sprinter Daniel Batman of Australia died in a car accident. Being an authority on the Olympics, he would know this, yet Costas does not propose stopping people from privately owning and driving cars which are statistically more deadly than guns worldwide. Jovan Belcher only used the most convenient weapon.

Jovan Belcher was a burly NFL linebacker for the Kansas City Chiefs. His girlfriend Kasandra Perkins was tiny by comparison. Belcher was strong enough to have committed murder with his bare hands or using any item that was readily available. A gun was not Belcher's only option for violence. 

Bob Costas received some bad press for his comments about this case but did not respond, citing a lack of time. This makes it difficult to engage in any fruitful discussion with the journalist over his borrowed diatribe and his point of view, about which many Americans strongly disagree. In the meantime, he must be eagerly awaiting the XXXI Olympic Games in Brazil. He will surely be sharing his views about Olympic sports people and various forms of harm they can do to themselves in the run up to Rio's highly anticipated event.

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