Thread: Costas uses football platform to advocate for gun control

Costas uses football platform to advocate for gun control

By GOPUSA Staff December 4, 2012 12:15 pm

NEW YORK (AP) - Bob Costas'"Sunday Night Football" halftime commentary supporting gun control sparked a Fox News Channel debate Monday on whether NBC should fire him and a Twitter storm involving Ted Nugent, Rosie O'Donnell, Herman Cain and many more.

The NBC sportscaster, who frequently delivers commentary at halftime of the weekly NFL showcase, addressed the weekend's murder-suicide involving Kansas City Chiefs linebacker Jovan Belcher.

Costas said that the shooting has invoked the "mindless sports cliche" that "something like this really puts it all in perspective."

"Please," he said. "Those who need tragedies to continually recalibrate their sense of proportion about sports would seem to have little hope of ever truly achieving perspective."

He then paraphrased and quoted extensively from a piece by Fox Sports columnist Jason Whitlock.

After praising the column, Costas said: "In the coming days, Jovan Belcher's actions and their possible connection to football will be analyzed. Who knows? But here, wrote Jason Whitlock, is what I believe. If Jovan Belcher didn't possess a gun, he and Kasandra Perkins would both be alive today."

Belcher shot and killed Perkins, the mother of his 3-month-old daughter, on Saturday morning, then drove to Arrowhead Stadium and committed suicide in the parking lot of the team's practice facility.

Quickly, Costas' comments renewed one of society's most contentious debates, made more intense by people who believe that a football halftime show was not the right place for Costas to be speaking on the issue.

"You tune in for a football game and end up listening to Bob Costas spewing sanctimonious dreck," tweeted Herman Cain, the former GOP presidential candidate.

Above a headline "Advocacy Gone Awry?" the hosts of Fox's morning show "Fox & Friends" read letters from viewers criticizing Costas' stance. On Megyn Kelly's afternoon show, there was a debate on whether Costas should be fired.

Rock star and gun advocate Nugent was quick to criticize via Twitter: "Hey Bob Costas we all kno (sic) that obesity is a direct result of the proliferation of spoons and forks. Get a clue."

Former talk show host Rosie O'Donnell, however, tweeted "way to go, Bob Costas." His former NBC colleague, Keith Olbermann, observed that it was "amazing that all those ripping my friend Bob Costas would, had he taken opposing view, be defending him for using the 1st."

There was no immediate comment on Monday from NBC Sports or from Costas.

Before the Olympics this summer, Costas criticized the International Olympic Committee's decision not to hold a moment of silence to mark the deaths of 11 Israeli athletes and coaches killed by Palestinian gunmen in Munich in 1972. But he stopped short of repeating that criticism on the air.

» Costas uses football platform to advocate for gun control » News -- GOPUSA

The Gun Debate erupts on Hannity thanks to Bob Costas' rant on Sunday night football.

Posted by Darla Dawald, National Director on December 4, 2012 at 1:17pm in Patriot Action Alerts
View Discussions

A debate over gun control turned into an all-out screaming match tonight on Hannity. Guests Erik Rush and Leo Tyrell were on the show to discuss the NFL tragedy of Jovan Belcher’s murder-suicide.

NBC’s Bob Costas catapulted the debate on guns in the wake of this incident, when he used the “Sunday Night Football” halftime segment to project his opinion on gun laws.

Then it gets ugly!

Watch the video here: FNC Video | Fox News Video - FoxNews.com

What say you?

Tags: bob, control, costas, fox, gun, hannity, news

The Gun Debate erupts on Hannity thanks to Bob Costas' rant on Sunday night football. - Patriot Action Network

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Gun Control INCREASES Gun Crime



Gun Control INCREASES Gun Crime - YouTube

Published on Dec 4, 2012 by PrisonPlanetLive

Would banning handguns in America reduce gun crime?

After handguns were banned in Britain, gun crime more than DOUBLED.

Gun control only creates victims who cannot defend themselves against criminals.

More guns = less crime.

Alex Jones Calls for Boycott of NFL, NBC and Bob Costas - » Alex Jones Calls for Boycott of NFL, NBC and Bob Costas Alex Jones' Infowars: There's a war on for your mind!

http://infowars.com
http://prisonplanet.com

Category: News & Politics

License: Standard YouTube License

NFL Declares War on 2nd Amendment for Obama

Infowars.com
December 4, 2012

Alex Jones calls for a boycott of the NFL, NBC and host Bob Costas after they scapegoated the Right to Bear Arms for an athlete’s murder-suicide tragedy has overtaken media wavelengths.



