Gilbert's Got a Gun...

Current Tunes: Isis - Hym

Today NBA commissioner David Stern indefinitely suspended Gilbert Arenas, the bright young star of the Washington Wizards, for bringing a handgun into the Washington locker room and purportedly pulling it on a teammate. Let me just say, way to go Mr. Stern.

I actually like Mr. Arenas, so this whole situation was pretty puzzling, and at the same time, aggravating for me. The idea of bringing a gun into the locker room of a professional basketball team just utterly stuns me. I spent the past couple of days trying to break down exactly what could possibly motivate this action, what kind of logic could have driven Mr. Arenas to behave like this and I’m short on concrete answers, but there are possibilities to explore.

Arenas has gone on the record saying he was taking the gun to the locker room to get it out of his house and away from his children. Hopefully anyone reading this can clearly see what a nonsense excuse that is. I would certainly postulate that Arenas perhaps wanted the guns nowhere near his children. That’s a noble motivation for sure. But let’s turn this scenario around a bit. Let’s imagine instead of making his money as a pro basketball player, instead he worked as a accountant at a major firm of some kind. Do you think that employer would take kindly to you bring a gun to the office, then threatening a coworker with it? I think not.

If you boil it down, there are only three purposes for a gun. The first is for sport shooting. I don’t think that’s what he hand in mind for the weapon when he brought it to the Verizon Center in Washington. The second purpose guns are usually associated with is hunting. Certainly that’s not what he took it to the locker room for either. The third and final purpose would be for protection or for offensive (read: murderous) intent. As in a combat situation. We’ve pretty clearly eliminated the other two purposes as not being likely reason for bringing the gun to the arena. And I can’t help but seriously doubt his motivation was protection, as major sports arenas these days are more secure than airports.

That’s as far as I’ll carry the speculation though; no point in going any further. I’m just so disgusted by what this guy did. Lots of commentators are pointing back to the Plaxico Burress incident and wondering why Arenas didn’t learn from that guy’s mistakes. I’m here to tell you he didn’t learn because he’s another bigheaded celebrity who thinks somehow having fame and fortune grants you membership into some imaginary club where the law does not apply to you.

I’ve heard there are accusations that he transported the gun across state lines in his car. That’s a major no-no. Even if that’s not the case, Arenas should still go to jail I think. What happens when some random janitor/maintenance worker/nutcase breaks into another NBA player’s locker, takes the gun, and then shoots up the place? That’s pretty far fetched, I’ll grant you. But far-fetched can still happen. You can’t shoot up a public sporting event if there aren’t any guns in the building. Which is why they’re not allowed in there. The stupidity of Arenas’ actions absolutely can’t go unpunished. If I had a kid, and I took him to an NBA game and I’d found out there had been anyone who’d brought a gun into that arena, from pro player to cameraman to everyday fan to corporate executive, I would be infuriated. The people of Washington D.C. should be.