Whitlock Triples down on Gun Control
 

Whitlock Vs. Bill O Reilly.....Whoever wins....we lose.



http://msn.foxsports.com/nfl/story/j...tragedy-120612



It wasn’t that long ago, in the aftermath of Washington Redskins safety Sean Taylor’s tragic death in 2007, that I was the toast of right-wing America. Before there were any arrests, before we knew the gruesome circumstances that precipitated his murder, I analogized Taylor’s assailants to the Black KKK in a column for FOXSports.com

I’m fond of provocative analogies. That affinity bit me in the rear end Monday morning. In the aftermath of Kansas City Chiefs linebacker Jovan Belcher’s murder-suicide, during an interview with Roland Martin on the popular Tom Joyner morning radio show, I groggily and inarticulately popped off a provocative analogy that I had yet to explain in writing.

I analogized the National Rifle Association to the KKK. Big mistake. My views on the NRA and distaste for the organization cannot be explained at 4:30 a.m. (I live in LA) during a fast-paced interview on a morning radio show. My column is the foundation for all of my most provocative opinions. My podcast is my secondary foundation for those opinions. I prefer to control my message and not hand fragments of my thoughts over to others to exploit, recast and define. I like to be interviewed about what I wrote in my column and what I said during my podcast.

Through no fault of Roland Martin or Tom Joyner, I went off message early Monday morning and spewed a half-baked thought. And by doing so, I gave the right-wing entertainment media the out it needed to further bastardize the rather harmless column I wrote Saturday night about Belcher’s murder-suicide.

The column primarily focused on my belief that it was inappropriate for the Chiefs to play a game 28 hours after Belcher murdered his live-in girlfriend and then drove to the Chiefs practice facility and killed himself in front of the general manager, head coach and defensive coordinator. Kansas City’s victory over the Carolina Panthers, nor the KC players’ insistence on wanting to play, in no way invalidates my contention that the NFL was wrong for playing the game as scheduled.

The column whined that football is our God and not even murder-suicide will slow us from worshipping at its altar. The still-in-shock and desensitized-to-violence players and coaches turned Belcher’s locker into a game-day shrine. Jovan Belcher is a murderer. His suicide did not transform him into a fallen hero.



There was one primary reason my Saturday-night column focused on whether the game should be played. I didn’t know what else to write. At the time, there was little concrete information about the tragedy. I wrapped up my column with an ancillary point articulating my belief that America’s gun culture is out of control, dangerous and a threat to our liberty.

I further argued that our Second Amendment is outdated. The right to bear arms no longer protects us from a government armed with stealth bombers, predator drones, tanks, nuclear weapons and all the other knickknacks James Madison and Co. couldn’t envision when ratifying the Bill of Rights in 1791.

Bob Costas quoted and paraphrased my ancillary point during a courageous halftime commentary on NBC’s “Sunday Night Football.” He infuriated the right-wing entertainment media and gave Bill O’Reilly and his disciples the opening to pretend the Second Amendment is under some sort of serious attack. It is not. We just finished a hotly-contested election cycle, and not one political candidate that I can think of uttered a single meaningful word about gun violence, gun control, gun culture and the outdatedness of the justification for the Second Amendment.

This issue is so dead in this country that the flag-waving, right-wing entertainment media have to drag up a non-political, non-voting sports columnist and a talented sports broadcaster as their straw men to justify their phony outrage. I don’t think I’ll be called before the Senate to speak on any toothless gun-control legislation the NRA lobby lets slip through a crack.

But it appears I was summoned to testify before Speaker of The Big House Bill O’Reilly, the FOX News entertainer. O’Reilly is fixated on the mistake I made on the Tom Joyner show. O’Reilly spent part of his Tuesday show telling his viewers that I was afraid to come on “The Factor” and discuss my views on the NRA, the Second Amendment and gun culture.

I’m a grown-ass man and it’s 2012. I don’t have to shuffle off to the Big House when summoned. O’Reilly is not Boehner, Pelosi or Obama. He’s a TV entertainer who has spent the weeks after the election crying about the end of “white establishment” America, the end of the days when an upstanding white man felt entitled to summon whomever he wanted whenever he wanted to the Big House to dance

I don’t dance.

Every cable TV network requested that I consent to an interview this week. I declined all invitations. Only Speaker of the Big House O’Reilly attacked me for exercising my constitutional right of freedom. It’s been a tough week for me personally, and I chose to control my message by using my platforms — column and podcast.

Beginning with my defense of Don Imus during the Rutgers controversy, I’ve appeared on O’Reilly’s program several times. You typically sacrifice two hours of time for an eight-minute segment that accomplishes very little. It’s not the deep end of the pool. There’s no room for someone like me to splash around.

