Real News': Bob Costas' Sunday Night Football Gun Remarks Ignite Controversy

Last night’s Sunday Night Football halftime report made news after sportscaster Bob Costas decided to weigh in on the recent tragedy involving Kansas City Chiefs player, by making comments supporting increased gun control. The remarks immediately spawned outrage online from Second Amendment backers and gun enthusiasts, in addition to other critics just unhappy with the political discussion amidst a football game.

The remarks were instigated by the events this weekend when a Kansas City Chiefs linebacker shot his girlfriend (and mother to his 3 month old daughter) multiple times after an argument – then went to the Chiefs training facility, thanked the coach and general manager for the opportunity to play for him, and then took his own life in front of both. During halftime of Sunday night's game on NBC, Costas went on what some are calling an anti-second amendment tirade, with the conclusion that had the killer not had a gun, these people would still be alive. Here's what he said:

Writer Jason Whitlock, with whom I do not always agree but today said it so well that we may as well just quote or paraphrase from the end of his article.

Our current gun culture, Whitlock wrote, ensures that more and more domestic disputes will end in the ultimate tragedy, and that more convenience-store confrontations over loud music coming from a car will leave more teenage boys bloodied and dead.’

Handguns do not enhance our safety. They exacerbate our flaws, tempt us to escalate arguments, and bait us into embracing confrontation rather than avoiding it.

In the coming days, Jovan Belcher’s actions and their possible connection to football will be analyzed. Who knows? But here, wrote Jason Whitlock, is what I believe: If Jovan Belcher didn’t possess a gun, he and Kasandra Perkins would both be alive today.

On 'Real News' Monday the panel discussed the tragedy in Kansas City, Costas's remarks, and the subsequent media reaction: