Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

Bill Cosby's opinion on guns in Trayvon Martin case shows hypocrisy of elites
Gun Rights Examiner ^ | 9 April, 2012 | David Codrea

Posted on 04/10/2012 6:31:39 AM PDT by marktwain

“When you carry a gun, you mean to harm somebody, kill somebody,” Bill Cosby claimed in a Friday interview with Deborah Simmons of The Washington Times.

“We’ve got to get the gun out of the hands of people who are supposed to be on neighborhood watch,” the comedian, actor and commentator advocated in his first public comments on the Trayvon Martin shooting.

“Without a gun, I don’t see Mr. Zimmerman approaching Trayvon by himself,” he declared.

Celebrity status and the ability to have his views shared with millions notwithstanding, there are more than a few problems with that opinion. First, being careful not to fall in with the rush to judgment Cosby seems caught up by, credible reports say it was Martin who approached Zimmerman “by himself”—and “without a gun.”

Then there are the reports that Cosby himself had obtained one of New York City’s rare, reserved for the rich, famous, powerful and connected concealed gun permits, joining other celebrities like Robert DeNiro, Howard Stern and Donald Trump. Assuming the accounts in the New York Observer and Boston Globe were accurate, has he since renounced the personal practice? And when he did carry a gun, did he “mean to harm somebody, kill somebody”?

Did doing so compel him to approach potential threats “by himself”?

(Excerpt) Read more at examiner.com ...


TOPICS: Constitution/Conservatism; Crime/Corruption; Culture/Society; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: banglist; constitution; cosby; gun; trayvonmartin
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first 1-2021-4041-42 next last
While Bill Cosby has had some credibility for promoting responsibility within the black community, he is outside his area of expertise with these comments.
1 posted on 04/10/2012 6:31:55 AM PDT by marktwain
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | View Replies]

To: marktwain
“When you carry a gun, you mean to harm somebody, kill somebody.”

Yes. Somebody who intends to kill your children and your wife.

2 posted on 04/10/2012 6:38:42 AM PDT by Savage Beast ("The future belongs to the fertile." -Allendale)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: marktwain

“Without a gun, I don’t see Mr. Zimmerman approaching Trayvon by himself,” he declared.

He’s right about that. What Mr. Cosby fails to understand is that it would have also detered Zimmerman if Martin was an actual burglar.

Guns are the great equalizer. Just ask any feminist with a gun in her purse.


3 posted on 04/10/2012 6:39:36 AM PDT by cuban leaf (Were doomed! Details at eleven.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: marktwain

Carrying a sidearm doesn’t make you aggressive, any more than a pocketknife or a pipewrench. Guns are a great equalizer. A young punk may be faster than I am, he may be stronger than I am; but in the eyes of my 9mm, we are equal.

I don’t want to make a mess, and do a bunch of paperwork; so I keep my gun to myself. But, if forced to defend myself, doing paperwork tomorrow is better than being dead today.


4 posted on 04/10/2012 6:39:53 AM PDT by Hodar ( Who needs laws; when this FEELS so right?)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: marktwain

I always marvel at gun control advocates. In order to believe that gun control will prevent crimes, you have to believe that criminals will follow the law. Which, in essence, means you have to be completely illogical and irrational to imagine the law doing anything more than disarming the law-abiding populace.


5 posted on 04/10/2012 6:43:37 AM PDT by HGSW0904
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Hodar

“I don’t want to make a mess, and do a bunch of paperwork; so I keep my gun to myself. But, if forced to defend myself, doing paperwork tomorrow is better than being dead today.”

Well said!


6 posted on 04/10/2012 6:45:37 AM PDT by MNGal
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 4 | View Replies]

To: marktwain

Bill Cosby huh? What else would we expect. One carry’s a gun for protection just as Cosby did by carrying a gun in NYC, and had the permit to carry. Did he then mean that he was out to kill somebody. I doubt it. Cosby talking out both sides of his mouth.


7 posted on 04/10/2012 6:47:14 AM PDT by Spike the punch
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: marktwain
If Bill Cosby's son had carried a gun, he might be alive today.

Oh. Sorry. Too soon?

8 posted on 04/10/2012 6:49:02 AM PDT by Texas Eagle (If it wasn't for double-standards, Liberals would have no standards at all -- Texas Eagle)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Savage Beast

Cosby, especially, should understand this concept: his son was killed with a handgun while minding his own business. He was an exceptionally intelligent and gifted young man, killed by a punk who wanted to rob him and his friends.


9 posted on 04/10/2012 6:51:28 AM PDT by jagusafr ("Write in Palin and prepare for war...")
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 2 | View Replies]

To: marktwain

“When you carry a gun, you mean to harm somebody, kill somebody,”

Only a person in the immediate act of attempting to harm or kill me or those in my family, where other means of protection of escape cannot be employed.


