An open letter to Bob Costas, NBC Sports...

Dear Bob,

In regard to your commentary during half-time of the Sunday Night Football game on NBC on 12/3/2012, I want to take issue with your comments.

Not so much with the notion that there isn't an argument to be made for gun control.  We do have a Second Amendment in this nation and many people feel strongly about both sides of that argument.  The problem is, half-time of a sporting event is not the appropriate forum for you to raise this issue.  The fans that tune into these games aren't there to serve as an audience for you to pontificate and/or proselytize on a political issue.  There is a time and a place for everything.

What happened in the incident involving Jovan Belcher murdering his girlfriend and then killing himself is tragic.  Horrific in fact and made worse by the fact it leaves in its wake a three month old child who will grow up without its biological parents.  That doesn't justify you using the emotional appeal of the argument to support your anti-gun agenda.

O.J. Simpson didn't need a gun to kill his wife and Ronald Goldman.  Claus Von Bulow didn't need a gun to attempt the murder of his wife.  In Texas, Shannon Dee Smith stabbed his wife Lisa to death in front of their two children.  He didn't need a gun either.  Like it or not, the adage that guns don't kill people, people kill people is true.  If you could magically eliminate all of the guns that are out there right now, people would still be killing people.

Don't misconstrue.  I'm not opposed to all forms of gun control.  I'm happy to require guns to be registered, for people who want to own guns to be required to undergo licensing and training and to limit ownership of certain types of weapons to the military and law enforcement agencies.

However, to claim that without that gun, Jovan Belcher and his girlfriend would still be alive isn't just disingenuous.  It's false.  If he was intent on killing her, he had plenty of alternatives.  In fact, he probably could have just snapped her neck with his bare hands.

So, you were wrong in the place you chose and wrong in the message you chose to send.  Advocate gun control all you like, but don't make false statements like that in front of 25 million people just because you happen to be at the microphone.  Write a column of your own and see if someone will print it.  Talk about it on your own program.  But keep half-time about football, not politics.

Sincerely,