Can we talk instead of spousal abuse instead of guns for a moment?
This article by Jessica Valenti is compelling reading about the recent murder of the Kansas City Chief football player's girlfriend.
I tend toward supporting 2nd Amendment rights, even though I don't ever recall even holding a real gun, and have no interest in ever holding a gun, let alone shooting one. The imbroglio over Bob Costas reading a local Kansas City writer's column is ultimately a sideshow. Yes, guns don't kill people, people kill people...um, with guns more easily than with say knives. But again, those of us who live in urbanized environments or tight suburban environments sometimes don't get why people like to have guns. And those of us who do not like to hunt and kill deer and other animals for food don't often see the point of view of those who do.
But spousal abuse is not something I see as having another "side."
posted by Mitchell J. Freedman @ 6:16 PM
6 comments
6 Comments:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a5dBOR2V9nU&list=UU193r5YXcpQJV34N99ZbhzQ&index=2
Fact free nonsense, Hip. I watched it and it was painfully dumb.
Go ahead. Count up actual number of times a woman was able to defend herself with a gun against armed men in a civilized nation. And then count up the times in a civilized nation where a woman was killed by a man who had a gun in her home. What I mean by civilized is one where life is relatively stable, unlike say Somalia where we all better be armed for the moment.
I am not saying we should undermine 2nd Amendment rights when I rip that poor soul in the video you cited. I am saying that the pro-gun side gets too extreme and looks ridiculous when trying to deny the essence of the latest tragedy, which is simply one of the things that happens in a relatively free society where people are able to have guns. A public policy argument says there is still a strong reason to allow individuals to possess firearms and the number of these tragic incidents are also low.
As I said to a gun control advocate, however, how many times have we heard of an NFL football player doing this? OJ and then 17 years later this.
Again, the more immediate issue is spousal abuse and it is rampant with these players and in our society as spousal abuse is still underreported.
My "count" paragraph needs clarification. I mean count up the times a woman living with a man with a gun was killed by the man in their own home.
Safe? Hardly.
Gun rights are fundamental civil rights.
I'm not disagreeing. I'm simply saying there are consequences to this, and that murder by the football player is one of them.
http://gunssavelives.net/
http://www.hawaii.edu/powerkills/NOTE1.HTM
I agree with every word of the article you linked to. Belcher was a monster.
Athletes who physically assault women are frequently coddled by the media, sports fans, fellow players, and management. Quintin Dailey, Robert Parish, Scottie Pippen, Jason Kidd, Barry Bonds, and Ben Roethlisberger come to mind. Dailey was allowed to play in the NBA after pleading guilty to raping a nurse when in college. Roethlisberger, a rapist, is still the stating QB for the Pittsburgh Steelers. Ron Artest, who has physically abused women, is currently a starting forward for the Los Angeles Lakers.
Let's see if Bob Costas, for once in his life, stops his grandstanding and, the next time he interviews Ben Roethlisberger, instead of asking him about the Steelers' playoffs prospects, confronts him about being a rapist.
I do not agree with your comment above that Kasandra Perkins' murder by Belcher is a consequence of his having a gun. Her murder was a consequence of him being a repulsive human being with a history of violence. But it's speculation to hold that she would be alive if Belcher did not have a gun. The lack of a firearm did not deter OJ Simpson when he murdered Nicole Brown and Ronald Goldman.
The media in general systematically buries and underreports stories regarding the regular defensive use of firearms by armed civilians to thwart criminals. For example, not many people know that, during the Appalachian Law School shooting in January 2002, two law students ran to their cars to retrieve their firearms, returned to the scene of the crime, and subdued the perpetrator.
Gary Kleck, a criminologist at Florida State, estimates that guns prevent an estimated 2.5 million crimes per year. In less than one percent of those cases, the gun is not even discharged; merely brandishing the weapon is usually sufficient to deter the commission of the crime.
But when we talk about murder, however, I think we lose sight of the worst offender, namely, Government. As RJ Rummel has shown, coinciding with the virulent rise of the State in the 20th century, was the murder of over 169 million citizens as a matter of state policy. An important note: the figure EXCLUDES deaths resulting from war. A key featured shared by each of these murderous regimes: disarming of the citizenry.
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