In our world, there are a lot of people who are well-known due to a lot of factors. Actors, musicians, athletes, businessmen, and so on.
Most have some degree of expertise that helped elevate them to that level.
Yet that area of expertise doesn’t mean they understand things like gun control. It doesn’t stop them from pontificating on the subject, as we’ve seen from athletes and artists over and over again.
Now, the Indianapolis Colts GM is the latest to do so
Indianapolis Colts general manager Chris Ballard decided this would be a good opportunity to lecture fans on the problem with our gun laws in the United States.
Ballard kicked off his press conference by offering condolences to the families involved in the Greenwood Park Mall shooting. It’s not relevant to the NFL or the Colts, but it’s an understandable gesture considering the mall is only about 10 miles from Lucas Oil Stadium, where the Colts play.
That alone would have been a nice way to recognize people in the community who were impacted by this senseless tragedy. Unfortunately, Ballard couldn’t help himself. Instead of worrying about the Colts, who only won nine games last season, he began focusing on political policy.
“To me, it’s a lot of common sense, and we lack it right now in this country. And it’s a shame,” Ballard said. “Highland Park, Uvalde, Greenwood, Buffalo. I mean, when does some common sense come in to play and when does this end? When do our elected officials actually do something about it instead of their own political gain? Both sides are completely wrong.”
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Ballard didn’t stop there, he praised left-wing activist Steve Kerr, the head coach of the NBA’s Golden State Warriors.
“It’s a shame that you have to get up here and start something. You know, eventually we’ll get up and not have to talk about this. But right now we cannot remain silent on this issue.”
Ballard concluded, “I mean Steve Kerr said it best: ‘We can’t become numb.’ That’s what we’ve done. We’ve become numb to it, like it’s just OK. It’s not OK. People need to be held accountable. And Our politicians need to be held accountable. At what point are they going to put their own self-interest aside and do the right thing for the country?”
The author of this piece is…less than sympathetic to Ballard, and that’s not surprising.
After all, Ballard had no reason to jump into this topic except that he figured because he had enough success to have the job he does, he’s enough of an expert to tell us what we should think about guns and gun control.
My guy, the team you’re in charge of finished the season nine and eight with a two-game losing streak that knocked them out of the playoffs. Maybe it’s just me, but it seems like you should be more focused on getting your team to the next level than talking about a political issue like gun control you clearly don’t understand.
First, understand that every politician votes based on a combination of self-interest and their own personal beliefs. That’s why people hold up polls showing popular support for their pet subject. It’s because we want to harness that self-interest.
Look, Ballard is emotional. I get it.
However, what he seems to have missed is that Greenwood Park wasn’t Buffalo or Uvalde or even Highland Park. Why? Because pro-gun laws were passed that helped put an armed citizen in that mall on that day. Someone with a gun ended the evil well before law enforcement could ever get there.
If you want to talk about Greenwood Park, then that has to be part of the discussion. Gun control would have resulted in more people dying.
An armed citizen stepped up and delivered, a man who was there because of laws that Ballard likely opposes, and his hero Steven Kerr most definitely does.
Ballard missed that.