Former Michigan State All-Big Ten receiver, Plaxico Burress, is facing a two years jail sentence.
I’m a strong advocate for gun control, and, I rail consistently about the insane gun violence that has engulfed and overwhelmed the United States.
However, Burress is not the real problem nor is he the answer to the gun problems in America.
Every year, more than 30,000 people are shot to death in murders, suicides, and accidents according to the Harvard Injury Research and Control Center.
It reports another 65,000 suffer from gun injuries. Firearms kill about 85 people everyday in this country.
Burress suffered an accidental self-inflicted gunshot wound to his right thigh in a New York City nightclub, when his Glock pistol, tucked in the waistband of his sweatpants, began sliding down his leg.
Reports note he reached for the gun and inadvertently depressed the trigger, causing the gun to fire. The injury was not life-threatening and he was released from an area hospital the next afternoon. The following day, he turned himself in to the police to face charges of criminal
possession of a handgun.
It was later discovered that the NYPD found out about the incident only after seeing it on television and were not called by New York-Presbyterian Hospital as required by law. New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg called the hospital actions an “outrage” and stated that it is a “chargeable offense.” Bloomberg also urged that Burress be prosecuted to the fullest extent,
saying that any punishment short of the minimum 31/2 years for unlawful carrying of a handgun would be “a mockery of the law.” Burress had an expired (CCW) license from Florida, but no New York license. I applaud Bloomberg’s zeal for gun control, but he is sticking a band-aid on a hole in the Hoover Dam.
The problem is gun manufacturers, sellers, and law makers like Bloomberg that are unwilling to confront the giant gun capitalist lobby.
Holding Burress up as the poster boy for gun control is insane. New York has close to 500 gun deaths each year and Burress, a famous and harmless football player, is not a threat to those statistics nor is he a menace to society.
I went by the police station recently and saw all the wanted criminals’ pictures on the wall and they should be the focus of real police work and prosecution. I feel prison is for bad people that
commit and do bad things to others. No one should be in prison for being stupid or hurting themselves.
Sure, bad choices or bad judgment should come with consequences; however, the punishment should fit the crime. That is why within the law there are judgments rendered by a judge or a jury; they review the law and give one a sentence based on the severity of the transgression. It appears Burress, who caught the game-winning pass in Super Bowl XLII when the New York Giants upset the undefeated New England Patriots 17-14, is a victim of his own celebrity.
He is no threat to society, has never shot or pulled a gun on anyone, but himself.
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