10 posted on 04/10/2012 6:51:47 AM PDT by theBuckwheat
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: marktwain
If Bill Cosby's son had carried a gun, he might be alive today.

Oh. Sorry. Too soon?

Oops. Let me try that again. This time with a link to the story.

Bill Cosby's Son Killed While Changing A Tire

11 posted on 04/10/2012 6:52:04 AM PDT by Texas Eagle (If it wasn't for double-standards, Liberals would have no standards at all -- Texas Eagle)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Texas Eagle

I remember some years back when Rosie O’Donnell made a huge issue that Walmart carried bullets etc... She used the whole libtard philosophy that guns kill people, blah, blah and blah. It was then “learned” that her bodyguards were armed while protecting her and her children. Loaded guns! Once again, it is a “I’m more important and my family is more valuable” than yours... Hypocrites.


12 posted on 04/10/2012 6:54:38 AM PDT by momtothree
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 8 | View Replies]

To: marktwain
“We’ve got to get the gun out of the hands of people who are supposed to be on neighborhood watch,” the comedian, actor and commentator advocated in his first public comments on the Trayvon Martin shooting.

Sometimes Cosby's humor is too sophisticated for me. Goes right over my head. Somebody care to explain this bit to me?

On second thought, never mind. Whenever you have to explain a joke it loses...oops...looses its funniness.

13 posted on 04/10/2012 6:55:57 AM PDT by Texas Eagle (If it wasn't for double-standards, Liberals would have no standards at all -- Texas Eagle)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: momtothree; marktwain
Perhaps somebody could ping Mr. Jello Pudding For Brains to this thread:

Two Intruders Break In, Woman Finds Gun, Kills One(MO)

14 posted on 04/10/2012 7:01:45 AM PDT by Texas Eagle (If it wasn't for double-standards, Liberals would have no standards at all -- Texas Eagle)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 12 | View Replies]

To: marktwain

“When you carry a gun, you mean to harm somebody, kill somebody,”

Cosby is wealthy enough to enjoy “security”, meaning bodyguards, when the circumstances indicate it. The little people don’t have the means and must fend for themselves.

I think that Cosby hasn’t realized that there is a difference between defense and offense. Surely over the several decades that Cosby been a well-earned celebrity, he has been under the protection of armed security personnel. So who exactly is the “you” in his complaint? Is “you” the average person just wanting to exercise his unalienable right of self-defense? Of is “you” the little people who must all be denied arms because someone might do something that Cosby disapproves of? Surely “you” is not the criminal or murderer.


15 posted on 04/10/2012 7:02:03 AM PDT by theBuckwheat
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: marktwain

I’m willing to overlook Mr Cosby’s obviously emotional statement because he’s done much good. Liberal (therefore stupid) statements do him no good, but given that he lost his son to a gunman (who would have had the gun with or without “gun control”) - we should give him some slack.


16 posted on 04/10/2012 7:08:52 AM PDT by Da Coyote
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: jagusafr
I understand the reasons for wanting to get guns out of the hands of criminals and irresponsible people; I want to do that too. But--OBVIOUSLY--to disarm good and responsible citizens would leave them vulnerable to evil people--including those who have empowered themselves with government authority.

Those who would disarm the population ignore the fact that evil people exist in the world. Most people are good people, but to ignore the fact that evil, including evil people, exists is dangerous folly.

Certainly Cosby speaks from painful experience. His loss is understood by all good people who have children. It's a loss that one can never fully recover from. I do understand. I understand how overwhelmingly tragic this is. I have children, and I know what Cosby's tragedy means.

But it would make the tragedy even worse if innocent people were rendered helpless to protect their children because of it.

17 posted on 04/10/2012 7:13:49 AM PDT by Savage Beast ("The future belongs to the fertile." -Allendale)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 9 | View Replies]

To: marktwain
“When you carry a gun, you mean to harm somebody, kill somebody,”

A false premise. Carrying a gun for protection is not carrying a gun to commit murder or manslaughter.

18 posted on 04/10/2012 7:20:10 AM PDT by Don Corleone ("Oil the gun..eat the cannoli. Take it to the Mattress.")
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: marktwain
Maybe Zimmerman was more bold because he had a gun (I know I would be) but that is not relevant at all to the fact that a young budding thug was casing the neighborhood in the dark, in the rain, walking on the grass between buildings, long AFTER the time he was supposedly going to the store to ‘buy skittles”

So... one successful neighborhood watch, in my opinion, one dead thug, and probably stopped a burglary

19 posted on 04/10/2012 7:23:48 AM PDT by Mr. K (If Romney wins the primary, I am writing-in PALIN)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: marktwain

No Bill, I aim to defend myself.

Bill, would you be happier, or even noticed if Martin had beaten Zimmerman to death?


20 posted on 04/10/2012 7:30:12 AM PDT by G Larry (We are NOT obliged to carry the snake in our pocket and then dismiss the bites as natural behavior.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first 1-2021-4041-42 next last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson