Did gun-control zealotry help to kill Washington Redskin star safety Sean Taylor? After copping a plea agreement with Miami-Dade prosecutors over brandishing a gun against the alleged theives of his SUVs in 2005, Taylor was left to defend himself, in his own home, with a machete on Sunday night. As they say in the movies, don't bring a knife to a gun fight.

First and foremost, Sean Taylor's death is a tragedy, not a political issue. He was 24, a father, and on his way to becoming the best free safety in the National Football League. Let's leave the gun-control debate for another day. The issue that arises from this tragedy isn't necessarily political, but attitudinal--the cultural smugness of journalists toward athletes who, for issues that should be obvious to everyone in light of this tragedy, carry firearms.

It's hard not to look at Taylor's death without wondering what connection the first headline grabbing incident, and the anti-gun moralism that ensued among sports journalists, had with the tragic second headline grabbing incident. It's also hard not to juxtapose the very different outcomes of two nearly identical gun incidents involving Miami Hurricane free safeties. The lesson? Perhaps there are sensible reasons why a successful athlete living in, or coming from, a high-crime area would arm himself. The media's refusal to consider this puts athletes between a rock and a hard place, between the harsh condemnation of the Fourth Estate and the deadly reality of the streets, between getting portrayed as a thug and getting killed by a thug.

I don't know that Taylor's Second Amendment rights were revoked by the courts. I do know that athletes "caught" with weapons have their Second Amendment rights revoked, in effect, by the media. The bad publicity athletes receive by merely owning firearms, or brandishing them in appropriate situations, can result in the loss of lucrative endorsement deals, a drop in placement on draft day, and stalking bad publicity. I don't know if Taylor's past run-in with the law resulted in him not posessing a firearm when an armed intruder invaded his bedroom Sunday night, but it's certainly worth asking. Don't count on the mainstream media to inquire, though.

Consider the response to Taylor's University of Miami teammate Brandon Meriweather's appropriate use of a legal firearm. Meriweather played on the same team, played the same position, and was involved in an almost identical situation with a burglar firing a gun. When a shooter opened fire on Meriweather and a teammate, shooting the friend in the buttocks, Meriweather shot back. The assailant fled. Good job Brandon, right? One scribe wondered, "why in the world a college student would be packing heat on the regular." A CBS Sportsline writer, for instance, noting Meriweather's unsportsmanlike stomp of an opposition player in a brawl and his discharging a weapon at a criminal, joked: "If the Patriots' new pick could have only thrown in a little armed robbery during his Miami Hurricanes days, he would be the ideal NFL triple threat." But why group the legitimate use of a firearm with a thuggish on-field assault? The writer continued: "A teammate being shot in the ass, and another returning fire, was met with casualness from fellow Hurricanes at the time. Former Meriweather teammate Kyle Wright told the media that at least Meriweather didn't 'bring a knife to a gunfight.'" CBS mocks Wright's statement, but in light of the tragic loss of Sean Taylor, the writer's words mock himself.

Miami Hurricane free safety Brandon Meriweather is alive for bringing a gun to a gun fight. Miami Hurricane free safety Sean Taylor is dead for bringing a knife to a gun fight. Meriweather now brags that he doesn't own a gun. Journalists applaud this as a sign of maturity. I view such a public profession as a sign of stupidity. Alas, assuaging the gods of political correctness can be a dangerous business.

Many professional athletes come from bad neighborhoods. Their success and affluence is a magnet for jealous and greedy predators. Moving might be an option for some. But even most professional athletes can't afford to move extended families, who often are a determining factor in where someone decides to live. Even when athletes move out of the ghetto, trouble often follows. NBA stars Eddie Curry and Antoine Walker, for instance, both have been victimized by home invasions this past year. Would they have been considered bad guys had they fended off the robbers with guns?

Gun ownership is nothing to be ashamed of. It's the choice of free men in a free society and the want of oppressed men in oppressive societies. For good reason, many professional athletes own guns. It's reckless, irresponsible, and without perspective for sports journalists living in suburban affluence to castigate athletes from the ghetto because they decide to carry legal firearms. This will not be a lesson of the Sean Taylor tragedy, but it should be.

Did the bad publicity that Sean Taylor received from previous gun charges result in a defenseless home? Did the terms of his probabtion preclude the ownership of a firearm? Would Sean Taylor be alive had he fended off the invader of his home with a gun instead of a machete? Had Taylor shot the gun-slinging intruder, as his teammate Meriweather did, would he have been cast as a villain, as his teammate Meriweather was cast?

Great post.

Apparently someone had broken in to his home and left a knife on his bed relatively recently before this invasion. Even if he had had some court imposed restriction on his freedom to own a gun after the first invasion he definitely should have gotten one illegally. Or better yet have his girlfriend get one legally and keep it there. Who knows if he would have survived this attack? There must have been something really serious going on if someone broke in and left a threat like that and then did it again aiming to kill him. I think it is too early to understand why this happened. but certainly, whenever anyone dies in a home invasion it is an argument for the responsible arming of ourselves.

As for the sports journalists giving blacks grief for owning guns, that is part of the typical white liberal racism in wanting to do all they can to keep blacks from being able to defend themselves.

