One of the things that still bothers us in the wake of the death of former Titans and Ravens quarterback Steve McNair is that his killer, Sahel “Jenni” Kazemi, was able to buy the murder weapon in the parking lot of the restaurant where she worked.
The transaction, a private sale from one party to another, was legal.
But it doesn’t make it right.
Though we recognize and support the Constitutional right to keep and bear arms, it should be harder to acquire a device that makes killing so easy.
“You should not just be able to walk up and down the street and buy a gun,” said Tennessee Senator Thelma Harper told NewsChannel 5 in Nashville.
Because Kazemi was under the age of 21, a licensed dealer would not have been legally able to sell the gun to her. For a private, parking-lot transaction, however, the same rules don’t apply.
“If you are a private individual selling
a gun, in some way it has to be registered, with someone, so you can
keep track of it,” Harper said.
Whether that results in a revision to Tennessee law remains to be seen. “Here we have one incident that is
getting a lot of publicity, and is that a reason just to go out and
change the law, just because of that once incident?” Tennessee Representative Debra
Maggart told NewsChannel 5.
But, frankly, sometimes that’s precisely what’s needed to place the people who make the laws on notice of the fact that change is needed.
Indeed, it was “one incident that is getting a lot of publicity” that resulted in the passage of the Brady Bill, the federal statute requiring dealers to conduct background checks and impose waiting periods before selling guns. That law came from the 1981 assasination attempt on President Ronald Reagan — and the serious, permanent injuries suffered by White House Press Secretary James Brady.
So if McNair’s murder results in serious attention being paid to the issue of private gun sales, then maybe some small amount of good will come out of a very, very bad situation.
Dude… It’s the south, get a clue!
Dude… It’s the south, get a clue!
They should just make it illegal for crazy Iranian women to buy guns… problem solved
Gun control is an issue most politicians are foaming at the mouth to be seen to be involved with. So whether someone will use a high profile event as a catalyst is a non-starter – they will. It also doesn’t hurt that this happened in Nashville with their sizable demo of wealthy elite types and bible belt population. I’d fully expect this event to elicit an effort for more gun control legislation.
I hope the Vienna Austria guy comments on this.
Yeah we can be like Austria. No gun tolerance and fathers impregnating their daughters, trapping then in the basement and then raping the grandchildren.
Gun laws keep the guns out of the good guys hands not the bad guys.
That is why the mafia is real in Japan. Cause only they are the ones who will get the guns illegally.
Criminal+ Gun vs. Society – gun= Criminal job being SIMPLE
Although in a place like ShittsburgHGH nobody has the intelligence to know how to fire a gun.
The whole trigger thing is confusing to them.
Florio, we all value your opinion, legal and otherwise, on all things football. Please keep your opinions on other matters, second amendment and otherwise, to yourself. Or, lose as fans of your site myself and others who like to buy guns.
of course, not florio. Are you not a “real” American.
i love the “representative” of the people saying that being able to buy a gun like a TV or car stereo in a parking lot without any background checks or waiting period doesn’t constitute concern for the public at large, lol.
couldn’t write this stuff you see in this country if you dreamed it up sometimes.
The U.S. should just make infidelity illegal.
Gun laws rarely make it difficult for people with bad intentions to actually get a gun.
Liberal Hippy.
Makes sense. I suppose we should ban cars because of Donte Stallworth too.
The sale was ILLEGAL!
Even among private sales, the onus is on the seller to confirm (or at least attempt to confirm!) that the purchaser is legally able to own the gun. If the purchaser was not legally able to own it, then the seller is can definitely be held liable.
I think the federal law is that you have to be 18 to own a long gun (rifle, shotgun), and 21 to own a handgun.
So that sale was definitely not legal.
But then again, if she had bought a long gun and killed McNair, that’d be completely above-board.
But before you get out your mat and jump to conclusions, consider this:
What if she had used a knife? a car? The point being it doesn’t matter whether or not any law would have prevented her killing him with a gun, if she really wanted to kill him she would have found another way.
If we outlaw (or regulate) the private sales of firearms on the basis that someone might use it in a crime, then we might as well do so with every single private sale, be it knives, cars, candlestick holders, pipe wrenches, rope, etc.
The naivete’ of alot of people and gun laws never ceases to amaze me. So yes, impose more gun laws on law abiding citizens so it takes longer to get a gun for them. And what would that have fixed in this scenario. I’ll tell you what… nothing. Kazemi would have solved the problem by garnering a weapon illegally or just stole one from her dads closet, or paid someone under the counter, or gotten her hands on one any number of different ways. You see its funny really, its never really the guns fault, but the person utilizing the gun is usually the one with the motive, the ability, and/or the desire to end someone else. In this instance it sounds to me like she was pretty set on ending McNair and herself. Now everyone start saying, “Well the gun made it easier.” Could have; A knife, axe, poison, person-for-hire, hell I’ve actually seen someone die from eating utinzels… all of these things are ready at hand, but lets be honest… guns scare people. And that’s the problem, people who have no working knowlegde of firearms fear them and want them restricted. Restricing firearms will never cut down on violent crime, if you study history at all it shows violent crime actually increases dramatically when you suppress the private ownership of firearms. If you question that look to Nazi Germany and explain that one.
