Mike
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imported post
Sport guy confused - thinks we ONLY want license holders to have open carry rights.
---
http://www.star-telegram.com/329/story/1073685.html
Plaxico Burress is no Roy Rogers
By JIM REEVES
revo@star-telegram.com
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There was a time in my life when I was absolutely sure I’d grow up to be Roy Rogers.For those of you too young to know who I’m talking about, Roy was a 1950s movie cowboy who wore two pistols on his hips, but generally whipped up on the bad guys without actually killing anybody. He just winged them.
Or at least that’s the way it looked to my wide 6-year-old eyes in the darkness of the Cactus Theater in Carlsbad, N.M.
And when Roy did shoot somebody, we never saw blood or gore, or the painful aftermath. Things were so much simpler then, if overly-sanitized for that era’s consumption.
Thing are a bit more complicated now. Ask New York Giants receiver Plaxico Burress, who just threw away a career and millions of dollars when he illegally carried a 9-millimeter Glock into a Manhattan nightclub last week, and then managed to shoot himself in the leg with it.
I say all this as a prelude to a confession: I own a handgun. It’s just a .22-caliber revolver, but it’s still a gun and still deadly. I couldn’t tell you the last time I actually picked it up, but it’s there, put away in a case in the house.
I bought it for snakes and varmints back when I was a hunter years ago, not that I could have hit one if I’d tried. Then, when I lived in the country for more than a decade, I kept it around for that, and to have a firearm my wife could actually handle when I was traveling. You know, just in case.
That’s the way we are in this country, especially out here in the West. Our history was changed forever by the advent of the Colt .45 and its colorful and bloody tradition spawned a whole movie industry. Even today, the Roy Rogers in me still inspires me to be first in line when a good Western flick, such as the recent Appaloosa[/i], shows up in theaters.
We still think we have to be prepared in case there’s an Indian uprising on the reservation.
I’ve been slow to understand that life really isn’t like the movies. I don’t need to be Roy Rogers. We pay taxes for law enforcement folks to be our heroes.
That’s why I shuddered earlier this week when I saw that the gun lobby intends to focus on Texas in trying to turn us into an "open carry" state. That means those who have permits to carry a concealed weapon will be able to walk the streets with the big iron on their hips.
That leaves the rest of us to wonder whether they think they’re Roy Rogers, or Dirty Harry or Charles Whitman.
What I know for sure is that I don’t want to saunter into a McDonald’s with my granddaughters and have them sitting in a booth next to a guy carrying a .357 Magnum, but not a badge. If they’re packing, I’d just as soon be blissfully ignorant of that fact.
It’s ironic that the "open carry" story should hit on the Monday after Burress, who had an expired weapons permit from Florida, plugged himself in the thigh after strolling into the Latin Quarter nightclub with a Glock in his waistband the previous Friday night.
This was a guy who, at one time, had a licensed permit to carry his weapon in Florida. Doesn’t that license require some sort of training and gun education before it’s issued? Yet, Burress didn’t even know how to work the safety on his pistol.
The wonder is that he only shot himself, fortunately not seriously, and not some innocent bystander.
Yet, Burress felt like he needed the protection while he partied — on an already injured leg, mind you — because of his expensive jewelry and the wads of cash he carried.
I have to agree with Fox’s Tony Siragusa, a former NFL player, who noted during Sunday’s Redskins-Giants game, "If you go to a place that you feel you need to carry a gun, the best thing is stay home."
Ah, but that would be the logical, smart thing to do and those attributes are exceedingly rare among professional athletes.
And if they can’t force themselves to stay home, use some of that cash to hire a couple of bodyguards. Of course, sometimes even that doesn’t keep a player out of trouble, as Jerry Jones recently learned.
At least then, though, there’s someone else to pin the blame on if things go bad.
Burress picked up his Glock and his permit in Florida, where the gun laws are notoriously weak. In this year alone, Florida gun permit holders have been charged in two murders and a manslaughter.
But the Giants receiver, who just signed a $35 million contract after helping his team win a Super Bowl last year, brought his weapon to New Jersey, where he lives, and from there to New York, two of the toughest gun law states in the country.
As one New York columnist pointed out, if Burress had ridden the subway to the Latin Quarter, instead of taking a limo, he’d have had a hard time missing the signs that are posted everywhere: "1 gun = 3 1/2 years."
That’s 3 1/2 years minimum prison time for carrying a weapon into a nightclub. Guaranteed. And New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg has made it clear he expects the law to play no favorites just because Burress is an NFL star.
The Giants already have suspended Burress for the remainder of the season and the chances that he’ll ever play for them again are remote. Essentially, that was a $35 million bullet Burress fired through his thigh.
He thought he might have to thwart some bad guy who could try to rob him of his bling. Now, he might have to hock all that jewelry just to pay his legal fees.
It’s a painful lesson, especially for Burress, but one we all need to learn.
Roy Rogers doesn’t live here any more.