If O’Reilly wants to talk, he’s more than welcome at my little house. I’d love to tape a podcast with him discussing the Second Amendment, gun culture and his fears about the end of white establishment America.

For now, I’m going to stick to writing my sports column. And when given a chance to broaden sports issues into social issues I will take that opportunity. That’s what I do.

And I do it without giving much thought to which politically partisan group I’m pissing off. When Taylor was senselessly murdered, I lambasted the primarily black "gangsta" culture that preys on black people the way the KKK once did.

I’m not paid to state the obvious. I’m paid to provoke thought, be compelling and explore the bigger picture. It doesn’t require much intellectual heft to point out Belcher is responsible for his reprehensible tragedy.

Recognizing his culpability for his girlfriend’s murder and moving on to make a deeper, more nuanced point isn’t irresponsible or an effort to excuse Belcher’s gross criminality. It’s a bid to probe alternative remedies that might lessen the probability of another Belcher tragedy. History has taught us that human beings are flawed, volatile, irresponsible and violent. What can we do to safely manage these human characteristics beyond the obvious?

I believe we should re-examine our love affair with guns. They don’t protect us from tyranny. Guns are toys in America. Guns are a dangerous hobby. Guns are a macho accessory, no different from a shiny sports car.

We can’t see this or even have a discussion about it because the propaganda-political-lobby-machine, the NRA, has hoodwinked America into believing handguns make us safer. The NRA, like the KKK, has brainwashed us through fear and division.

I don’t believe individual NRA members and/or gun owners — and I’m quite aware the NRA has members of every race — are racist. I do believe the NRA capitalizes on and promotes racial fears and ignorance that swings all directions. People of every race are buying guns to “protect” themselves from their own race or other races. It’s an unhealthy arms race. The NRA is powering it by promoting unnecessary and harmful stand-your-ground laws. The message isn’t subtle: Strap up, the other guy is out to get you.

The NRA traffics in fear, division and the seductive power of guns — the same tools used by the KKK. Other than money, I don’t think the NRA has a dog in the race. It just wants all sides armed to the hilt and convinced the other side is ready to shoot. That’s the recipe that left a 17-year-old Jacksonville kid dead over loud music blaring from a car.

It’s a dangerous recipe that I believe is fracturing our imperfect union. Nations as big and powerful as ours die from internal — not external — wounds. We’ve been duped into believing handguns are our salvation, an expression of our American patriotism. They’re just the opposite. Their rising popularity pushes us closer and closer to the brink, closer to a war inspired by racial divisions.

To much fanfare and derision, I’ve written provocatively about black people’s adoption of KKK-like qualities. I’ve bitched rather loudly and passionately about gangsta, hip-hop culture. I don’t run my opinions or analogies through a political point of view before airing them. I’m not part of the right- or left-wing entertainment media. I’m just a sports writer spouting my opinions trying to get you to look at the world differently.

If you read me long enough, it’s inevitable I’m going write something you passionately disagree with. But the opinions expressed in this column don’t come from a dishonest or partisan place.

Why are people giving so many ****s what Whitlock thinks about gun control?

Excactly.

Right or wrong, the man makes you stop and think. At least he does for me.

He brings some interesting viewpoints to the table.

tl;dr

Not in this case.

Guns are only a problem when they are used by morons.

Because Whitlock's views on gun control got parroted on national TV during a football game where honestly politics had no part of. That forces people to ask.

Obama stated point blank that he is in favor of gun control, I believe at the final debate.



I'm not a member of the NRA and I don't give them money directly and I don't agree with all of their statements, however they are doing good work to defend my rights as an owner of multiple guns.

Oddly enough, even though I became a gun owner at 6 years old with a crossman pump pellet gun, and owned a shotgun at 12 and many other guns since...not a single one of them have harmed another human being or have been used in a crime. Not Once.

It's a miracle.

Anti-gun tards will have you believe the NRA goes door-to-door handing out free guns.

This.

And im 100% sure that JWhit would agree. Basically he feels there needs to be real discussion to reexamine the usefulness of the 2nd amendment. Heres the MEAT of the column:





I further argued that our Second Amendment is outdated. The right to bear arms no longer protects us from a government armed with stealth bombers, predator drones, tanks, nuclear weapons and all the other knickknacks James Madison and Co. couldn’t envision when ratifying the Bill of Rights in 1791.