VC, you’re wrong – gun control is a topic that most reasonable pols won’t touch with a ten foot pole, and McNair’s death won’t change that. Nor should it. Face it – the only way you’ll control this kind of tragedy is to confinscate every firearm in this country, and that won’t happen.
And Florio – leave the social commentary off this site. It’s PFT, not a stump for liberal gun control claptrap.
Mike…Understand your point, but you have to admit the root of this killing was a 36 year old married man with kids carrying on an affair with a (then) 19 year old girl and NOT the 9mm that was bought privately by her. I think his poor decisions hastened his demise more than anything else. BESIDES, if she was willing to kill him in his sleep how can we know for sure she wouldn’t have just as willingly hit in the head with a blunt object or poison him?
Everyone here has pretty much exhausted the point against your argument Florio. And I must say, congrats on the post, I read your site 15-20 times a day while at work or on my crackberry.
This is the first article that has gotton me to register and post.
Gun laws only prevent ME and YOU, and the rest of the law abiding public from buying firearms.
It does absolutely nothing to prevent the estimated 300 million firearms in the country from being stolen or sold illegally to the types of people who will actually use them to harm other people.
I love this site, but don’t advocate for anything other than a rookie salary scale.
Thanks.
/rant off
I really do like this site, it’s a mainstay in my favs.
Typical liberals – change the rules mid-stream because something doesn’t “seem” right.
Get tough, I say. Why do 70 percent of law-abiding Americans have to concede the Constitution simply because 30 percent of Americans cannot raise their children properly? It makes absolutely no sense.
It appears that educated Americans are becoming increasingly myopic and it’s a real shame because a lot of blood was spilled to get where we are now only to have it spoiled by elitists who cannot think rationally.
You might want to research that Florio before you run with it. While I haven’t sold a gun in years, I don’t believe it’s legal for someone to sell a handgun in a parking lot to anyone, let alone someone under 21. You have to go thru proper channels (ie licensed dealer) to sell a handgun. A long gun might be another story.
Obviously you shouldn’t be able to “walk up and down the street and buy a gun”. You also shouldn’t be able to walk up and down the street and buy drugs or a prostitute but you can. The funny thing about people that do illegal things is they tend not to pay attention to laws. Go figure
You cannot legislate common sense. If you are determined to kill, you will kill. In this case, if she had to wait 10 days for the purchase to be kosher, I think she would of waited.
Gun laws just make it harder for law abiding citizens to get guns. Also, this is america, its our right to blow people away.
dldove77 says:
July 10, 2009 4:52 PM
Gun laws rarely make it difficult for people with bad intentions to actually get a gun.
———————————–
^This.
Politicians can debate and haggle and accept money from lobbies until they’re blue in the face. And normally they do. The simple fact is that a gun doesn’t care who pulls its trigger and someone willing to kill themself and others doesn’t care what the penalty is.
Go ahead and make everything illegal. It wouldn’t have stopped Kazemi from finding and using a gun.
No, gun laws will not prevent bad people from getting them directly. Perhaps it will force the mystery man who sold her the gun to hesitate before he gave it to her. If he realizes whatever is done with the gun may fall back on him, perhaps he would think twice.
Sure, she could have done the same with a knife, or car, or candlestick, but the gun is so easy. It is quick, accurate, and painless. Her one shot was enough to kill herself with virtually no sensation, no suffering. A knife, you bleed to death. A car, you may miraculously survive driving into a tree. Hanging… painful. It just made it easier for her, that’s all.
Oh wait, so now that a “respectable” person has been shot, some action should be taken, right. Nevermind all of those innocent people murdered in ghettoes by guns but they don’t happen to matter as much as Steve McNair. Stop with the BS. I know the discussion has to come up because that’s how the lifeline of these stories always goes (talk about incident, background info on people involved, societal impact, forget about story), but please, there are other stories that include the use of illegally purchased handguns that the news doesn’t care about. It should not take Steve McNair’s death to realize that it is pretty easy to get a gun if you really want to. And for all of you blowhards blindly clinging to the second amendment given the interpretation that it is my right and not a privilege, don’t get mad and say that the problem is not with the gun laws, but with the gun owners. Don’t complain about who owns a gun or what lifestyle they choose to live if it is their right. What am I saying, do complain, because it is your right to, just like it’s Florio’s right to write whatever he damn well pleases.
“If we outlaw (or regulate) the private sales of firearms on the basis that someone might use it in a crime, then we might as well do so with every single private sale, be it knives, cars, candlestick holders, pipe wrenches, rope, etc.”
Not quite, bonehead. Knives, Cars, etc have a primary purpose OTHER than to kill people. And often they are much harder to create a fatality with. There is NO reason to have a handgun other than to shoot another person. Law Enforcement/Military should be the only ones to possess such weapons. If you want to hunt you can still have a rifle, but handguns serve no other purpose, allowing them is just asking for more deaths.
The same people that are willing to give up constitutional privacy rights (ala Patriot Act) to protect the country from terrorist attacks are unwilling to compromise on gun ownership regarding handguns because it will violate a ‘Constitutional Right’. That’s BS. Guns kill a LOT more people EACH YEAR than 9/11 did.
And our founding fathers created that document based on the current times. Guess what? Things have changed in 300+ years, that’s what amendments are for. When those rules were created, Handguns were very rare. And by being less stubborn you could keep your right to bear arms with a rifle. That ‘right’ does not say ‘handgun’, it says ‘arms’, and by banning handguns, you’d still have the right to bear arms…
Hey Florio,
By your same rationing I think that people like you should be limited in what you say and write.
After all it is people like you in the media who totally tear a persons character to the ground and then in criminal cases cast guilt on them before their trial turning the whole thing into a non-fair trial.
Words are much more damaging than a bullet believe me we have seen it time and time again, so if you think that limiting rights based on your idea of safe and unsafe I will do the same thing your right to free speech and free press are dangerous and should be limited.
Notice it is RIGHT to bear arms not a Privilege.
Here we go again the GUNS Fault .. Yep that Brady bill sure works well.. Lets make another Bill.. Great Thelma Harper.. I put you on the NRA list Not to Vote for!.. So when all the guns are gone we gonna out law Knifes too…
The True story is the life style … Playing with peoples emotions… Life Style:
Stallworth.. Ran over a man
Braylon Edwards..$3500.00 bar bill
Haynesworth..reckless driving X3
Pacman.. well ya add em up
Hell, we need guns to protect our selfs From them…
There are laws for selling guns private. Enforce the laws you have.. Civil Suite the parties that dont act accordingly…
I dont like talking about the dead.. But i feel a need to protect the other….
IT LIFE STYLE.. change it or pay the Price!
How is registered ownership transferred when one sells their gun? Isn’t a background check rendered pointless if someone else can go buy the gun and just sell it to anyone not using the same laws they had to follow to obtain it?
Lets tighten down gun laws!! Because, you know, surely this crazy woman wouldn’t have found another way to kill him.
It’s not like she could have:
- stabbed him
- poisoned him
- bludgeoned him
- any of 900 other common, everyday ways to kill someone
No! If this gun wasn’t so _easy_ to acquire, surely this incident (and others like it) would _never_ happen.
People have been killing other people for hundreds of thousands of years – guns have been around for under 1000. If someone is deranged enough to get into the mindset to end someone else – they’re going to find a way to do it.
Uh oh, you’ve seriously pissed off the gun crowd. Now you’ll have them believing that YOU are the one coming after their guns and not the government.
Better stock up, Bubba!
“Guns kill a LOT more people EACH YEAR than 9/11 did.”
Guns don’t kill people. Try to take my gun and you’ll find out who kills people.
Someone must know the Tennessee laws
Guns kill people the way that forks and spoons made Opra Winfrey fat!
Dear Mr. Florio,
Thank you for asking these questions. My understanding, as someone else has pointed out, is that it is illegal for a dealer (private or licensed) to sell a handgun to someone who is under 21. The difference seems to be in whether or not a background check is required, but the private dealer is responsible for ensuring the sale is legal (e.g. that the purchaser is 21). It is incredible that a licensed dealer must go through the process of obtaining a background check… but an alleged parking lot dealer does not.
Nevertheless, selling a handgun to Ms Kazemi appears to have been an illegal act. Why hasn’t the individual been charged with a crime?
This case has been very odd from the start – with many conflicting facts that I appreciate you questioning, Mr. Florio. It is extremely bizarre that the police do not find the seller responsible because he (quote) probably did not know Kazemi was under 21. Bar owners likely wish they had the same protection.
Further, in whose name is the gun registered? If it is not registered to Ms. Kazemi, then how do the police know that the person in whose name the gun is registered is telling the truth? Who are the sources that claim Sahel Kazemi bought a gun?
Thank you.
“Not quite, bonehead. Knives, Cars, etc have a primary purpose OTHER than to kill people. “…
only a “bonehead would believe (or make) that statement…and if you think that ANY type of regulation will do ANYTHING but but feed the money-grabbing intentions of the govt – forget keeping the public peace – then i can guess who you voted for…
the right shall not be infringed.
lots of people here dont understand that. yall are just going to try and punish people who arent doing jack. and some of them will sure need to get a gun.
registration leads to confiscation.
if she really wanted one, she was going to get one anyway. lets not punish americans or tennesseans because mcnair couldnt keep his shebongae in his pants (thanks osamabama!).
btw, the bible belt, as with the rest of flyover country, despises the idea of gun control. commie libs, lawyers, big city types, and certain minorities just love it. gun control is a mainstay in hte commie playbook.
Zaijian says:
What if she had used a knife? a car? The point being it doesn’t matter whether or not any law would have prevented her killing him with a gun, if she really wanted to kill him she would have found another way.
