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 I'm quite sure that neither Gilbert Arenas nor Javaris Crittenton fully understood the Pandora's box they were opening when they had their altercation. An altercation that in some way, shape or form included guns. In all likelihood, they're beginning to get it now.
But the real question is, are the rest of us aware of what this means... what this reflects?
In discussing this with a friend, he pointed me to piece he'd read by columnist Leonard Pitts, Jr. - titled Listen up, NBA players: Guns are not funny. One part of the piece really, really struck a chord with me.
"And yet...it is difficult to think of these two guys whipping out guns like something out of Dodge City and not see shadows of all the other men of the same heritage and age group who once were here but now are gone because they regarded guns in the same profoundly unserious manner. Because they saw them not as tools of hunting or self-defense but, rather, as toys -- as argument settlers and point makers, as extensions of their personal reproductive gear, as a means of demanding respect.
We have paid the price for that idiotic mindset in funerals. Funerals, an endless string."
There are lots of arguments surrounding both sides of the debate. Within the HBO piece, Real Sports "Guns & The NFL" (aired on Jan 20th 2009), Adewale Ogunleye of the Chicago Bears stated that he believes Sean Taylor might be alive today if he had a gun, rather than just a machete. It's possible. The tragedy may have been averted, or at least have had a different outcome. It's also possible that if he'd had a gun, the situation may have escalated - and his girlfriend and daughter may have died as well.
Former NFL player Jay Williams during HBO piece stated that he believes athletes carry a gun for self-defense.
"They are carrying guns to protect and defend themselves."
He also states that he took his gun to practice every day, despite NFL rules prohibiting the presence of firearms any where near league facilities (Williams, now retired from the NFL, is the son of a police officer, and now works as a gun dealer. Many of his clientele are pro-athletes).
Someone you'd probably think would be "pro-carry" would be Karl Malone. Malone, an avid hunter, and a spokesman for the NRA, has strong opinions on this... but probably not in the way you'd expect. In a 2006 piece for ESPN, Malone states his opinion:
"Everybody sticks their chest out now when they have a firearm on them," Malone said, mocking the thought process of the common athlete. "'I come up from the hard part of the streets, the mean streets, and I need my gun and all of that?' Come on, please, enough of that already. We're tired of that."
Malone said he wants athletes to realize the dangerous nature of guns.
"Now why do these guys carry guns? Is that the 'cool' thing to do? Well 'cool' gets you dead!" Malone said.
For athletes who claim they need a gun for protection, Malone has a suggestion: stop hanging out in places of risk.
"Three a.m.? My goodness gracious, what were you doing out at 3 o'clock in the morning? Who were you with? Where were you at? Do you need a gun to protect you or do you need a babysitter to get you where you need to be all the time so that you don't get in any trouble?" Malone said.
Malone said he thinks the problems stem from the people athletes sometimes keep as company, and the places they spend their free time.
"You can enjoy yourself in nice places, but we're talking about gun stuff," he said. "We need to talk more about where we are going, what we are doing, and who we are hanging out with that lead up to these confrontations."
Malone touches on an area that's not often explored within these debates. That at times, it's extremely questionable as to whether the pro athlete is the type of person that actually should be carrying guns.
We all know the stories, the guys who shouldn't be carrying a sharp pencil, much less a loaded gun.
Guys like Plaxico Burress (self-inflicted gunshot wound, now serving time in jail for weapons charges), Sebastian Telfair (criminal possession of handgun, 3 years probation), Delonte West (facing charges regarding carrying a 9mm pistol, .357 Magnum, and a pump action shotgun - all in a guitar case), Tank Johnson (served time for possessing illegal weapons, including assault rifles), and of course Jayson Williams (who just the other day plead guilty to an aggravated assault... with a shotgun. That left Costas "Gus" Christofi dead).
Of course the opposite end of that scale is former NFL player, Marcellus Wiley, who tells his story in the same HBO Real Sports story as Jay Williams (Guns & the NFL). Wiley grew up in South Central LA, and never owned a gun. Immediately after being drafted for the NFL though, he purchased one. But after a while, ownership of a weapon weighed heavily. Perspectives changed, and Wiley began seeing threats everywhere. But then he began to ask questions of himself.
Would he be ready to pull a gun if confronted?
