Bob Costas

[Rifleman1952]

A few nights ago on MSNBC's Lawrence O'Donnell show, Bob Costas said that young men can't own guns "without something bad happening" and that he "favors more comprehensive gun control legislation."

Although Costas seemed to back track after his initial statements about guns during the halftime show of a recent NFL game; it appears now he has decided to lay out his true feelings on guns and gun control. Costas may have been emboldened now that New York City Mayor Bloomberg has thrown in his support.

I'm sending a letter to NBC to let them know what I think. So should we all.

[Kreyzhorse]

I'm sending a letter to NBC to let them know what I think. So should we all.

NBC is pretty anti gun in its news reporting and hasn't taken much effort to hide their bias.

The fact that Costas used a football game to get his point across is a bit surprising but not really shocking.

Rather than write NBC, you might be better served writing their advertisers. Hitting them in the wallet is the only way to get your point across.

[dfsixstring]

You have to keep in mind that Costas is a city boy. He doesn't understand "why" we need/desire guns. He's prejudiced because it is all he knows. He, like most liberals, doesn't understand the gun crowd and thus fears it.

I've run into several city folks that moved to the south. When they first move down they are anti-gun. Once they are here for a while, they begin to "get it" and embrace our freedoms. This is not 100%, but just as I don't get them, they don't get us. We're opposite poles of a magnet.


Dfsixstring
SR9c
LCP
RST4S

[jtmckinney]

A few years ago when ABC was broadcasting NASCAR races a race was rain delayed and going long. There was an audio anouncement over the air that they were changing over to "Americas Favorite Home Videos" and then a few seconds later they did with 30 laps left in the race. I came to the conclusion that ABC just wasn't my kind of people and haven't watched any of their programming since.

NBC is now on the same list as ABC as to my television viewing time, they are just not my kind of people.

If a business stays out of the "Gun Control" area then I will use the quality of their product and/or price to decide if I want to support them with my business.

There is no way this is good business for NBC. Those that feel we need more gun control or want to eliminate guns are not going to frequent NBC more but gun owners and 2nd Ammendment suporters may and should stay away.

Have a great day!
James

[Double Naught Spy]

You have to keep in mind that Costas is a city boy. He doesn't understand "why" we need/desire guns. He's prejudiced because it is all he knows. He, like most liberals, doesn't understand the gun crowd and thus fears it.

Yeah, city boys are all just liberals.

Your claim of geographic causeastion is wanting.

[cecILL]

A crazy man does not know he is crazy.

[vito]

Not everyone from a big city is anti-gun, but there is little doubt that the anti-gun, big city mindset affects people. I grew up in Brooklyn, NY where total gun control was the norm. Although some of us hunted, handgun ownership was unheard of in my family and circle of friends. I didn't buy a handgun until I was a young adult who was living in El Paso, Texas and wanted one for home defense because I worked about every 8th night and had a young wife who then was home alone. But to this day, almost fifty years later, all of my family that still lives in the NYC area do not own guns, don't understand why I, or anyone else owns a gun, and I know that my nephews and nieces look at me as their "crazy" uncle who not only was an Army careerist but who owns and carries guns. Despite the obvious failure of gun control laws to reduce violent crime, despite the laws which leave law abiding individuals helpless against armed criminals, and despite tragedies where it is obvious that had citizens been armed the mayhem would have been reduced, these relatives still adhere to the Mayor Bloomberg approach and spout the nonsense that what we need is even more stringent gun control laws. I long ago gave up the effort to try to change their minds. Bob Costas is just another one of these folks who believe this anti-gun crap and are proud of these beliefs. Just move on.

[Brian Pfleuger]

Originally Posted by Double Naught Spy

Yeah, city boys are all just liberals.

Your claim of geographic causeastion is wanting.

There's not much doubt that the "liberalism" is heavily concentrated in cities.

Take a look at the county by county maps of most any state. Virtually all rural areas vote more conservative while virtually all cities vote more liberal.

There's no question that the anti-gun sentiment is highly concentrated in and around cities. It's certainly not restricted to those places but its much, much stronger there.

----------

Costas has doubled/tripled down on his nonsense too. He was on O'reilly last night. What's really amazing is that he thinks his "explanations" sound better than his first statement. All he does is say the same thing, often worse, in 5 different ways, like if he just says it right we'll agree with him. "Fundamentally wrong" hasn't occurred to him.

The anti-gunners are coming out of the wood work. Fox News had some blonde chic on yesterday saying that she grew up in a house with guns and was taught to defend herself with guns but they "never had automatics or semi-automatics", Which obviously makes little sense. She finally mentioned revolvers and the other guy pointed out that many/most revolvers are in fact "semi-auto". She just stammered about 6 shots and whatnot. The guy, or another segment, I forget which, finally said "Yeah, that would have been much better! He would have shot his GF 6 times instead of 9!"

I'm annoyed that I've seen no mention from those on the pro-gun side that the situation might have been different if the GF had been armed. Possibly not, as there are plenty of issues related to that too, not the least of which is shooting someone you "love", but it couldn't really have been worse.