That argument is neither here nor there.
First, even asleep, McNair would have had a fighting chance of dodging a knife or car in the hands of a 20-year old girl. Not so with a pistol.
A handgun pretty much has one purpose, which it performs very effectively: kill a person or practice killing a person. You may recreationally enjoy that practice, but it doesn’t change the nature of the gun.
A car clearly has another purpose. It’s possible misusing a car or knife as a killing machine. It’s not misuse with a pistol kills a man.
Hell, secondly, you have to jump through more hoops to buy a car than a gun as it is. There is more permitting, safety checks and training involved in owning a Suburu than a 9 mm Beretta.
Third, calling for tighter controls on gun ownership is not the same thing as suggesting we take away guns from law abiding citizens and leave only black market pistols in the hands of criminals.
(Even if it was the same thing, you can look to what happens in other anti-gun cultures and start to doubt whether criminals would really run rampant here. But that’s another debate that’s not worth having here).
Calling for tighter gun controls is simply demanding more credibility and responsibility on the part of people who choose to own them. Sorry, that should just be the price of gun ownership as far as I’m concerned.
A 15-year kid can hot-wire a car, use it to rob a bank, and then crash it into a crowded sidewalk while he’s trying to get away. Illegal, illegal, illegal.
But just because bad guys can get away with that kind of crap that doesn’t mean the rest of us should be excused from licensing, insuring, inspecting and taxing our vehicles.
So too with guns. Just because bad guys can get them illegally, doesn’t mean the rest of us get to avoid jumping through hoops in order to earn the privilege of owning a gun.
You can interpret the Second Amendment as broadly giving us the right to own guns. It says nothing about “with no strings attached.”
Sure the strings I’m talking about are a pain in the ass. Maintaining a car and your drivers license is also a pain in the ass. But we do it.
If a few ownership restrictions can slow down or prevent a few bad guys from emptying a round into a family member–or prevent a bad driver from taking out a family member–then these sort of laws and restrictions are worth it. Will it stop every tragedy? Of course not. No solution is going to be perfect. But that is not an excuse for attempting no solutions.
Mostly, let’s not try to equate gun restrictions with gun bans. That’s just a lazy argument.
@tonytitan
thats funny cause it’s true
Free guns for everyone!
Screw it. I think guns are stupid. Give me a tank and a bazooka to protect my family!
PS. All you gun nuts are stupid. We’d see how you felt about guns if some 15 year old with his dads gun killed one of your oldest friends. Because that’s exactly what happened to me. Bullet straight through the neck of a young man right before his 20th birthday, because he had the audacity to try and break up a fight. You’re all a bunch of idiots.
An excerpt from the (il)logical mind of modern liberals…
“We should ban all fat from foods! People kill themselves all the time with it!”
“We should ban airplanes!! They can be used as deadly weapons!!”
“We should ban bricks!! What if someone drops one from a roof!!”
“We should ban bottles!! They can be used as a makeshift weapon!!”
The point is, Hippy Florio, it doesn’t matter what the government tries to ban, people are people and weapons can be made out of just about anything… Criminals could care less about gun control laws. Just ask Australia… and GB… Violent gun crimes went UP after stricter laws banned handguns…
Gun or no, she’s still a crazy woman.
Golf club, kitchen knife, umbrella, she would have found something to get the job done.
clintdogg, You may be right in that guns kill more people every year than 9/11 did. However, there are two things to think about with that statement. 1. Are gun deaths publicized due to the liberal press? ( I can guarantee that the answer is yes). 2. Can you back up that statement with facts?
I give you this to think about. How many more people are killed in automobile accidents than with guns? I would suspect that it is 10,000 fold and yet no one is screaming about banning cars even though there are alternatives to using an idividual vehicle.
In addition, you are wrong in more than one aspect. Handguns have more than a single purpose than kill people. There are several thousand of us that use handguns to hunt. Granted we could use a long gun, spear, bow or crossbow instead of handguns, but hunting with handguns is a challenge that we enjoy. You also have the people that like to target shoot (whether recreationally or competively) that use handguns other than to kill PEOPLE.
In closing, we do have the right to bear arms, however, there are too many overweight people to think of all of them wearing shirts without sleeves.
Is the majority of the PFT readers from the south, this whole gun topic has started a fire storm.
The mere fact of making it illegal to sell a gun on the street would not stop the practice. It is also illegal to sell and be in possession of drugs, run a chop shop, steal cable, but fact of the matter is people still do it. Making it illegal wont stop the practice
I love this site… So many haters in one place at the same time… good times, good times
“There is more permitting, safety checks and training involved in owning a Suburu than a 9 mm Beretta.”
Maybe in legally driving a Subaru.
I like how everyone always goes for “its my right to own a gun”. “We need guns to protect our freedom”. What no one ever realizes is Bush said “keep your guns and we’ll take your rights without you realizing it”. *cough* patriot act *cough*
More unconstitutional things have happend and commonly go on worse than people losing their guns. Read a book…specifically Ron Pauls Revolution if you need some learning.
Sure,
Guns are to blame. Then
Cars must make people drive drunk,
Pencils make people have spelling errors,
and spoons made ‘The Fridge’ fat.
Shut your mouth about politics Florio, or this will be the first and last time I post and the last time I visit your site…
I’ve always felt we should look at outlawing the automobile…how many casualties are caused in a vehicle every year??
Yeah, there are no illegal gun sales in the USA. All potential murders’ abibe by the letter of the law when buying their weapon of choice. If anyone really wants a gun, and use it for illegal purposes, they aren’t all that hard to find….
And i hope this is the end of the McNair debate, seems he was tappin anything and everything he could get his hands on, he paid the price, he made his own choices, he just chose a crazy bitch this time. It happens….. End of story……
“You can interpret the Second Amendment as broadly giving us the right to own guns. It says nothing about “with no strings attached.”"
Actually, the Supreme Court decided in Parker vs. District of Columbia that handguns fall within the constitutional definition of “arms”. The Second Amendment will have to be stricken in it’s entirety to change that.
It’s not gonna happen.
“Even if it was the same thing, you can look to what happens in other anti-gun cultures and start to doubt whether criminals would really run rampant here.”
No, you can’t look at other cultures because those cultures do not have millions of handguns in circulation. If nobody or at least very few people in the US currently had a gun I’d see your point.
Not gonna happen. Rednecks are too afraid that the boogie man’s gonna get them.
“All you gun nuts are stupid. We’d see how you felt about guns if some 15 year old with his dads gun killed one of your oldest friends. Because that’s exactly what happened to me.”
He might have had a chance if he had been carrying a gun to protect himself with. You may think that the “gun nuts” are stupid, but your friend is the one that’s DEAD. Kinda stupid to be sticking your nose in somebody else’s fight anyway, don’t you think? Better to be stupid and alive than stupid and DEAD.
clintdogg says:
July 10, 2009 5:09 PM
And our founding fathers created that document based on the current times. Guess what? Things have changed in 300+ years, that’s what amendments are for.
——————————————–
1787 + 300 = 2087
So because an Ex NFL MVP is dead because he got involved with a crazy chick we should change gun laws. Get off this already. PFT/TMZ
ISP659, so less laws are needed to accommodate chaos? The purpose of the laws in the first place is so that there are stiff penalties for circumventing those rules.
it’s the reason we’re not following the free society’s call for legalization of drugs, since by your train of thought, it’s not the drugs that do harm but rather the choices certain people exhibit under the influence and the threats they may pose to others.
Fact is, illegal gun sales, gun trafficking, and the like needs to be a focus of major law enforcement efforts, as it’s the roots of many of this society’s ills.
In addition, legal gun sales need to have this kind of ridiculous loophole where you can apparently purchase a gun like a common household appliance closed.
http://tshirtgroove.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/04/the-second-amendment-tshirt.jpg
december says:
July 10, 2009 6:39 PM
Not gonna happen. Rednecks are too afraid that the boogie man’s gonna get them.
———————————–
And the boogie men are too afraid of the rednecks to take them.
Uhhh, how exactly does a reasonable gun law prevent you and me from buying a gun? Why is owning a gun supposed to be easier than getting a drivers license?
@doomsdayd75
No the idiot was the 15 year that shot your friend. Where were his parents when he was out running around with a gun? Where were they when he was 5 years old and should have been learning better lessons in life? That 15 year old made a decision based upon what he learned through the course of his years. Much like every person convicted of DUI or any other crime made a decision. The accountability needs to rest with the offender. If Steve McNair made better decisions in life he wouldn’t ended the way he did. No one deserves to be murdered, but if you are going to put yourself in bad situations then deal with the outcome…
Good luck getting any gun law passed in Tn.
additional gun laws and “restrictions” are the EXACT kind of infringements the 2nd amendment said NO to. a slew of people here dont read.
too many of you dumb bastards expect someone else to protect you. note that SCOTUS hath also ruled that the cops are there to clean up after crimes – not protect anyone. yer guns may not help that much against an out of control bushtwo or osamabama – but the sheer numbers can make people think twice. besides… gun ownership and possession cuts down on what local crooks can do to ya.
and re bush abrogating he constitution, sure he did a bunch of stuff i dont like and the grand bulk of all congresscritters voted for it. most crappy legislation is already written and sitting there waiting for a crisis. the democrats are just waiting to ram hate crimes laws (which are the real hate crime), gun control laws, NHI etc onto the books.
if ya think bush-II or bush-I were bad, then ya arent paying attention now or werent paying attention in the 90s under billyjeff rockefeller (he isnt a clinton).
what the hell do people think the likes of lincoln, wilson, fdr and lbj did to the constitution? they paved the way for the despots of the day nowadays.
if elections really changed anything, we wouldnt be having them.
ron paul for president. why was the gummint, media and establishment so scared of him getting on national teevee?
end the fed.
“… it should be harder to acquire a device that makes killing so easy.”
So in light of Stallworth’s incident, should we now institute background checks and waiting periods for buying a car?
Nice post, Florio. It must be amusing to raise the blood pressure of the rabid NRA types here who oppose any reasonable gun control whatsoever.
Write about whatever you want to write about. None of us football junkies are going somewhere else just because we disagree with your subject matter.
Note to right wingers here: you’re not forced to read the non-football articles.
I have to post one more time….
It seems a lot of people are against ownership of guns and a lot (myself included) are for ownership of guns. Regardless of your stance, you have to admit, aside from the attack on Pearl Harbor and the cowardly terrorism on 9/11, other countries have refrained from attacking the U.S. Even though countries like China and India have us outnumbered 100:1. I would hazard a guess that it is because of the number of people in the U.S.A that own guns. Think about it, if you are a country that would attack and occupy a country, I would think that knowing that a significant portion of the country is armed, has to be a significant detractor.
>So in light of Stallworth’s incident, should we now
>institute background checks and waiting periods
>for buying a car?
No, but I’d love to see people convicted of DUIs lose their licenses for 10 years and go to prison for 1 year.
Yeah, he was sleeping… She couldve killed him with a kitchen knife, shall we outlaw cutlery or just blame this on a crazy bitch?
florio….you want to take my guns away? bring your greasy midget ass to my house, and try
Private sales of private property are no ones elses business.
Was there fraud or defective product?
No, the gun worked like it should.
In business we must assume that people are law abiding. Otherwise the economy breaks down.
How is a car salesperson supposed to know if the buyer will use it for an illegal purpose?
How is a clothing store suppose to verify the belt they sell won’t be used in a murder suicide?
Going to arrest direct marketers for polluting junk mail?
You can’t have the thought police arresting people before the crime.
She did the crime and paid theprice and didn’t saddle society with the cost of her trial and execution.
This could not have been foreseen or prevented.
Wasn’t McNair in the best position to foresee it?
Does anyone else find it really funny that her ex-boyfriend wrote a song about killing someone and they say it was actually about a different guy? How many guys is that idiot planning on killing? And why does he think it’s a good idea to publicize it?
And what’s up with Dave & Buster’s employing suicidal home-wrecking headcases? Do they have a statement on this? Maybe if they didn’t promote gun violence with games like “House of the Dead 3″, “House of the Dead 4″, “Virtua Cop 3″ and “Shoot the Sleeping MVP” this wouldn’t have happened.
/sarcasm
“Note to right wingers here: you’re not forced to read the non-football articles.”
nor are you commie socialist !@#$%^s required to reply!!!
Florio you wouldn’t be wanting to ban rocks if she bashed his head in. You just had to jump in with the liberal media didn’t ya?
Thanks for messing up what was a great football site with this crap. I guess you pleased your bosses at NBC though.
Florio, you really stepped in it this time. Freakin’ lawyers.
“A well regulated militia being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the People to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed.”
Let me ask you something, lawyer. What’s the definition of the word “infringe”?
Don’t tread on our rights. We’ll fight for them.
Florio…you liberal…you disappoint me!
I should’ve known…being affiliated with NBC and all…
Guns don’t kill people…people kill people. If she didn’t have a gun, she would’ve found another way.
People die falling off roofs all the time. I think we should all be forced to sleep under the stars.
We could go on and on…
God made all men. Sam Colt made all men equal. Even the weakest among us can pull a trigger and defend ourselves against the strongest.
And the strongest of them all is our own government.
So everyone who’s against it can just choke on my gun rights because they’re the last bastion of true freedom in this drain-circling country of ours.
“There is NO reason to have a handgun other than to shoot another person.”
Tell ya what, SnoopDogg. Even if that ludicrous statement was true, I’m OK with it. Know why? Because that’s why I have a loaded handgun in my house.
Try to break in or hurt me or my family and you’ll find out exactly what my reasons are for having a handgun.
That’s not a threat. It’s a promise that I’ll defend what’s mine without hesitation. And that includes my RIGHT to keep and bear arms.
Midway Monster, it’s kind of pointless when you say that offenders should be held accountable for their actions when you wonder where the 15 year old’s parents were (hence, passing the blame). But no, there are too many guns around to successfully do anything about regulating it, that is unless you raid everything, and I mean everything in the US.
HAHAHA I knew this article would do this.
Look at everyone clinging to their guns and bibles.
WOW, and not one mention of ACORN. HAHAHA
PS. I need to protect my house with a MP5 and a sniper rifle.
“Not gonna happen. Rednecks are too afraid that the boogie man’s gonna get them.”
Is Plaxico Burress a redneck? What about Steve McNair’s girlfriend? How about the guy that shot Tommy Urbansky? What about the guys that shot Sean Taylor?
PFT is spending too much time looking for someone to blame for this tragedy. Perhaps the search for the professional hitman has ended and now let us create a new law.
Stop looking for the guilty party everywhere but where the guilty party resides.
During WWII in Holland the Nazis were able to attain the list of registered gun owners from the government. Since all guns were required to be registered, the Nazis knew where civilian resistance could come from. They simply went door to door and paid a visit to anyone on the list– and shot the entire family. Think it couldn’t happen here?
What are all you NRA members doing on this board? Don’t you know that Obama is going to take your God given guns away tomorrow? Hurry! Get over to Walmart and buy up the guns in the hunting section–quick!
Florio shows his innner liberal once more… before you go saying that stricter gun laws are are good thing, maybe you should do some research. Gun laws don’t deter criminals that have far more sinister crimes on their minds… i.e. murder, armed robbery etc… And besides a simple reading of the 2nd ammendment renders any and all gun law purchase and ownership laws unconsitutional.
Just another case of people trying to allow one bad apple to spoil things for everyone, but really would take guns out of the hands of teh 99.9% of legal users and into the hands of hardcore criminals.
Florio, enough, I am more than willing to read your ideas after they have been pilfered by another website, therefore saving me from reading this type of garbage. If you want to lose half your readers, go ahead, won’t bother me, otherwise, keep to the game.
I am sure this woman could just as easily have killed him (while he slept) with her kitchen knife. The law you propose will only harm those who abide by the law. Imagine that, a woman willing to MURDER someone will not be deterred by a statute banning the sale of a weapon to her.
I wonder how such a statute would affect another woman, who has no malicious intent; rather, one who is fearful for her life or safety? Will an intruder / rapist / beast be so kind to wait till after a “cooling-off” period is over before they act on their threats towards her, or her family? How is a five foot woman supposed to defend herself against a six foot man?
Oh, well, rest easy Florio, I am sure the latter never happen…
shaslers said it the best in the above post. Some of you sound like you’ve played Clue one too many times. Uh, the billiard room with a candlestick with Mr. Plum. The Shakester has two hands like all of you (except for those missing one, or happens to have an extra, that’d be awesome) so shooting more than two guns at a time is going to be difficult. Go ahead and have your two but make sure we can trace them back to your stupid ass for putting them in the hands of someone that is a bigger stupid ass than you.
People…..
Get a clue. The right to bear arms was not as much for personal protection (although that is a valid reason) but to protect yourself from a tyranical government.
The kind we are NOW seeing in Washington. Keep your guns, keep your powder dry…….we are going to need it.
No radical here. Just an American who believes in Liberty and Freedom. Beware the Socialists and Marxist. They will try to suck the freedom from us all.
Let’s take a look at the new slaves (and you will be….just ask any Socialist country).
Yes Lib’s that you.
Be preparared to be told how to: raise you children, how many times you can do your laundry, how many Kids you can have, where you can work, what level of education your kids will be allowed, how big (or if you will need to share) your house will be, what kind of car you drive, what you can watch on TV, how much you can make,…..and it goes on & on.
These are the things a free man can do and the Libs are giving up.
Wake up people, the Second Ammendment was put in place to protect us from a tyranical government.
Lib’s, when they take your kids away, and they will, will you reconsider then (it will be to late though).
Don’t be useful idiots.
The gun, an inanimate object, is not the problem, it’s the person who bought it. She could have just as easily stabbed him in his sleep and then suffocated in her car. Now you and others want to blame the existence of a technology (firearms) than the human who operates the technology.
This was not a random crime. It was a premeditated act that would not have been prevented, even with the most strict gun laws. The criminal knew her victim and she waited until he wouldn’t be able to fight back. This is not something that stricter gun laws would have prevented.
Areas that have lenient gun laws have lower crime than areas that have strict gun laws, where criminals have free reign. Areas that allow for concealed carry by law-abiding citizens also have lower crime than places where that right does not exist.
The only things that keep us from living under tyranny are the cartridge box, the ballot box and the jury box. Those rights should not be infringed. Every law abiding citizen should be free to own whatever firearm that they desire. The vast majority of gun owners are the type of law abiding citizens that you would want living next to you.
McNair was a good guy? My arse!
McNair, 6 year affair with Minneapolis Stripper.
“The dancer was said to have an understanding with McNair, and she never wanted more than that. He would give her rent money or make car payments, according to the source. McNair would buy her plane tickets to meet up in cities where he was not going to be with his wife. “Everything was always first-class,” the source told the Daily News.”
That’ll play well with the Second Amendment crowd… They already think that Obama is going to take their guns, after all.
What the NRA types here fail to realize is that even the NRA favors some gun control, some infringement of the right to bear arms. They oppose allowing violent felons the right to buy or possess guns, and they oppose allowing children to buy or possess guns. That’s their definition of reasonable gun control.
Other people think it is a bad idea to allow people to carry guns into court houses or schools. They consider that reasonable gun control.
For you budding constitutional scholars, here is the second amendment:
“A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.”
Are you members of a well regulated militia?
As for the people who think that liberals are going to take their guns away and enslave them, I had no idea that so many right wing nut jobs took time out from tea bagging to follow the NFL.
To paraphrase Bill Simmons at the end of his ESPN mail bags:
“These are your readers, Florio.”
Sure, take the guns because we all know criminals prefer unarmed citizens.
Doesn’t matter who gets shot and killed, or how many get shot and killed. Gun laws won’t change. Too many politicians rented by or afraid of the NRA. God is a bullet, and most idiots got their penis. I mean, their gun.
Because McNair wanted his “Cake” and “eat it too” now there is a gun problem? Hmmm, I think not. He put himself in this position and it’s not like this story has not been heard before. This happens all the time, its usually a regular Joe, therefore no media coverage. McNair played with fire and now people expect the Law to be changed because McNair got burned. He did it to himself which is quite telling.
Obviously Mcnair could not be held responsible!
Unfortunately, he was just hanging out with his Mistress. If he was home taking care of his family it is persuasive to believe this tragedy would not have happened. You reap what you sow.
DOOMSDAY: Sorry to hear about your friend, but let me assure you there are citizens who own weapons that are not “Stupid”. Unfortunatley it appears your friend expired because of the stupidity of a 15 year old who did not know how to and/or did not safely handle the weapon.
There are always going to be tragic accidents, but the fact you can sit behind your keyboard and type your message is contributed to men before our time who fought with “guns” to provide us the freedom to legally do as we wish. You know, that day they call 4th of July. To me that is Patriotic, not stupid. My right to bear arms should not be predicated on the ingnorance and stupidity of others.
Peace
Car dealers should be responsible for selling a car to a drunk driver who kills a family of 4 right?
Anyone have the stats on how many lives guns SAVED last year?
Anyone know jack shit about that?
Is there any lib who truly knows what guns are really all about? What about the old ladies who save themselves from murderous thugs who break into their homes?
Liberalism is a mental illness. It’s like being blind. Liberals are the most fearful people in the world. “Please, don’t let anyone own anything that might hurt me, Mr, President!! I’m afeared!”
Want to change the law? Fine. But you gotta hold lawmakers responsible for the results.
The first time some thug breaks in and kills someone in their own house while that person was “waiting” for the gun they already bought, everyone who voted for the waiting period law should be prosecuted for felony murder.
TheBaySay:
What do you care about this? You’re living in the People’s Republic of California. You don’t have to worry about it.
You should ask yourself why the NRA is so powerful? Why exactly are they so well-funded?
The people in this country believe in the Bill of Rights, that’s why.
Sorry RaidersWin, my Bay is Green. Keep in mind that the Bill of Rights doesn’t begin or end with the second amendment. Just shake my head about all the idiots who don’t care if a Bush government spyed on them but scream in fear if there’s a chance that they might not be able to buy their thirtieth gun. The people in Afghanistan probably have as many guns per capita as we do; guns are not the be-all and end-all. Well yeah, okay, often they are the end-all. Which sort of brings us back to where this started.
Did I miss something? In the article that appears on my computer screen, Mike didnt write anything about taking guns away, dissolving the 2nd amendment, or restrict he number of guns a person can own. In fact this line:
“Though we recognize and support the Constitutional right to keep and bear arms….”
proves it.
The remaining part of the sentence:
“….it should be harder to acquire a device that makes killing so easy” should be only applied to this specific situation since the article was specifically focused on this incident and that there werent any other “restrictions” mentioned or encouraged.
Also, it wasnt Mike making the suggestion that an underage person shouldnt be able to purchase a gun out of a parking lot of a fast food restaurant, he was merely agreeing with the politicians in Tennessee, seeing that the sentence after the one I cited, a quote from one was highlighted. But hey, dont let those facts get in the way of your arguments and disappointments.
Oh, and one more thing, since those who believe (because it was mentioned numerous times in the comments) that because people kill people (which I agree with), the law shouldnt be modified since she would have killed him another way, make sure that you apply your strong written support for firearm de-regulation evenly. Because see, handguns are sold not just in the parking lots of Dave And Busters to fair-skinned Women, but also out of trunk of cars in the hood to individuals your wives and girlfriends (and maybe even some of you dudes) clutch their purses for or cross the street to avoid. Just make sure you protect their rights as Americans to bear arms too. In fact, lets do it your way and just make it illegal to regulate guns period, so those “thugs” I read so much about here (and other places) and their “in the alley firearm transactions” arent against the law.
Oh, and Im sure Mike wouldnt think thrice if all of you threatening to leave the site would actually do it. Seeing that PFT isnt respected and mainstream because of the number of registered members it has but more because in most instances PFT is right, Im positive he wouldnt lose too much time from your departure. But Im confident you’d just come through and read without logging in. Remember,
“Opinions dont deactivate PFT accounts, members deactivate PFT accounts”
RBM
Hey Einstein, the gun was sold to the chick by a convicted murder…a felon. It’s already illegal for him to possess or sell that gun. No additional law that Florio’s puny little mind could come up with would have stopped that.
Fight crime by dealing with the frickin’ criminals and leave the law abiding gun owners alone!
http://www.flickr.com/photos/nationalparodyleague/3731195670/in/set-72157618999340436/