"Whenever anyone dies in a home invasion it is an argument for the responsible arming of ourselves."

Indeed. It is for such an occasion that I sleep with a loaded .30-06 under my bed. If I lived in D.C. instead of the great State of Texas, the law would require that my gun be either under lock and key or disassembled. Disassembled! What possible use is a gun if it's in pieces? Or locked away?

Sorry guys. Handguns have no place in a free democratic society. If you're keeping a loaded gun under your bed in fear of a break-in, you need to move to a new neighborhood. It's that simple.

Mick,

I live in a good neighborhood; the kind of neighborhood criminals are interested in (thieves don't rob poor people). Besides, I live by the wise slogan "better to have it and not need it, than need it and not have it."

And what possible argument could you have for the silly statement "handguns have no place in a free democratic society"? (By the way, a .30-06 isn't a handgun.)

Mick, Mick, Mick. Where would flynnfiles be without a resident liberal troll hanging around like a vulture over a carcass. All I have to say is I sure hope to god that your house never gets broken into and you're forced into a situation to pick up a handgun to shoot the bastard that has your wife or let her get raped or murdered.

Is "Mick" just speaking as an Aussie?

I actually think the fact that we are a free and rather democratic society helps ensure that we need personal firearms for our protection. If you travel to Egypt, say, a quite astounding thing you will encounter is that people on public trains will put their belongings on the rack above the seats and then go and find a seat, sometimes a car or more away from their possessions (purses, briefcases, laptops, luggage), w/ zero fear of their being stolen. In societies like Egypt that are rather homogenous, closed, and ruled by an iron fist crime is actually minimized to such an extent that possession of firearms is less necessary. Of course, even there it is still a natural human right to possess the necessary means to the natural end and duty of preserving one's life and families. But in a much more open and diverse society like ours the right to own guns is even more an imperative.

Btw,

Mick is demonstrating what I termed white liberal racism in wanting to keep blacks unarmed by his statement to "move to a better neighborhood." That is part of what liberals like to hypocritically then castigate as "white flight." Instead of allowing for responsible gun ownership in those dangerous neighborhoods, invariably our cities try to remove all guns from the possession of those who need them most, people who cannot afford to just pick up and "move to another neighborhood."

Let alone, why should someone who is living in the house their grandparents and parents lived in, among neighbors they grew up w/, be forced to move (assuming they can afford it) to a less dangerous neighborhood when the means for the good people living in that neighborhood to reclaim their safety is just a gun store away?

Further, anyone familiar w/ this nation's cities knows that a "safe" neighborhood and a "dangerous" one are quite often a block apart, adjacent, or one subway stop away from each other.

Mick, please produce an arugument for why people shouldn't defend themselves. If you can't (or won't) then sorry Mick, you're that simple.

It's a cultural thang and, apparently, a huge part of being a gridiron athletes at the U.

Glad Wilfork wasn't of this mentality. That we know of. By many indications, Merriweather is.

Forget a handgun, I want one of these:

http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/tech/2007/11/27/yeates.ut.robo.soldier.ksl

Was reading a blurb this morning on this and they quoted an inner city emergency room doctor as saying that a recent gansta shooting technique is to put a cap in someone's groin area (ie. peni$, $crotum) or buttocks.

So typically, instead of killing the person, it's a form of warning or permanent punishment.

Unfortunately, in this case, it ended up being murder.

Anyone that leaves their bags unattended in Egypt is damned moron. Petty crime in Egypt is horrible. Violent crime, with the exception of the occasional murder of tourists or hotel bombings, is not so bad.

You'd think with having your hand cut off as punishment for theft in many Muslim countries, there wouldn't be as much of a problem.

What would the Egyptian Magician think about that Jerky?

Sharia is not enforced in Egypt, or really most other muslim countries save Saudi. Some of the Emirates will enforce the hand cutting, and I think hardcore countries like Sudan.

I think Tarbash would probably steal your $hit if you leave it unattended.

As always, an education Honorable Fong.

Either way, the Middle East is a place I'd avoid. Unless I were getting paid very big Euros to be there.

And speaking of Sudan.....

http://news.sky.com/skynews/article/0,,70131-1294838,00.html

Actually, the Middle East is wonderful, so are the food, the people, the desert, etc.

It's their religion that's F'ed up.

I'm certainly not as well traveled as you are, but I will say that wherever I go I find people are people.

Obviously stated, it seems to be culture and religion that makes them crazy and unpredictable.

But if you sit down one on one with most people anywhere, their thinking is typically clear and logical. Too bad the other stuff f$%ks up their rationality.

RIP Sean Taylor, you were my favorite Redskin. :(

Intersting perspective on Sean Taylor's death.

http://msn.foxsports.com/nfl/story/7499442?MSNHPHCP>1=10637

i keep an ak47 next to my bed,if you break into my house you will get that loud clack when i release the bolt, then you better look out!

There were 3,000 people at this jabrone's funeral including O.J.Simpson and Jesse Jackson (who launched into a diatribe about gun control).

WTF!

I'd like to know why they are making such a big deal out of this guy's passing due to violent death but nobody seemed to give a fat rat's a$$ when Patriot Marquis Hill was killed trying to save a drowning friend.