NFL Declares War on 2nd Amendment for Obama - YouTube


From Adan Salazar and Alex Jones:

Within a day after Kansas City Chiefs linebacker Jovan Belcher’s and his girlfriend’s deaths, the establishment launched a surprise attack on the right to bear arms and the Second Amendment using guns as a scapegoat to distract from the most-likely culprit: the concussion-inducing, psychotropic drug-addicted, gladiatorial thug, celebrity rock star culture plaguing the NFL.

This past weekend on Sunday Night Football, sports commentator Bob Costas, with the full support of NBC and the NFL, indicted the “gun culture” as he quoted an article by Fox Sports columnist James Whitlock which blamed guns for the sad killings that took place. He read the following publicly on air to millions of NFL viewers across the country:

“Our current gun culture ensures that more and more domestic disputes will end in the ultimate tragedy and that more convenience-store confrontations over loud music coming from a car will leave more teenage boys bloodied and dead.”

“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. In the coming days, Jovan Belcher’s actions, and their possible connection to football will be analyzed. Who knows?”

However, blaming guns for the deaths is like blaming spoons and forks for obese people.
There can be no mistake that the Costas incident was a flagrantly bold, covert and coordinated attack on citizens’ gun rights, but this episode is just the latest in a series of pathetic attempts in the course of the Obama administration to subvert the Second Amendment.

The current president’s lengthy resumé of attacks on guns speaks volumes about his attitude towards Americans’ right to bear arms.

In the book Debacle, Obama is quoted telling author John R. Lott, Jr., PhD, “I don’t believe that people should be able to own guns,” while both worked at the University of Chicago Law School in 1996.

While running for a Senate seat in Illinois, Obama filled out a survey by a liberal Independent voter organization saying that while it is politically impracticable, “restrictions on the sale and possession of handguns are necessary to protect the public safety.”

His response to another question in the same survey is equally disturbing. To a question asking, “Do you support legislation to ban the manufacture, sale and possession of handguns, assault weapons and ammunition for handguns and assault weapons?,” Obama reportedly answered: “I would support banning the sale of ammunition for assault weapons and limiting the sale of ammunition for handguns.”

Months before the Fast and Furious gun-walking fiasco surfaced, Obama had reportedly met with gun control advocate Sarah Brady telling her he was working on the gun issue “under the radar,” and that gun regulations were “very much on his agenda.”

“In the meeting, she said, Obama discussed how records get into the system and what can be done about firearms retailers. Her husband specifically brought up the proposed ban on large magazine clips, and she noted that even former vice president Dick Cheney had suggested that some restrictions on the clips might make sense,” wrote Jason Horowitz for the Washington Post.

Obama’s Attorney General Eric Holder is on record 15 years ago saying we need to “brainwash people into thinking about guns in a vastly different way,” and at an October debate during his campaign for a second term, Obama said, “What I’m trying to do is to get a broader conversation about how do we reduce the violence generally. Part of it is seeing if we can get an assault weapons ban reintroduced.”

It can now be counted on that every time there is a random act of violence involving firearms, the event will be used to further eviscerate the Second Amendment and restrict gun rights.

Are we witnessing the “brainwashing” Holder talked about?

Let’s not forget they fired Hank Williams Jr. from performing the intro to Monday Night Football after decades simply for expressing his belief that the presidency was turning into a dictatorship, clearly indicating who the corporations and networks answer to.

Now is the time to stand up to these establishment control freaks, to these social engineers that try to blame every tragedy on, not just the Second Amendment, but our freedoms in their efforts to disarm America, as so many others countries around the world have already been.

We need to ask ourselves: Why is the NFL endorsing an attack on the most bedrock of American freedoms that almost no one else in the world enjoys? It’s because firearms are the hallmark of a free society and the last thing standing in the way of a complete global takeover of the U.S.

It’s time to boycott the NFL, NBC and Bob Costas unless they come out and apologize and repudiate their attack on the rights of millions of gun owners across the country.

Parody image sent in by an Infowars reader

In response to Bob Costas’ unmistakable declaration of war on the Second Amendment, Infowars.com is launching a new contest looking for the best video taped open letter to Mr. Costas telling him why the Second Amendment, citizen gun rights, the Bill of Rights and the Constitution are essential to a free society.

The contest aims to call attention to the media’s blatantly transparent efforts to control and shape public opinion in regards to firearms.