Recognizing his culpability for his girlfriend’s murder and moving on to make a deeper, more nuanced point isn’t irresponsible or an effort to excuse Belcher’s gross criminality. It’s a bid to probe alternative remedies that might lessen the probability of another Belcher tragedy. History has taught us that human beings are flawed, volatile, irresponsible and violent. What can we do to safely manage these human characteristics beyond the obvious?



I believe we should re-examine our love affair with guns. They don’t protect us from tyranny. Guns are toys in America. Guns are a dangerous hobby. Guns are a macho accessory, no different from a shiny sports car.

We can’t see this or even have a discussion about it because the propaganda-political-lobby-machine, the NRA, has hoodwinked America into believing handguns make us safer. The NRA, like the KKK, has brainwashed us through fear and division.

I don’t believe individual NRA members and/or gun owners — and I’m quite aware the NRA has members of every race — are racist. I do believe the NRA capitalizes on and promotes racial fears and ignorance that swings all directions. People of every race are buying guns to “protect” themselves from their own race or other races. It’s an unhealthy arms race. The NRA is powering it by promoting unnecessary and harmful stand-your-ground laws. The message isn’t subtle: Strap up, the other guy is out to get you.

The NRA traffics in fear, division and the seductive power of guns — the same tools used by the KKK. Other than money, I don’t think the NRA has a dog in the race. It just wants all sides armed to the hilt and convinced the other side is ready to shoot. That’s the recipe that left a 17-year-old Jacksonville kid dead over loud music blaring from a car.

Honestly what people don't even realize is that it's not about guns. People on the very liberal left(*cough* Pelosi *cough*) like to say...why do people need guns?

Why does someone need to have something should never be a question that's asked in a free society, especially by the people's own government. The only question of need is, why does the government need to constrain a behavior.

There are times and places to restrict behavior even in free societies, but we shouldn't be banning things just because we don't like them(this goes for 'left' or 'right'). If we need to ban something we should have to prove that..

A. It represents substantial harm that outweighs the freedom lost
B. That the restrictions is place will actually realistically address the harm

The biggest issue with gun control is B. The only guns you take are legal guns. You don't take the illegal guns, and in the world where we can't stop tons of marijuana and meth from crossing our borders how do they expect to stop the flow of illegal guns? They can be hidden as any metal and made in crude backyard workshops.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Khyber_Pass_Copy

I liked it better when he was talking about what a disaster this team is.

tl;dr

Shooting guns is fun.


Shooting guns is entertaining.

Shooting guns prepares the owners to be effective if the need ever arises to defend our homes or families.

Shooting guns into the vital areas of game animals is enjoyable and a good way to control their populations and get good things to eat.


When Dispicable Me from Canada was asking why we Americans "need guns"....well, NEED doesn't have anything to do with it.

It's really quite true.

I love staring at my weapons, and taking them out to the range. I love knowing that if someone ever attempts to break in my house while I am home, they will have x12 .40 cal rounds unloaded into them until they die to protect what is mine. Do I NEED a gun? No; not if the person breaking into my house doesn't have one either... a sword would be fine by me. A more honorable fight. If NOBODY owned a gun, NOBODY would need a gun for protection. Will that EVER happen? I don't think so.

But honestly, Whitlock is right.

But see here's the point...I totally agree with this. I own guns, I'm not particularly a fan of the self defense aspects and I'll probably never be interested in hunting. I'm interesting in firearms like I am in cars, I target shoot them and experiment with novel new mechanical technologies. They are my hobby, my toys, and how I express myself.

Would the government think it's ok the ban sports cars too? That hobby is potentially dangerous also. We have 'assault weapons' bans in certain states that ban features on guns that are realistically cosmetic only. Should we also ban spoilers on cars and aftermarket rims because street racers do that to their cars to and they kill people with them?

I change how my firearms look depending upon how I feel, maybe I'll build an AR with wood furniture and a stainless barrel. Or maybe I'll change up for a more traditional black rifle, depending upon how I feel. How is that different than you waking up in the morning and choosing to wear a blue shirt instead of a red one? Frankly you don't 'need' to wear a colored shirt at all, an uncolored one is perfectly functional and saves money.

Hell why would anyone need a gun that looks like
http://www.thefirearmblog.com/blog/w..._1370-tfb.jpeg
Or this??
http://www.thefirearmblog.com/blog/w...3040_n-tfb.jpg

The funny thing is, in a number of states(and from 1994-2004 nationwide), certain guns are prohibited...not because they were any more dangerous...but because they looked different. The fact that in this day and age we are banning things solely because they look different should frighten anyone....

Reading the argument, I don't see Whitlock even talking about gun control. He is talking about the nation's proliferation of guns and their love affair with the gun. He is arguing that more guns are not making us safer. He is arguing that in a case like Jovan Belcher it is all to common that in the heat of the moment its too easy to pull out a pistol and start shooting.