Could he handle a potential attempted murder charge?
Could he handle a murder charge?
Even if he pulled the gun and didn't use it, could he handle the legal ramifications?
Could he handle it if he pulled the gun on the streets, and the person he pointed the gun at, was coming back?
So when he was with the Buffalo Bills, Wiley decided he no longer wanted to own a gun. As he was driving near Niagara Falls, he felt something bad was going to happen the longer he held possession of the weapon. He threw the gun into the falls and Wiley says he felt a weight lift off his shoulders.
(HBO Real Sports, Guns & the NFL)
In ESPN's 'Outside the Lines' piece, Athletes & Guns, Malone asserts that pulling a gun in a confrontation can often lead to a greater risk. Often, when someone pulls their gun, other guns appear. And that's where it all escalates.
Karl Malone spoke of changing attitudes, of education. That's the problem: many people - and not just pro athletes - lack the proper attitude, and education, to be carrying a weapon.
Guns and pro-sports almost seem synonymous now. There are no accurate numbers, but on HBO's Real Sports "Guns & The NFL", Jay Williams stated that he believes the number to be up around 85%, or possibly higher (Jabar Gaffney of the Denver Broncos places it at 90% - or higher). NY Daily News has Devin Harris placing the number in the NBA to be at 75%. Luke Scott of the Baltimore Orioles puts gun ownership within MLB at 50% or higher.
These numbers have to be worrying for both the leagues that house these players, and the communities within which they play.
The thing is... how different is this for the rest of society?
The obvious answer to this is the wealth and visibility that these players have... but there are broader issues that should be explored - that need to be reviewed, such as attitudes, education, and even legislative reform. This is something that is a bigger concern than simply athletes, it goes further into society than that.
Guns, and gun violence. And a society that's become largely enured to it.
In all honesty, it's not guns per se. Guns aren't bad. They're not good either. They're inanimate.
It's the user that puts their own inadequacies behind the gun that's the issue, and the ease with which he can do so within the United States.
The reality is this: there are three ways to actively control guns. One is through education, Switzerland is a perfect example of this, or through legislation (Australia has some of the toughest gun laws in the world), or a change in attitude (Japanese laws are strict, but poorly enforced. The main reason guns aren't prevalent in Japan is a general abhorrence of firearms).
Realistically, legislation is the US's most reasonable method. Or at least legislating to enforce better gun control.
I'm not advocating taking away the right to bear arms - that's never going to happen in America - but amending the laws controlling gun ownership so that a greater degree of education on the subject is necessary before you can take ownership.
Gun violence will only stop when people are educated, or attitudes change. It's unlikely that neither gun education nor attitudes towards guns will change in the US without legislation.
Australia. On the 28th of April, 1996, Martin Bryant went into the Port Arthur tourist area, and killed 35 people and wounded 21 others in a shooting spree. It was an event that nigh on devastated the entire country, and shocked the nation into changing gun laws, enforcing education (for would-be owners) and really affected societal attitudes surrounding guns.
I hope and pray that it doesn't take something of a similar magnitude as Port Arthur, and by 'similar magnitude' I mean of a significant enough scale that America expresses a desire to change prompted by a tragedy of a truly monumental scale.
The question is can the US begin to recognise the problems that are inherent in the Second Amendment as it currently stands? The men who wrote it understood that it was legislation that was appropriate for the time, and that what was true of their times was not a universal truth.
In discussion with a friend of mine, we agreed on the following:
It is important to recognize that no changes to the Bill of Rights need to actually occur.
What has to happen is:
1 - State Laws have to be passed restricting the sale of certain types of weapons, all guns not recognized by the Federal Game and Wildlife Commission as legal to use in hunting sports (this protects, most types of rifles and shotguns).
2 - Those laws must be challenged and carried all the way to the US Supreme Court where the 2nd Amendment is then interpreted historically instead of literally. The framers of the Constitution did not intend that Americans have the right to bear nuclear weapons as they serve no beneficial purpose in greater society.
Likewise, the framers did not intend American citizens to be able to own assault rifles and/or handguns.
The key here is interpretation of the law... it all hangs there. It isn't necessary to change the 2nd amendment itself, just change how it is interpreted.
The 2nd Amendment asserts the right of the citizen to bear arms. But with every "right", there's an implied responsibility too.
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