The old expression “It’s better to be quiet and considered a fool than to speak and remove all doubt” has been credited to Abraham Lincoln. I don’t know if Honest Abe is the source of that expression, but I do believe it’s still accurate today.
The tragic murder/suicide of Kansas City Chiefs’ Jovan Belcher has drawn plenty of commentary. Unfortunately, it has also proven that knowledge and expertise in professional sports doesn’t mean you know anything about firearms, their responsible ownership or the right to own them recognized in the Second Amendment of the United States Constitution.
Bob Costas’ halftime rant last week has drawn the most attention, but he’s not the only supposedly intelligent sports figure to speak out and trigger a flag for violating the “Lincoln Rule”.
Last week, San Diego Padres General Manager Josh Byrnes blasted firearms after one of his starting pitchers was stabbed in the hand by a hunting companion while dressing a deer. That’s right, he wasn’t shot, he was accidentally cut by his hunting buddy while dressing a deer.
Pitcher Andrew Cashner is out of the Padres’ rotation after successful surgery to repair a lacerated tendon in his right thumb. According to doctors, Cashner probably won’t be able to pitch until May or June.
Hunting accident, right? Not according to Byrnes. He says that while Cashner’s injury was the direct result of a knife wound, it was caused by a hunting trip with – you guessed it – guns.
OK, Mr. Byrnes, you’re entitled to your opinion, but don’t think you reflect the position of Major League Baseball. Unless you’ve been living in a bell jar under your stadium, you know that major league baseball players who love to hunt aren’t all that unusual.
In fact, former Atlanta Braves star Chipper Jones has a television show called “Major League Bowhunter”. His TV hunting trips frequently include lots of other MLB players. According to Braves GM Frank Wren, it wasn’t unusual for Jones and former Brave Adam LaRoche to set up targets under the stadium where the grounds crew stored sand and practice with their bows. That doesn’t mean the grounds team was providing them live targets, it means they knew Jones and LaRoche were responsible shooters.
Wren differs from Byrnes because he says he feels hunting lends itself to experience with guns, not accidents.
“What’s different is that the hunting culture for the most part are the most gun-savvy and the most careful and cautious of any group of gun owners,” Wren says. But he also classifies his statement as “not talking about handguns. That’s a whole other class we don’t see.”
With the talk about guns, hunting and professional athletes boiling along now, we should expect to hear some of the men we would normally respect for their knowledge of their chosen profession speak out. What surprises me is that they will prove-repeatedly- that knowing one sport doesn’t mean you know anything about another.
That doesn’t make the Padres’ Josh Byrnes a bad guy. It does demonstrate the fact that having a forum doesn’t necessarily mean you have to express an opinion on something where you have no experience. Bob Costas should have been the poster boy for “think, but don’t speak” after his dodgy efforts to explain away his bigoted rant.
With today’s culture hung up on stardom, notoriety and the actions of “celebrities” it’s not something we can afford to write off because the comments make the person speaking them look stupid.
These people have avid followers who take whatever they say as the unadulterated truth. If Costas/Byrnes says “Guns bad” then guns must be bad.
That’s why we need to be concerned rather than disgusted by these mini-controversies.
Considered individually, they’re really pretty minor in the scheme of life.
When you look at them as a growing pattern of demonization of “the gun culture” it’s not quite so easy to overlook.
The first step to eliminating a people group is marginalization in society. That marginalization is normally followed by demonization.
I know it looks like a big reach to say there’s a pattern being displayed in the focus on guns and gun tragedies, but it’s not. Others share the sentiment. Some of them are speaking out.
Almost immediately after the final results of the general election were announced last month, meetings in Washington regarding the reinstitution of the “assault weapons ban” began again.
Over the past eight years, anti-gun politicians have kept a low profile, not wanting to risk the wrath of a group that was perceived to have considerable political power. After the November elections, it’s seems they don’t believe that political power as formidable as previously believed.
That’s why it appears they’re once again marshaling forces for another assault on guns they consider “unsuitable for the general public”.
Today, those guns are the most popular sellers across the country, but that’s because of their high fun factors, not because “gun crazies” are preparing to defend their rights.
Over the next few weeks, it’s a safe bet that you’re not going to hear “recreational enjoyment” cited as a reason for gun sales by anti-gunners. Instead, they’ll spin it as a growing “right-wing fringe movement” to oppose the government.
If-and when- that happens, it may be too late to keep them from passing legislation that is based on fear, not fact. Once passed, bad legislation takes a long time to correct.
Never forget the old rule of politics: Emotion trumps logic.
–Jim Shepherd
