LETTER TO THE EDITOR: Costas targets guns but not cars

OPINION:

NBC broadcaster Bob Costas for the second week in a row provided comments at halftime during Sunday night football about a tragic death involving an NFL player (“Cowboys lineman due in court after teammate dies,” Web, Sunday). In reference to the death of Cowboys player Jerry Brown, Mr. Costas clearly shifted his attitude about the cause of an untimely tragedy.

The week before last he went after the “gun culture” in America when a day earlier, Kansas City Chiefs football player Jovan Belcher shot and killed girlfriend Kasandra Perkins before turning the gun on himself. Mr. Costas blatantly stated at the end of the anti-gun diatribe that “if Belcher had not owned a gun he and Perkins would be alive today.” In last weekend’s incident, Cowboys lineman Joshua Brent was allegedly driving while intoxicated and crashed his vehicle, in which Brown was a passenger. Mr. Brent has been charged with intoxication manslaughter. Correctly, Mr. Costas did not blame vehicles in the death, even though more than 32,000 people are killed in car accidents each year in the United States. Instead, his comments were rightfully directed at personal responsibility and decisions.

Guns don’t kill people any more than vehicles do. The loss of lives in these incidences brings home this fact clearer than ever.

JOHN RANTZ

Lubbock, Texas