You know those men in their 20s and 30s that America’s sports philosopher/king, Bob Costas, was so concerned about? The NFL players who are, in Bob’s view, too young or too aggressive (or too, um, urban) to own guns? Well it turns out that some of them heard Bob’s clarion call and have turned in their heaters. According to Mike Florio of profootballtalk.nbcsports.com [based on a report by Peter King], seven football players have divested themselves of their firearms since Jovan Belcher murdered the mother of his child, then killed himself in the parking lot of the Chiefs’ practice facility in front of his coach and others ten days ago . . .
According to King, at least one player surrendered multiple guns, telling the team that he doesn’t trust himself.
Multiple guns! Were any of these guns obtained illegally? What will the “team security personnel” do with them? Will they end up with the police who will probably check (depending on local and state laws) to see if they’re properly registered? Or have been used in the commission of a crime?
Florio doesn’t seem to care. He’s just glad fewer professional athletes are gun owners now than two weeks ago and clearly hopes this is the beginning of a trend.
While seven isn’t a huge percentage of the total NFL players, it’s a start. In the end, each player has to decide whether to have guns in his house and, if so, whether to remove the guns from the house. These are decisions that each player has to make.
True enough. Fortunately, in this country it’s up to each individual to decide if he or she wants to own a heater. Unless Costas and Florio were running the NFL. If they were, you might have have gun ownership prohibition as boilerplate language in standard player contracts.
No one should have a gun who doesn’t really want one. To that extent, these players may have done the right thing. By the same token, anyone who wants a firearm should be able to own one — whether they play a professional sport or not. And no matter how much it pains people like Costas and Florio, that’s part of the Constitution’s boilerplate.