The Media Never Changes (The Plaxico Burress Story)

By Gerard Valentino

The sporting world is up in arms over the recent accidental self-inflicted shooting of New York Giants star Plaxico Burress.

Popular ESPN commentators Mike Greenburg and Mike Golic began the frenzy of bad gun-related information in their early morning radio talk show. Both repeatedly claimed they could never see a reason to go anywhere if they needed to carry a gun. I’m sure they’ve made their way to a McDonald’s, Wendy’s, Luby’s, a local school or university, mall or even a movie theater over the years.

All are places where spree killings have taken place in the past, and I bet many of the victims thought they didn’t need a gun if they were going to such a “safe” place. Many probably also wish they had a gun to fight back as they watched innocent people being brutally murdered, or as the gunman slowly lined them up in the sights.

Mike and Mike weren’t the only sports reporters to get the gun issue so horribly wrong in covering the Buress fiasco. The sports-related commentators making ignorant comments about the gun issue included the so-called best and brightest of the industry.

Gun owners shouldn’t be shocked by the ignorance of yet another set of media elite. As a now-former fan of Mike and Mike, I know that Mike Greenburg grew up in New York, and went Chicago’s own Northwestern University. Both places are among the most anti-gun cities in the United States so his anti-gun bias isn’t surprising.

Chicago (the suburb of Cicero to be exact) is my hometown, which goes to show you that people can overcome the biases of their upbringing. Being left at the whim of the thugs that prowled my hometown quickly made me realize I wanted a gun since they had one.

Golic’s transformation into a rambling anti-gun goof isn’t shocking either since he grew up in Cleveland, a city that prides itself on its anti-gun elected officials. The running joke on Mike and Mike is that Golic is a dumb ex-football player, well, he lived up to that reputation with his anti-gun ravings over the last week.

We shouldn’t expect anything more from sports reporters because they run in the same circles as the rest of the media elite, who look down their noses at us from their self-proclaimed place of importance in society.

What the people at ESPN don’t realize is a very large percentage of their audience is made up of pro-gun, pro-self defense advocates. By preaching to everyone about whether Plaxico Burress needed a gun they are missing the bigger issue – why would the City of New York make people go through the city at the mercy of criminals and thugs? - a question that was completely ignored in all the ravings about how Burress acted recklessly. And to be honest, he did act recklessly, but not by carrying a gun for self-defense. Exercising the right to bear arms is never, ever reckless.

Sure, whatever Burress did to make the gun go off was misguided but he shouldn’t be forced by notoriously anti-gun zealot Mike Bloomberg into protecting himself, or breaking the law.

Of all the human rights enumerated by our Founders, the right to bear arms was listed second, for a reason. They saw bearing arms as a vital part of the American experiment and that disarming free people was the height of tyranny. When the outrageous taxes, government regulation and anti-gun laws are added up, there is no doubt the City of New York leadership thrives on their tyranny.

The same is true for many of the old cities of the American Revolution, including nearly all of those in Massachusetts and New York. A situation that is sad, anti-American and makes the claim that Boston is the center of American history into a farce.

Disarming honest people flies in the face of most of American historical precedent. It wasn’t until the failed polices of 1960’s liberalism that most places in America started to cave to the anti-gun gangs. The assassinations of many of the '60’s leadership played into that fact, and so did the attempted assassination of President Reagan years later.

In an ironic twist, it wasn’t one of the self-proclaimed liberal places on earth where progressive thought on the gun issue finally appeared. It happened in Florida, where concealed carry was passed in 1987.

Clearly ESPN’s commentators don’t realize the millions of Americans who go about their day legally armed, each day, without a problem. Some have suggested that gun owners deluge Mike and Mike with pro-gun emails to make them realize they should have discussed why the City of New York disarms the populace, instead of claiming they would never go “anywhere” that required them to carry a gun.

It won’t do any good, however, just like it doesn’t help to remind everyone that the media is decidedly anti-gun. What we can do is point out the elitism of the media, no matter the industry, and try to change the viewers' minds. Conservative talk radio succeeded by preaching to the vast conservative base of America, but it was the audience that made it successful, not the radio personalities.

As we learned in Mumbai, India over Thanksgiving weekend, and have learned after countless school shootings and spree killings – you aren’t safe in the exact place where you think you are safe.

Mike and Mike, however, apparently go through life oblivious to the tragedies that befall honest law-abiding people. Either they now live such a pampered life that they no longer understand average Americans, or simply refuse to look honestly at the facts.

Either way, my television or radio will never be tuned to their show again – EVER.

Gerard Valentino is the Buckeye Firearms Foundation Treasurer/Secretary and writes for the ValentinoChronicle.com.