Additionally, everyone is encouraged to mail spoons with notes to Mr. Costas because, by his own logic, spoons are responsible for the rising obesity epidemic that has claimed the lives of millions of Americans.

Join Infowars.com in boycotting the NFL, NBC and Bob Costas unless they issue an apology and renounce their claims against the Second Amendment.

Watch Alex’s special reports exposing the gun control propaganda.



Bob Costas Tells Gun Owners They Are Stupid - YouTube




The NFL Is Helping Obama Ban Guns! Boycott Now!! - YouTube




Fox Sports Writer: 'The NRA Is the New KKK' - YouTube


This article was posted: Tuesday, December 4, 2012 at 1:20 pm

Tags: entertainment, government corruption, gun rights, police state

» NFL Declares War on 2nd Amendment for Obama Alex Jones' Infowars: There's a war on for your mind!

CNN Anchor Rants About Gun Control

Piers Morgan owned by pro gun crowd after Twitter outburst

Steve Watson
Infowars.com
Dec 4, 2012

Piers Morgan

• ✔

@piersmorgan
Quite incredible that Bob Costas makes an impassioned plea for less handguns, and Americans go crazy with indignation. He's 100% right.

3 Dec 12

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CNN anchor Piers Morgan has been bombarded with angry responses from Americans following a twitter rant in which he called for increased gun control and said the Second Amendment was outdated.
Following Sunday’s on air gun control rant by NBC’s Bob Costas, CNN ran a number of segments advocating more gun control.
Anchor Brooke Baldwin stated “perhaps Congress is listening” after her guest called for tougher gun laws, and anchor Carol Costello asked if the incident should “cause us to rethink gun control?”
By far the most vocal, however, was Morgan, who tweeted with regard to Costas’ comments “He’s 100% right,”
“The 2nd amendment was devised with muskets in mind, not high-powered handguns & assault rifles. Fact,” Morgan later added.
In between messages about sports and how wonderful the Royal family are, the British anchor then re-tweeted New York Mayor Bloomberg’s call for a “frank discussion about gun laws and gun violence.”
Morgan also tweeted, “America has 300 million guns and 11-12,000 gun murders a year. I think it’s time there was a serious debate about guns in the U.S.”, adding “When Bill O’Reilly agrees America needs more gun control, I think the time for serious debate has arrived” linking to a Huffington Post article about O’Reilly calling for harsher punishments for gun crimes.
Following scores of counter tweets from pro-second amendment Americans, Morgan tweeted “I’d like fewer Americans to die from gun crime each day. That’s all. It’s a debate worth having, however much abuse I need to endure!”
The CNN anchor then posted numerous sarcastic responses to tweets he has received from critics.
Morgan was, for the most part, owned by his critics, including author Carol Roth, who used facts and reasoned arguments in the face of his empty talking points and glib sarcastic responses.

This is not the first time CNN has played host to Morgan’s anti-gun rants. In the hours after the “Batman” shootings back in July, he spent a large portion of his time calling for more gun control.

In response to Bob Costas’ unmistakable declaration of war on the Second Amendment, Infowars.com is launching a new contest looking for the best video taped open letter to Mr. Costas telling him why the Second Amendment, citizen gun rights, the Bill of Rights and the Constitution are essential to a free society.

The contest aims to call attention to the media’s blatantly transparent efforts to control and shape public opinion in regards to firearms.

Additionally, everyone is encouraged to mail spoons with notes to Mr. Costas because, by his own logic, spoons are responsible for the rising obesity epidemic that has claimed the lives of millions of Americans.

Join Infowars.com in boycotting the NFL, NBC and Bob Costas unless they issue an apology and renounce their claims against the Second Amendment.

—————————————————————-

Steve Watson is the London based writer and editor for Alex Jones’ Infowars.com, and Prisonplanet.com. He has a Masters Degree in International Relations from the School of Politics at The University of Nottingham in England.

» CNN Anchor Rants About Gun Control Alex Jones' Infowars: There's a war on for your mind!

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Anti-Gun Sports Columnist Jason Whitlock: ‘The NRA Is the New KKK’

Infowars.com
Dec 4, 2012

Little does Jason Whitlock know that most of the gun control laws enacted in our country were to keep guns out of the hands of black people so they could not defend themselves.



Fox Sports Writer: 'The NRA Is the New KKK' - YouTube

» Anti-Gun Sports Columnist Jason Whitlock: ‘The NRA Is the New KKK’ Alex Jones' Infowars: There's a war on for your mind!

