I’m beginning to think the liberal media doesn’t understand what “bipartisanship” means. At least Bob Costas seems to have some trouble with the term, as his Friday morning interview on CNN’s Neue Day veered off from a fairly grounded discussion of much of the professional sports world’s advocacy for gun control into a string of misleading analogies that were heavy on the feelings but light on the facts.
Brianna Keilar began the interview by asking Costas “what kind of responsibility is then incumbent on these — on these teams and figures?” to support gun control policies. Costas gave a fairly levelheaded answer, “I don’t know that there’s a specific responsibility or that everyone is required to express themselves. But certainly it’s a free country, and these players and other sports figures have a platform and they have every right to use it.”
Costas double-checked with Keilar that he wasn’t taking up too much air time and, when told he was not, decided to wax eloquent on how the solutions proposed by Republicans in recent days are not good enough:
What we always hear in the aftermath of this, from certain quarters on the spectrum, “Let’s talk about mental health. Let’s get to the police response. Let’s talk about security at the perimeter of schools.” All of those are reasonable things to talk about. But there’s one thing that’s always off the table, and that’s common-sense gun safety measures.
Costas then continued by comparing the Republican response to the horrible shooting to a doctor that diagnoses all but one of your symptoms, asking Keilar, “would you continue to go to that doctor?”
These legislators might believe that gun control restrictions will not be effective in curing the disease.
Costas made the decision to abandon any subtlety in favor of a more direct appeal.
In a sane world, would any gun dealer look at the ID of an 18-year-old kid, see that this is his eighteenth birthday, he wants to buy an AR-15. . .why would anyone want that young man — who we know now is troubled and was a murderer — why would we want him to walk out of that gun dealer’s store with two AR-15s?
Tragically, the shooter passed his background check. He was legally allowed to purchase a firearm. An 18-year old buying a gun for his birthday is not unusual in Texas. Sure, it’s easy for Costas to say “we know now” that the shooter was a deeply disturbed individual, but to call it insane for the gun dealer to have sold legal firearms to someone who had passed his background check is lunacy.
Costas concluded his rant with a misplaced comparison of gun laws to traffic laws, arguing that, “nobody says, ‘You know what, this is the first step to confiscating our cars, and pretty soon we’ll all have to go to grandma’s house on Thanksgiving in a horse and buggy.’”
We also don’t have politicians promising (yet), “Hell yes we’re going to take away your car!” Regardless, Costas and co. sure seem to be trying their damnedest to tank any honest efforts at discussing bipartisan gun violence legislation before the conversation has even started.
Mercedes-Benz and Energizer Batteries enabled this confusing maelstroma of metaphors. You can find their contact information here.
Click “Expand” to see the relevant transcript.
CNN’s Neue Day
05/27/22
8:23:25 ETBRIANNA KEILAR: I also wonder Bob, I wonder about the responsibility that a lot of these figures feel, because — you know — we’ve been telling people about these ten and eleven-year-olds who died. And we’ve been saying they love to dance to TikTok videos. The Astros are their favorite team. I mean — these are the — these kids, their favorite things — some of them — were sports teams —
BOB COSTAS: Yes, sports
KEILAR: — And I wonder what kind of responsibility is then incumbent on these — on these teams and figures?
COSTAS: I don’t know that there’s a specific responsibility or that everyone is required to express themselves. But certainly it’s a free country, and these players and other sports figures have a platform and they have every right to use it. I don’t know how much time you have here, Brianna, so stop me if I am taking up —
KEILAR : Time is ours.
COSTAS: — Too much of it. But — okay.
What we always hear in the aftermath of this, from certain quarters on the spectrum, “Let’s talk about mental health. Let’s get to the police response. Let’s talk about security at the perimeter of schools.” All of those are reasonable things to talk about. But there’s one thing that’s always off the table, and that’s common sense gun safety measures.
You would continue going to the doctor if you were diagnosed with multiple serious conditions by a physician.
This is off the table for many right-wingers and many lawmakers (supposed lawmakers who won’t make laws that will deal with this) because they treat the Second Amendment as if it were a sacrament — but long ago a Supreme Court Justice said, “The Constitution is not a suicide pact.”
In a sane world, would any gun dealer look at the ID of an 18-year-old kid, see that this is his eighteenth birthday, he wants to buy an AR-15. He returns two days later and wants another. We would also be able to see from a registry of common sense that he purchased ammunition in between days. In a sane world, why would anyone want that young man — who we know now is troubled and was a murderer — why would we want him to walk out of that gun dealer’s store with two AR-15s? It is law and order. It isn’t a liberal issue. It’s not a “take down the Second Amendment” issue.
You know, no one says because we have regulations, we have traffic laws, you have to have a license, you have to have insurance, you have to have your car inspected, nobody says, “You know what, this is the first step to confiscating our cars, and pretty soon we’ll all have to go to grandma’s house on Thanksgiving in a horse and buggy.” They don’t say that because its insane. This is just a small part of some of the responses. It’s insane.
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