Even A Former NBA Star Doesn’t Believe Gun Control Works

It’s rather rare for any celebrity nowadays to be a supporter of the 2nd Amendment or at least to not support gun control. Frankly, it’s often social and career suicide for a celebrity to not side with the collective mind of the Left. It’s dangerous for celebrities to stray from the same collective thoughts of the Left. Still, we occasionally see some celebrities come out against something the Left is pushing.
 
In this case, former NBA star Shaquille O’Neal is that celebrity. On an interview with WABC in New York City, Shaq weighed in on the gun rights debate and offered a solution that’s far closer to Trump’s than what Democrats propose.
 
“The government should give law enforcement more money. Give more money, you recruit more people, and the guys that are not ready to go on the streets, you put them in front of the schools.”
 
“You put ‘em in front of schools, you put ‘em behind the schools, you put ‘em inside the schools. And we need to pass information. I would like to see police officers in schools, inner cities, private schools.”
 
“There’s a lot of weapons already on the streets. So it’s not like, if you say, ‘Ok, these weapons are banned,’ people are gonna go, ‘Oh, man, let me turn it in.’ That’s definitely not going to happen.”
 
All of the things he said are nightmare fuel for the Left. Not just the content of the words but also who is saying those words. Shaq is considered one of the greatest Centers of all time and among the best players to play the game. He was the most dominant big man in the NBA for almost his entire career. He’s widely loved, admired and respected. So for him to be saying these things, the Left must feel hurt.
 
Shaq has dared go against their brainwashed think tanks. He’s dared challenge their policy and he’s dared to seemingly agree with Republicans on this issue. Even worse, he’s dared to seemingly agree with TRUMP on this issue. To the Left, for anyone, let alone a celebrity, to do that is bordering on a capital offense. At least, that’s what they would want it to be.
 
So let’s go into each particular point he raised. First, he mentioned that he wants the government to give more money to law enforcement. Right off the bat this is something that angers the Left. They’ve spent the last few years demonizing law enforcement. They’ve painted a horrible and demonic picture of police. The Left is adamantly against law enforcement… at least when it’s not under their direct control.
 
With Shaq saying that, it only angers them further. Of course, it’s important to know that Shaq is technically a cop since he completed an unofficial police academy program in 2016 and “has been named an honorary reserve officer by police departments around the country,” according to The Hill.
 
So his support for law enforcement should be expected, but that doesn’t mean it irks the Left any less. In fact, it should irk them even more considering he’s been an advocate for law enforcement for a long time now and his support has obviously not wavered even after all the Left’s attacks on law enforcement’s image.
 
Then, of course, he essentially is agreeing with Trump with his proposal to put trained and good people with guns inside and around the schools. This ties with the previous comments supporting law enforcement. Again, the Left has demonized police, so that’s part of the reason they disagree with this option. Of course, the other reasons are that this would mean siding with Trump on anything; this would mean there’d be more guns, not less guns, around; and that the “racist” police officers would be present in schools where they could “harass” the minority students.
 
And finally, he says that there are a lot of weapons on the streets already and that just declaring something to be illegal is not going to get people to give up their guns. First of all, the likelihood of a bill that would ban semiautomatic weapons passing Congress are slim to none. Under Republican control, there’s 0% chance that that would happen. Under conservative control of the Supreme Court, there’s 0% chance that it would be allowed, as it’d be a clear violation of the 2nd Amendment. And under President Trump, there’s 0% chance that a bill like that, if passed, would be signed by Trump.
 
And that’s just the legal side of things. Like Shaq said, people aren’t going to give up their weapons. If they do, they’ll have to be ripped from their cold, dead hands. We were willing to go to war over ridiculous taxes and over earning the rights of human beings. We’re certainly willing to go to war over keeping our guns. After all, the very REASON the 2nd Amendment exists is to protect the citizen from a government that has grown too big and tyrannical. The passage of such a bill would be the evidence the people need to see that our very own government has betrayed us and we have to rise and fight for our rights once again.
 
So realistically speaking, we’re never going to be without guns. And this is a concept that Shaq clearly understands. Rush Limbaugh has said this multiple times: the next shooter is already out there and he already has the weapon he’s going to use. No measure of gun control will prevent the next shooting, or the one after that, or the one after that.
 
I would also like to bring up an argument I’ve made in the past. And, to make things easier on you, I’ll even bring up the same statistic I used in the past. American Enterprise Institute (AEI) released an article not too long ago about the gun homicide rate in the U.S. from 1993 to 2013, a 20 year time span. It shows a 49% decrease in that rate during that time span. It also shows the number of owned guns in that same time span. The article says that “the number of privately owned firearms in U.S. increased from about 185 million in 1993 to 357 million in 2013.”
 
All of those numbers are significant, but, at the moment, I’d like to specifically focus on that “357 million in 2013” number. Do you know what the population of the United States is currently (or at least what it was in 2017)? Roughly 325 million. Statistically speaking, everyone in the U.S. owns at least one gun. So I’d like to raise the same point here as I did the first time I shared that stat line: if guns were the problem, even I would know and admit it.
 
There are more guns OWNED in the U.S. than there are people. I capitalize own because, first, it’s not quite clear whether that counts unregistered guns (in theory, it shouldn’t). I say this because there, in theory, should be a lot more guns in the country today. Again, I don’t think this counts unregistered guns and that is a number from 5 years ago at this point. There’s a good chance that there are far more guns today than back then.
 
So I’ll repeat myself: if guns were the problem, even I would know and admit it. If guns were the problem, we’d all be dead. If guns kill people and there are more guns than people in the country, it only makes sense to assume that the people would all be dead, right?
 
Regardless, let’s return to Shaq, one of my new favorite NBA legends (he already sort of was since I’m a Miami Heat fan and he helped us win our first championship in 2006). I’m glad to see Shaq side with logic over emotions on this issue. He obviously shows far more insight and knowledge on the topic than all the highly emotional high school students, Hollywood celebrities and elected Democrats (who showed up for an anti-gun rally in D.C. with high school students, but it wasn’t political, supposedly) have.
 
Here’s hoping more people, whether celebrity or not, actually think logically and realistically about this issue without holding on to Nazi-like pipe dreams of taking guns away from people.
 
Proverbs 20:15
“Gold there is, and rubies in abundance, but lips that speak knowledge are a rare jewel.”