Wednesday, December 10, 2008

Pittsburgh Steeler Joey Porter on Guns

Looks like it's all "NFL on guns" here at the Alehouse this week.

ESPN has a story featuring Joey Porter, another victim of gun violence (shot in the butt in Colorado), talking about guns in the NFL. Although they frame the story as a defense of Plaxico, the meat of the story is about common sense gun possession.

First, here's what Joey has to say about Plax:

"It's tough out there so I'm not gonna say I condone what happened. It was a mistake by [Plax]. I know he wish he never did it. But I don't think it's as bad as everybody made it seem, either."

Sounds like a pretty fair description of the facts. What Plax did was dumb, and a result of both insufficient safety training and a poor attitude concerning firearms.

Joey then goes on:
"Everybody has their mistakes, but that's exactly what they are ... Until you've been in that situation, when you've been robbed at gunpoint or you've had a gun waved in your face or had your house broken into before or been carjacked, you really don't know what it's like."

Your commissioner doesn't know what it's like, I guarantee ya.
"I'm not saying I'm walking down the street with a handgun on my hip," Porter said. "I'm not doing it for show. It's not fun. Hopefully, in my lifetime, I never have to use it."

Why is it anti-gunners can't get that through their head? We don't want to use our gun, but we sure as hell don't want to die, either.

Like Porter says:
"I'd rather get caught and take the little penalty from the media, whatever the situation may be, than not have a chance to save my life,"

Damn skippy.

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