Add James Harrison to the list of Steelers players who have offered their opinions on guns in wake of the Jovan Belcher tragedy and Bob Costas’s remarks (quoting Jason Whitlock) on Football Night in America. My colleague shared Steelers WR Plaxico Burress’s comments on gun ownership being a societal issue as opposed to an issue that is unique to pro athletes, and now here is Steelers LB James Harrison speaking about his views on gun ownership and gun violence with USA Today’s Jim Corbett (courtesy of CBSSports.com):
“It’s a big issue as far as what happened and everything, it’s a sad story,” Harrison told USA Today‘s Jim Corbett. “But the fact of it being part of the guns. …They want to say it’s guns and all this other stuff. It’s ridiculous. He did it. And he alone is responsible for it. It has nothing to do with the guns.”
Harrison went on to add:
“Somebody goes out and kills somebody with a knife, you going to blame the knife?” he asked. “Somebody goes out and kills somebody by pushing somebody in front of a train, you going to start cutting off the guy’s arms? You going to start blaming people’s arms now? It’s the person who did it who is responsible.”
You can read all of Harrison’s remarks here. I won’t get too political on this post, but I will ask the question that I had as soon as I read Harrison’s comments: Who or what do we credit for the same man in the clip below from four years ago actually saying something that makes a little bit of sense today?: