Some emails about the comments Bob Costas made on Sunday Night Football

Hello Bob,
Just wanted to weigh in with my opinion on this. As a technical professional whose job consists to a large degree of troubleshooting, I've learned to look for the "root cause" of a problem, and not focus on the symptom. I believe that the folks claiming that "guns are to blame" are focused on the symptom and not looking at the bigger problem.
The bigger problem is that we are losing a culture of life and respect and replacing it with a culture of "me", where everything that happens to you has nothing to do with your choices, but is someone else's fault.
I believe that we don't teach that life is precious from the start via our culture's embrace of abortion as  a "right". We don't want to teach our children that the choice of having sex has long term ramifications and the life that might be created is more precious than anything else. Instead we teach "rights" and that your rights outweigh the consequences. We do this because people will start screaming "religious indoctrination" and "separation of church and state" and balk at trying to impose a moral code. 
The result of these "rights" without "responsibility" is that people will put these rights to excess - to the point that they feel they can do anything they want to others to whom they feel "violate" those rights. So the attitude, when someone disagrees with you or causes you perceived harm, is that they deserve whatever you do do them, and you have the right to attack them.
This manifests itself in the black community, particularly black males (of which I am a member) is terms of "respect". I hear many times, when a black male does harm to another, the comment was "that person 'disrespected' me". For any perceived disrespect - from looking at a person wrong, to talking to someone you shouldn't or domestic differences" - the notion of "being 'disrespected' " manifests itself in violence, regardless of what weapon is at hand. Add to that the feeling that past injustices give a "right" to do whatever you want in response to that 'disrespect', and I believe you are closer to the root cause of the situation. Unfortunately this is something folks (other than Bill Cosby) don't walk to talk about, as it might seem 'racist'.
Until we get back to teaching from a young age the value of life, and that life is more important than any "rights" one has, this will continue.
Finally, a quick tangent. Those also advocating "gun control" are also ignoring that these folks were millionaires. And as millionaires, regardless of the laws, will either find the means or the justification to have guns. Just note how many of those who are calling for gun control happen to have guns, or a re being protected by those with guns, because they have the financial ability and connections to do so.What they are really saying is "we do not want the average Jane or Joe to have a gun, but we need them ourselves to protect all the stuff we have".
This is getting long, so I'll just summarize it with this: the more society moves away from teaching the value of life and personal responsibility in that context, no amount of gun control will be able to compensate for the result. Take care!

"Nice Guy"

this next one came from rumrunner

Bob,
So far, you have had some good calls about this topic. What I found interesting, was the remark about America's " gun culture ". It seems to me that we have 2 types of gun culture. The first type protects our freedom of speech. This type of gun culture definitely needs to be distinguished from the second type of "gun culture", gang violence.

The caller that said its an advertisement of gun control is absolutely right. Any way for the State to use its media propaganda tool to disarm its citizens is always unacceptable.

Joe From Frederick writes

Bob, I think it would be appropriate for there to be mandatory gun safety and training in all of our schools in elementary, Middle and High School with appropriate age level training.   With how to handle  and respect, the consequences of use around controlled substances and what to do if you find one among many other things.   Guns are part of our society.   Some children have never had any instructions on firearms except video games and glorified gangs movies.   The time is right for education!  

Joe
Might be too little, too late.. But, I would like to offer an opinion on the Bob Costas/Jason Whitlock gun controversy, if I may.. You know there are some places in this country where a handgun is nothing more than an extension of the fist. I’m pretty sure that was the culture being referred to in Whitlock’s and Costas’ commentary. The urbanized culture, where getting a handgun is way too easy and instead of using words, a handgun is flashed for intimidation purposes and fired without a second thought. It’s where murder has become an everyday occurrence and happens so often that it’s become an accepted part of our culture. Murder in Baltimore? That’s nothing new, and we think – who cares? But, a murder in Frederick? FIRE THE POLICE CHIEF!  
Harry