Gun owners, athletes or not, must be responsible

I grew up on a farm just south of Indianapolis where hunting — usually for rabbits — was a given. While my father
owned a double-barrel
shotgun, his zest for hunting waned over the years. Still, we regularly welcomed relatives and friends onto the property for
their own hunts.

As a boy, my father let me fire that shotgun once. The recoil nearly knocked me down and left a deep bruise on my shoulder.
As far as guns went, that was it until I joined the Army where, of course, learning to accurately fire an M-16 was part of
the training.

But the day I was discharged was the last day I had anything to do with guns, or weapons, as we were required to call them.

I have no use for guns. They scare the daylights out of me.

That said, I don’t begrudge those who legally obtain and carry guns, whether their intended use is hunting or self-protection.
I do believe in the Second Amendment, even though it has been stretched far beyond the vision of the Founding Fathers (could
they have imagined assault rifles?) just as the First Amendment’s protection of free speech has been time-warped.

It’s a naive notion, I know, but I believe that guns, like words, should be used responsibly.

Anyway, lest you be residing in the proverbial cave, New York Giants wide receiver Plaxico Burress was hanging out in a New
York City nightspot recently when the gun he was carrying accidentally discharged, wounding him in the thigh.

With Burress being a prominent member of the defending Super Bowl champions and New York being, well, New York, the media
leaped upon the incident and turned it into a feeding frenzy. Since Burress’ weapon was not legally registered in New York,
where there are strict gun laws, he was subsequently charged, booked and released on bond. He faces possible jail time.

He also was suspended for the rest of the season. Worse, he may take down with him a teammate and the doctor who treated him.

Professional athletes aren’t candidates for much sympathy — many commoners like to apply the adjectives, "rich,
pampered and
spoiled" to any definition. Nor am I going to try to mount a defense for Burress. That’s what he pays his attorney for.
Shooting
himself may have been an accident, but carrying a concealed weapon without a permit is plain dumb, again proving that all
the money in the world can’t buy a lick of sense.

Yet pro athletes, like all of us, do have the right to legally arm themselves. And by most accounts many of them do, including
members of our Colts and Pacers. Speaking of the latter, we remember too well Stephen Jackson’s gunplay in the infamous Club
Rio incident and, later, Jamal Tinsley and friends dodging bullets downtown.

Athletes who admit to packing heat say they do so for protection, that they are targets — especially to those who resent
their
wealth and fame.

There are plenty of examples. A year ago, the Washington Redskins’ Sean Taylor was killed during a robbery at his house. Denver
Broncos’ defensive back Darrent Williams was shot and killed outside a nightclub. Unlike Taylor and Williams, Baltimore Raven
Corey Fuller was able to respond when confronted by two armed robbers outside his Tallahassee, Fla., house. Fuller went into
his home, grabbed his gun and fired at the assailants, who fled.

Still, too often, athletes — mostly young and with lots of money — place themselves in harm’s way, exercising poor
judgment. They
don’t see themselves as representatives of their franchises or their communities. They live in the moment and the desire for
a good time, not anticipating that it could turn into a bad time or a tragic time.

Especially among the young, that’s a trait not limited to professional athletes.

Again, I’m not making excuses for Burress. Yet, having never walked the walk of fame, celebrity and wealth, I cannot place
myself in their mind-set of the need to carry a pistol.

I would also caution those quick to condemn and rush to generalizations that the majority of professional athletes do not
carry concealed weapons, certainly not illegally, anyway, and have managed to find balance between professional and private
lives.

It was also interesting to note that, amid the media attention focused on Burress, six NFL players received four-game suspensions
last week for violating the NFL’s anti-doping policy for using a diuretic to mask steroid use.

The suspensions didn’t receive near the media attention Burress did.

Yet which goes to the integrity of the game more?

___

Benner is associate director of communications for the Indianapolis Convention & Visitors
Association and a former sports
columnist for The Indianapolis Star. His column appears weekly. Listen to his column
via podcast at www.ibj.com. He can be
reached at bbenner@ibj.com. Benner also has a blog, www.indyinsights.com.