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Veterans’ Gun Rights a Sticky Issue in Defense Bill

AP
December 3, 2012

Handgun showing self lighting Tritium sights, commonly referred to as night sights. (Photo by Wiki Phantoms (Own work), via Wikimedia Commons)

Should veterans deemed too mentally incompetent to handle their own financial affairs be prevented from buying a gun?

The issue, for a time last week, threatened to become the biggest sticking point in a $631 billion defense bill for reshaping a military that is disengaging from a decade of warfare.

[...] “I love our veterans, I vote for them all the time. They defend us,” [Sen. Charles] Schumer said. “If you are a veteran or not and you have been judged to be mentally infirm, you should not have a gun.”

Read full article

This article was posted: Monday, December 3, 2012 at 1:17 pm

Tags: constitution, domestic news, gun rights

» Veterans’ Gun Rights a Sticky Issue in Defense Bill Alex Jones' Infowars: There's a war on for your mind!

Veterans' gun rights a sticky issue in defense bill

Published December 03, 2012
Associated Press
Sen, Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., left, talks with Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Okla., on Capitol Hill in Washington, during President Barack Obama's State of the Union address in Washington. (AP)


WASHINGTON – Should veterans deemed too mentally incompetent to handle their own financial affairs be prevented from buying a gun?

The issue, for a time last week, threatened to become the biggest sticking point in a $631 billion defense bill for reshaping a military that is disengaging from a decade of warfare.

Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Okla., sought to amend the bill to stop the Veterans Affairs Department from putting the names of veterans deemed too mentally incompetent to handle their finances into the National Instant Criminal Background Check System, which prohibits them from buying or owning firearms.

Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., objected, saying the measure would make it easier for veterans with mental illness to own a gun, endangering themselves and others.

"I love our veterans, I vote for them all the time. They defend us," Schumer said. "If you are a veteran or not and you have been judged to be mentally infirm, you should not have a gun."

Currently, the VA appoints fiduciaries, often family members, to manage the pensions and disability benefits of veterans who are declared incompetent. When that happens, the department automatically enters the veteran's name in the Criminal Background Check System.

A core group of lawmakers led by Sen. Richard Burr, R-N.C., has for several years wanted to prohibit the VA from submitting those names to the gun-check registry unless a judge or magistrate deems the veteran to be a danger. This year's version of the bill has 21 co-sponsors. It passed the Senate Veterans' Affairs Committee by voice vote, a tactic generally reserved for noncontroversial legislation.

Coburn's amendment to the defense bill contained comparable language.

"All I am saying is, let them at least have their day in court if you are going to take away a fundamental right given under the Constitution," Coburn said in the Senate debate last Thursday night.

Congressional aides said Coburn will likely drop his effort to amend the defense bill with his proposal, but that he intends to try again on other bills coming to the Senate floor.

The number of veterans directly affected by the VA's policy doesn't appear to very large. Only 185 out of some 127,000 veterans added to the gun-check registry since 1998 have sought to have their names taken off, according to data that the VA shared with lawmakers during a hearing last June.

Still, the legislation over the years has attracted strong support from the National Rifle Association and various advocacy groups for veterans.

"We consider it an abject tragedy that so many of our veterans return home, after risking life and limb to defend our freedom, only to be stripped of their Second Amendment rights because they need help managing their compensation," Chris Cox, the NRA's chief lobbyist, wrote last year in an editorial.
The NRA did not respond to queries from the AP about Coburn's latest effort.

Dan Gross, president of the Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence, said gun control advocates consider the VA's current policy reasonable.

"We're talking about people who have some form of disability to the extent that they're unable to manage their own affairs," Gross said. "If you're deemed unable to handle your own affairs, that's likely to constitute a high percentage of people who are dangerously mentally ill."

Tom Tarantino, chief policy officer for Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America, said veterans with a traumatic brain injury or post-traumatic stress disorder but who pose no threat to others are possibly being barred from gun ownership. The current restrictions might even be a disincentive for veterans to seek needed treatment, he said.

"We want to remove these stigmas for mental health treatment. It's a combat injury," Tarantino said.

"They wouldn't be doing this if you were missing your right hand, so they shouldn't be doing it if you're seeking treatment for post-traumatic-stress-disorder or traumatic brain injury."

VA officials have told lawmakers they believe veterans deemed incompetent already have adequate protections.

For example, they said, veterans can appeal the finding of incompetency based on new evidence. And even if the VA maintains a veteran is incompetent, he can petition the agency to have his firearm rights restored on the basis of not posing a threat to public safety.

Veterans' gun rights a sticky issue in defense bill | Fox News