Jim Reeves, 817-390-7760
Sport guy confused - thinks we ONLY want license holders to have open carry rights.
---
http://www.star-telegram.com/329/story/1073685.html
Plaxico Burress is no Roy Rogers
By JIM REEVES
revo@star-telegram.com
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There was a time in my life when I was absolutely sure I’d grow up to be Roy Rogers.For those of you too young to know who I’m talking about, Roy was a 1950s movie cowboy who wore two pistols on his hips, but generally whipped up on the bad guys without actually killing anybody. He just winged them.
Or at least that’s the way it looked to my wide 6-year-old eyes in the darkness of the Cactus Theater in Carlsbad, N.M.
And when Roy did shoot somebody, we never saw blood or gore, or the painful aftermath. Things were so much simpler then, if overly-sanitized for that era’s consumption.
Thing are a bit more complicated now. Ask New York Giants receiver Plaxico Burress, who just threw away a career and millions of dollars when he illegally carried a 9-millimeter Glock into a Manhattan nightclub last week, and then managed to shoot himself in the leg with it.
I say all this as a prelude to a confession: I own a handgun. It’s just a .22-caliber revolver, but it’s still a gun and still deadly. I couldn’t tell you the last time I actually picked it up, but it’s there, put away in a case in the house.
I bought it for snakes and varmints back when I was a hunter years ago, not that I could have hit one if I’d tried. Then, when I lived in the country for more than a decade, I kept it around for that, and to have a firearm my wife could actually handle when I was traveling. You know, just in case.
That’s the way we are in this country, especially out here in the West. Our history was changed forever by the advent of the Colt .45 and its colorful and bloody tradition spawned a whole movie industry. Even today, the Roy Rogers in me still inspires me to be first in line when a good Western flick, such as the recent Appaloosa[/i], shows up in theaters.
We still think we have to be prepared in case there’s an Indian uprising on the reservation.
I’ve been slow to understand that life really isn’t like the movies. I don’t need to be Roy Rogers. We pay taxes for law enforcement folks to be our heroes.
That’s why I shuddered earlier this week when I saw that the gun lobby intends to focus on Texas in trying to turn us into an "open carry" state. That means those who have permits to carry a concealed weapon will be able to walk the streets with the big iron on their hips.
That leaves the rest of us to wonder whether they think they’re Roy Rogers, or Dirty Harry or Charles Whitman.
What I know for sure is that I don’t want to saunter into a McDonald’s with my granddaughters and have them sitting in a booth next to a guy carrying a .357 Magnum, but not a badge. If they’re packing, I’d just as soon be blissfully ignorant of that fact.
It’s ironic that the "open carry" story should hit on the Monday after Burress, who had an expired weapons permit from Florida, plugged himself in the thigh after strolling into the Latin Quarter nightclub with a Glock in his waistband the previous Friday night.
This was a guy who, at one time, had a licensed permit to carry his weapon in Florida. Doesn’t that license require some sort of training and gun education before it’s issued? Yet, Burress didn’t even know how to work the safety on his pistol.
The wonder is that he only shot himself, fortunately not seriously, and not some innocent bystander.
Yet, Burress felt like he needed the protection while he partied — on an already injured leg, mind you — because of his expensive jewelry and the wads of cash he carried.
I have to agree with Fox’s Tony Siragusa, a former NFL player, who noted during Sunday’s Redskins-Giants game, "If you go to a place that you feel you need to carry a gun, the best thing is stay home."
Ah, but that would be the logical, smart thing to do and those attributes are exceedingly rare among professional athletes.
And if they can’t force themselves to stay home, use some of that cash to hire a couple of bodyguards. Of course, sometimes even that doesn’t keep a player out of trouble, as Jerry Jones recently learned.
At least then, though, there’s someone else to pin the blame on if things go bad.
Burress picked up his Glock and his permit in Florida, where the gun laws are notoriously weak. In this year alone, Florida gun permit holders have been charged in two murders and a manslaughter.
But the Giants receiver, who just signed a $35 million contract after helping his team win a Super Bowl last year, brought his weapon to New Jersey, where he lives, and from there to New York, two of the toughest gun law states in the country.
As one New York columnist pointed out, if Burress had ridden the subway to the Latin Quarter, instead of taking a limo, he’d have had a hard time missing the signs that are posted everywhere: "1 gun = 3 1/2 years."
That’s 3 1/2 years minimum prison time for carrying a weapon into a nightclub. Guaranteed. And New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg has made it clear he expects the law to play no favorites just because Burress is an NFL star.
The Giants already have suspended Burress for the remainder of the season and the chances that he’ll ever play for them again are remote. Essentially, that was a $35 million bullet Burress fired through his thigh.
He thought he might have to thwart some bad guy who could try to rob him of his bling. Now, he might have to hock all that jewelry just to pay his legal fees.
It’s a painful lesson, especially for Burress, but one we all need to learn.
Roy Rogers doesn’t live here any more.
Jim Reeves, 817-390-7760
