Maybe not the sharpest knife in the drawer, but.....
Defending Plaxico Burress is not easy. Carrying a concealed loaded gun into a New York nightclub is not only incredibly stupid but dangerous. The danger played out as Burress accidentally discharged the weapon shooting himself in the leg. There’s no way he should have been carrying the gun. If he were entitled to a conceal and carry permit, that would be a different matter, but the bottom line is, if Burress felt he was going somewhere as a frontline NFL player where he needed a loaded gun for protection, that’s a place he should never have gone in the first place. Size it up; guilty for carrying a loaded gun in New York City, an area with some of the harshest gun laws in the country, stupid for doing the same, stupid for going to the nightclub, stupid for how he initially handled the situation.
From the instant the story hit the news, Plaxico Burress was toast. He was immediately suspended from the New York Giants. All the people in a position of power in New York started yapping including Mayor Michael Blumberg who demanded Burress get prosecuted to the max. Those big shot football players cannot be above the law on those tough cops’ beat, right? Make an example out of him. Make him pay. That might also be stupid.
Plaxico Burress pleaded guilty for his crime and now the sentence has been handed down, two years in prison. He could have received three and a half years minimum in the slammer but plea bargained down to two years. Smart or stupid – hard to say, but no trial no report to file as Dirty Harry would say.
NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell needn’t do anything since he has already suspended Burress for the offense. His fate as a possible football player will be addressed after he completes his sentence. Roger Goodell – smart!!!
Sizing this whole thing up, the guy shot himself in the leg. It’s essentially a self-punishing crime. Sure as a veteran NFL player, he’s used to being banged around and knows pain, but a gunshot wound is a special kind of trauma. What purpose does additional punishment serve other than allowing prosecutors and politicians using it for some chest pounding self-promotion? That’s stupid. Does anyone think Burress hasn’t learned his lesson? If he hasn’t he’s incredibly stupid.
There are places in the country where what he did wasn’t illegal at all. In some cities, gun laws are incredibly harsh but do those gun laws make Baltimore, Detroit, Washington, DC, and other cities where urban violence kills on almost a nightly basis. All agree guns should be taken out of the hands of known criminals. That’s smart. Persecuting regular citizens for their second amendment rights is absolutely stupid.
Still, people see things in stupid, simple, black and white terms. As one average Baltimorean responded when a local television reporter stuffed a microphone in her face, “Well, we gotta do something. We got all these guns going around killing people!”
What? Did you get that? Guns are going around killing people??? Now that’s really stupid. When has a gun killed anybody? The real evil and stupidity rests in the hearts of wicked people who use guns as a tools to inflict death and suffering on their intended victims.
So who learns a lesson from the Plaxico Burress sentencing other than stead-fast NRA advocates who legitimately assert that the application of gun laws is arbitrary and overblown.
Be smart not stupid. The real enemy in gun violence is wicked, murderous people not a tool used to commit their crimes. Failing to recognize this and prosecute accordingly is stupid too.
The government is essentially helpless in solving the evil in peoples’ hearts and minds that drive them to murder. Government run schools have all but banished any teaching of real moral values where a Florida Principal and Athletic Director face about as much time in the slammer as Burress for having the audacity of leading a prayer, saying grace over a meal for an assembled group of athletic boosters. No one was forcing kids in the classroom to pray. These gentlemen could also lose their pensions. That’s incredibly stupid as is removing the Ten Commandments and any attempts to allow frank discussions of values and God in the classroom which can surely be done without Congress making laws that impose religion or the free expression thereof. Screwing with the first amendment is as wrong as screwing with the second amendment, and it’s people with the same political values who support both. They’re stupid.
For everyday citizens to speak up and assert themselves and to work together to make their neighborhoods safe, that’s smart.
Sadly, most of the politicians who are part of the majority party and many Republicans too see the state as solution to all and using a football player as a pawn for their political assertions is just plain stupid.
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