[Tom Servo]

The original video of Costas' remarks is here. He was basically quoting Jason Whitlock's blog here.

There has been backlash, and Costas has heard it, as has Whitlock. Piers Anthony made supportive comments on his Twitter feed, and he received a ration of hurt over it as well.

Whitlock's original comment was,

Handguns do not enhance our safety. They exacerbate our flaws, tempt us to escalate arguments, and bait us into embracing confrontation rather than avoiding it.

Which is pretty much standard boilerplate: a normal person will turn into a raving lunatic due to the very presence of a handgun. After the controversy blew up, Costas circled his wagons, claiming that young men tended to turn into hooligans, and that if they have handguns, they're going to turn violent.

I can't follow that argument at all, and neither can the guy who wrote it. Whitlock describes football as a game of violence twice in the same paragraph, and he muses that the shooter's actions will be scrutinized through the "lens of concussions and head injuries." You think maybe those things might be the factors in unreasonable and aggressive behavior?

Nah, blame the gun.

As Pax pointed out, the guy's was a football player. If you haven't met one, they're the pinnacle of physical strength. If Belcher hadn't had a gun, he was still more than capable of murder.

ETA: Let's keep this on the subject of guns. We've already had one thread on this, and it got closed for meandering into general NFL and football stuff.

[jimbob86]

Q: Who is Bob Costas?

A: Who cares?

I don't watch mutch TV, as it is generally a complete waste of time, and watching televised sports is even moreso ...... listening to the opinions of a comentator of said sports speak about something he knows nothing about .... how do you get more irrellavant than that?

[nate45]

I honestly believe that persons like Costas and Whitlock really do fear irrational, irresponsible behavior with firearms. Based on the juvenile, irresponsible, low self control manner which some persons exhibit.

The worst part of that though, is that they are largely judging human nature, by basing it on the inner feelings and uncontrolled emotions of the person they know best, themselves.

[Brian Pfleuger]

Ignoring Bob Costas, and those like him, is the civil rights equivilant of ignoring al qaeda in the 90s.

Imagine a political cartoon in the Sunday paper.

In the distance, the Twin Towers stand, one labeled "Heller", the other "McDonald". In the foreground, a jumbo-jet, headed for the Towers, labeled "Bob Costas".

Doesn't have to be him, could be any of an untold number who think like him. He just has a MUCH larger voice than most.

[Glenn E. Meyer]

BTW, we don't do liberals vs. conservatives as characterizations.

Since a significant number of members will profess 'liberal' leanings and then we will have a flame war on that variable - we just don't go there.

So that stops now.

GEM

[iraiam]

I did write a letter to NBC about the original NFL broadcast.

I also saw the transcript of Bob Costas on the Bill O'reilly show, The Aurora CO thater shooting came up and Costas said that the shooter was wearing body armor and implied that he had a military weapon, neither of which is true.

I wrote a letter to Bill O'reilly stating that I though Bob Costas in effect used his show to spout untrue statements, and they were unchallenged.

[9mmsnoopy]

I never much cared for Costas, he comes across as a smarmy knowitall. I like him even less now. He certainly is entiltled to his opinion, but halftime of an NFL game isnt the time for it, i saw that live and was about ready to scream at the tv.

[shortwave]

Ignoring Bob Costas, and those like him, is the civil rights equivilant of ignoring al qaeda in the 90s.

Personal, biased statements like the one Costas repeated and wholeheartedly agreed with on a media event should NEVER be ignored as they are a cancer to our Constitution.

Since there has been NO public statement from NBC in regards to Costas's comments, let alone a form of discipline, it must be real what many of us thought of NBC and their biased media.

You can bet if an NBC broadcaster got on the air in the middle of the Wimbledon Open and expressed his/her personal feelings making a statement for promoting tightening freedom of speech laws, that persons employment history with NBC would be very short.

NBC is just as much to blame as Costas at this point.

[22-rimfire]

I think Costas was and is wrong. I will turn off any game he is doing in the future. I simply vote to ignore him and as a result his network.

[carguychris]

Personal, biased statements like the one Costas repeated and wholeheartedly agreed with on a media event should NEVER be ignored as they are a cancer to our Constitution.

+1. What upsets me is not that Costas apparently doesn't like guns. Frankly, I don't care whether he likes them or not. The personal politics of overpaid sportscasters is not something I generally concern myself with.

What upsets me is his apparent belief that young men somehow lack impulse control and therefore shouldn't own dangerous items that more mature and implicitly "safer" people- like himself- are apparently so eminently qualified to own.

This is another version of the same insipid tripe that's trotted out each time college campus CCW is debated, except this time it's not America's future scholars and leaders who are the topic, it's the very athletes who, ironically, are Mr. Costas' meal ticket. If the 2A isn't good enough for these young athletes, what about the 4A? The 6A? Or even the 1A?

Dear NFL Players: Take careful note of the apparent level of respect that Mr. Costas has for you.

[Shane Tuttle]

I think we've had enough Bob Costas threads started up lately to last for some time. It's been an overwhelming agreeable consensus on what he said and what he meant by it. Keeping it open isn't going to expound on the issue much more than necessary.

Closed.