Marvin Harrison allegedly owns a Belgian Fabrique Nationale 5.7 firearm. Previously when I thought Belgian, I thought waffles. No longer. They apparently make both delicious pastries and potent little weapons.
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| Marvin Harrison will face more scorn simply for having such a gun as a pro athlete. (US Presswire) |
Why exactly would a civilian need such a weapon?
To take down Ironman?
From the website enemyforces.com: "The "Five-seveN" Self-loading Pistol is a new generation and conception weapon. Technically it is classified as an ordinary submachine gun but tactically it is a Personal Defense Weapon. To remind: the PD Weapons are mainly used by drivers, staff personnel, artillery crew, and other second line soldiers ..."
Artillery crew? Apparently Harrison was preparing to do battle with a Romulan warbird.
And: "Cartridge recoil power is threefold lower than the standard NATO 5.56 x 45 mm (.223 Rem) cartridges."
It's not often you're going to see the words "NATO" and "Marvin Harrison" in the same sentence.
"It doesn't take much imagination to see this cartridge changing the direction of law enforcement weaponry in the new millennium," wrote American Handgunner about the BFN. "The Five-seveN might well serve as standard issue for officers in a crowded urban setting and the P-90 could be used by special teams and thus retain commonality of ammunition."
And by "special teams" I'm assuming they don't mean punt return coverage.
Does it bother anyone that an NFL player allegedly owns a gun in which its main attraction to potential buyers is the fact its ammunition can penetrate body armor? Body armor most times worn by police?
Don't get your guntotin' panties in a bunch. It's just a question.
And please stop waving the Second Amendment in my face like it's a ticket to a Springsteen concert. Nobody's trying to take your gat away.
You call me an anti-gun media weenie. I see that and raise you Columbine (13 dead, 23 wounded), the University of Texas massacre (14 dead, 31 wounded), Virginia Tech (32 dead), Northern Illinois (five dead, 18 wounded), the Red Lake High School massacre (seven dead) and the Jonesboro school massacre (five dead, nine wounded).
Just to name a few school shootings of innocent women and kids.
But I digress.
This has nothing to do with the Second Amendment or someone trying to pry the gun from your cold, dead hands. So cease with the phony, false choices.
Keep your firearms. I target shoot. I'm ex-Army (basic training at Ft. Sill in Oklahoma where I was the worst shooter of an M-16 probably in that base's history).
This is more about athletes, guns and their continued mistaken impression that owning one automatically means you're better protected.
No charges have been filed against Harrison and it's wholly possible the Indianapolis wide receiver had nothing to do with a shooting outside of his bar, Playmakers, located in Harrison's hometown of Philadelphia.
The fact Harrison owns that weapon and possibly many others prove what NFL players have told me in the past. Several have estimated that 70-80 percent of all NFL players own some sort of firearm and many of those carry guns on them for protection.
There may be numerous unknown incidents where owning a handgun saved an athlete's life. It just seems guns get players in more trouble than get them out of it.
That message continually seems to be missed by today's players.
Athletes admittedly have a difficult line to walk. They are targets of beer goggled, pot-bellied wanna-be's and genuine first-class thugs and hyenas.
Yet packing high-powered weaponry might not be the best way to protect yourself. Tempers and ego can drastically affect judgment, leading to the very situation an athlete is trying to avoid.
Even highly trained police officers, on rare occasions, have difficulty maintaining their cool in the heat of the moment. See: Diallo, Amadou, New York.
Harrison may have purchased his weapon strictly as a collection gem or as some form of protection. He owns, according to media reports, some several dozen guns. Thus making him Dirty Harry Harrison.
Harrison might not have fired a single shot in this incident but he's learning even non-discharged guns can still get a professional athlete into plenty of trouble.