This basically translates as "There's no way I can back up my Anti-American bullshit in a debate against an intelligent person, so I'm going to hide behind my computer like a bitch."

Way to sack up, Mariotti. Did you get a free box of tampons with that article?

And I like the part where he says that the people he likens to klansman aren't really racist, though. Gee, that's nice. 4321

I got my .410/.22 O/U when I was 10 years old and not once since then I have ever considered turning a weapon on another person. Not then and not any time since. That article is full of alot of bull.

:spock: I don't believe that's so.

I bought both of my girls daisy "buck" bb guns this week for Christmas.

Whitlock just needs to shoot a toilet full of tannerite with a tracer round from an AR.

LOL


I have guns to protect me from the reeruns that dont want guns...

While again I am no big fan of the self defense side, the flaw is this argument is the 95lb women against the 200lb rapist. Even if she has a blade she gets about one strike, because once within grapple range it is all over. A gun equalizes strength for her quite quickly.

Also remember even Diane Feinstein had a concealed carry permit, something she conveniently likes to forget....(sorry originally listed Pelosi...wrong CA base Gun control advocate...)

****ing chicken shit scared to debate......if you are in the right, you wouldnt be scared to debate anyone, anywhere

Maybe I am crazy but at least once a week driving at night...I see something that makes me put the .45 on the passenger seat from it's hiding spot. Either crazy drivers, poeople walking up behind my car to cross the street.

If you know my story I have a number of relatives shot and killed. Now that might happen to me too, but not for a lack of shooting back.

It's a dangerous world.

We are not that much more evolved than people living 2000 years ago.

We have just perfected a few modern living benefits.

Shut of the water and the electricity or slow or stop the resources and food and see what happens

People will go crazy

They will hurt people and steal

Once the survival instinct kicks in

All bets are off

Prison rules

It's kinda ****ed up.

I wish JWhit would help me pick out a couple of Tactical shotguns for home defense...

This is complete bullshit. If our government turned those kind of weapons on the American people, If it came down to the government against the people like that the people would take their small arms and go take over the armouries and get bigger weapons to even the playing field.

He would respond but he's trying to level up his AA12 on black ops.

I would find it hard to believe that most of the military would take up Arms against their families or friends...

It wouldnt be pretty. The amount of military people that would turn on the Govt would be staggering...

Our right to bear arms is what keeps this country free... No one is going to take guns away from americans without a fight. We are americans for Gods sake, we will defend our rights and ourselves...

I believe this to be true.

Speaking of black ops...my two most recent purchases....

SRM 1216 and a vepr-12

now I just have to wait on my 200lbs of shotgun ammo to get here to break them in! :D

Yes sir!

Well done!

I won't lie...watching the fpsrussia video got me interested in the 1216 but when I found out it's a roller delayed semi-auto shotgun(i.e. not gas or inertia) that sealed the deal. I've simply never heard of any roller delayed shotguns before. Somehow I think the ammo may go a lot faster than expected!

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/PiZgSXfN-BA" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

You know who's fault it is???

It's those God Damn rich white guys in suits who go into all the ghetto's and poor neighborhoods every night and shoot all the poor innocent black gang guys! :bang:

Yeah, that's my story and I'm sticking to it!

I am in love. I want one....

I wanted so much for that guy to say "Photon torpedoes away, Keptan."

Is this good?

http://www.ruger.com/products/sr556E/images/5912.jpg

I like this one Jason? What you think? I cant decide between this or a tactical shotgun....

his ass is grown alright.

.

He's a grown ass something

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi...rn_Leghorn.png

Maybe SOC should refund his money.

If those assholes are going to shoot each other, that's on them, they will find the guns.

Don't take my ****ing guns away just because you don't like them, stupid ****ers.

Maybe SOC should fly a banner in LA that says “Jason Whitlock is unarmed” then take bets on how often he gets mugged in a month.

Am I the only one that thought about rock salt and Jason's ass when I saw this?

Sad that Jason is more willing to address what he calls a dead issue than to address the issue of domestic violence in the black community. Or any community. Or in the professinal sports community

Jason is a spotlight seeker like a moth to a flame. Demoted from what is arguesbly one of the best sports newspapers in the country to doing podcasts and blogong for foxsports.com

Man up JWhit. Grow a set of balls and lets see you do a take on a real issue. I wont stay up looking for it. Costas at least tried to defend his stupid take. Stay in the basement doing blogs and eating wings. Big time is way to big for you.

100% inconvenient truth

The coolest part about that is the libtards won't have any guns.

This. His opinion would have been dismantled in front of the world. He is like a kid talking smack until someone calls him out. When the time comes he doesn't show up behind the school for a fight because he knows he will be publically embarrased.

I have grown tired of this whole argument. **** it, come take my guns. Make sure to bring body bags too because I am not going to give them up easy.

He's right here. The gun culture in this country has become so prevalent that it isn't even really possible to have a legitimate debate about the issue any longer. No politician who actually wants to win anything would ever even suggest any kind of gun control.

Did you miss the part where he said he was wrong to say that? He knows he would have been crucified. He's defended his views on O Reilly before.

Going on there serves no purpose anyways. I'm a conservative and I think he's a clown show.
Posted via Mobile Device

I agree with that - O'Reilly and Maher are flip-sides of the same douchy coin. However, he said he declined ALL interviews. All of them. Typical Mariotti-ish crap - spout off bullshit in a column or on the internet, and then hide when it comes back to bite you.

Notice he hasn't posted here since all this crap happened, either.

There has been a legitimate debate. Gun control lost.

Good. Let's move on...

You obviously don't live in the Peoples Republik of Illinois. Or New York. Or Kalifornia.

Whitlock hasn't been this worked up since someone hid his salt shaker. Stick to sports JWhit.

I agree. I like them too... just saying, if they did not exist I truely believe that less people would be dead today. Belcher made a spur of the moment stupid decision. Had he not owned a gun, I'm guessing he would've beat her to a pulp, but she would've lived.

I do believe guns don't kill people; people do.... but also Whitlock makes some valid points.


ps: I was going to buy this for the wife.

http://www.impactguns.com/data/defau...8681412839.jpg

That just means that we need to make "stealth bombers, predator drones, tanks, nuclear weapons and all the other knicknacks James Madison and Co. couldn’t envision when ratifying the Bill of Rights in 1791" more readily available to the general public. One of the biggest problems in the country is that the government no longer fears its people.

It's like he doesn't even know that a goat herder in the middle east not only evaded those Stealth Bombers for decades but did so while directing several successful attacks on this government and it's allies.

Sounds like Whitlock's primary concern is not with people owning guns, but an irresponsible, "gangsta, hip hop culture" that fetishes guns. I suppose if you hear enough stories about young black adults getting shot and killed, it hits home.

This board is made up of people from the midwest, where guns are for primarily for hobby (even before self defense). It's a completely different culture in poor, urban areas. They don't get guns because they want to hunt. And the NRA is completely fine with that sacrifice of young, colored males.

No.

but but but, I don't understand. Haven't you ever been really mad at someone?

Agreed, so easy to shit on one persons opinion

Or he could have grabbed a kitchen knife and gone OJ on her too. Crazy sometimes can be hard to predict.

I agree that if guns didn't exist we'd probably have fewer dead people today...probably less than people think but likely fewer. The problem is that it's also true that if we didn't have cars we'd also have fewer dead people today.

No one needs a car, build out the public transportation some and people could get around without them. But personally I think that would suck, sometimes you want the freedom of running on your own schedule and personally I enjoy just driving at times.

The point I'm trying to bring up is that often we will apply harsh standards to things that we don't approve of, but then not apply those same standards to things that we do like. To be fair we have to apply the same standards to everything whether we like it or not.

If banning firearms is an appropriate response to preventing unnecessary firearm deaths then why is banning cars not an appropriate response to preventing unnecessary automobile deaths? I know people will say it's crazy to even think of banning cars, but is it really that different?

No matter how many point JW makes that are valid and how may on the other side of the isle that are just as valid, the truth is we're enabling him. Perhaps that's good, perhaps it's not.

But I will say this, I agree with some of his points, but to call O’Reilly an entertainer and not admit he's just the same, well that's where he's duping people. He's just like O’Reilly, he just has a different opinion than O’Reilly.

Yeah, we discussed that at the last meeting. Sacrificing young, colored males came right after the pipe bomb workshop. Then we broke for lunch and in the afternoon shot up a grade school in a poor Mexican neighborhood. :drool:

Actually that's not entirely true, people in urban areas do get guns to hunt...they just often are hunting an entirely different type of game.

I grew up in KS but I'm on the west coast for now and one of the things that has always shocked me is how afraid people are of guns out here. I grew up with them and to me they are no big deal. To be respected yes...to be feared no. But out here people just see them and immediate think they should call the cops. People are taught to fear guns and that is a sad thing.

The sad truth is that law abiding citizens in shitty urban neighborhoods are the ones who should be lining up to join the NRA.

I think Literature was having a little fun with us.

jwhit is our bud. He backed us now it's our turn.

THIS!