Jason Whitlock, the Kansas City sports columnist who inspired Bob Costas to go on an anti-gun rant during halftime of Sunday’s Cowboys-Eagles game, decided to add his take on the National Rifle Association to the discourse over gun control. Whitlock, on his Sunday FoxSports.com column , compared the NRA to the Ku Klux Klan (KKK) and castigated the group for propagating a dangerous street culture that dominates black youths.
Whitlock said:
“Sports gets so much attention, and people tune out the real world, that I try to take advantage of the opportunity to talk about the real world when sports lends itself to that and try to open people’s eyes. You know, I did not go as far as I’d like to go because my thoughts on the NRA and America’s gun culture — I believe the NRA is the new KKK. And that the arming of so many black youths, uh, and loading up our community with drugs, and then just having an open shooting gallery, is the work of people who obviously don’t have our best interests [at heart].”
Whitlock addressed the idea that gun ownership in some way preserves a citizen’s liberty or that absolute gun ownership is a right, saying:
“I think it’s obvious if you’ve traveled abroad, and traveled to countries where they have legitimate gun laws, that we don’t have to have what we have in America, where people somehow think a gun enhances their liberty, and that people somehow think a gun makes them safer. It just doesn’t. A gun turns some kids listening to music into a murder scene. And uh, you know, if you don’t have a gun, you drive home. You know, kids listening to some loud music, you don’t like it, you go home and complain to your wife. But when you have a gun, you open fire, potentially, and take the life of a child.”
The country was shocked this week when Kansas City Chiefs player Jovan Belcher killed his girlfriend with a handgun and then turned the gun on himself, prompting many to question the country’s gun laws.
Watch the video of Bob Costas going on an anti-gun rant during Sunday’s halftime show: