Bob Costas: The timing of my gun comments was a mistake, but…

It’s certainly not an apology, and he’s certainly not backing down from the content of his gun-control, middle-of-a-football-game remarks, but he did more-or-less admit that it perhaps wasn’t the right time or place for an anti-gun monologue (although, more because he didn’t have enough time to adequately explain himself than anything else). RealClear has the audio; first, Costas says he has received a “tremendously positive” response and that, of the backlash that there has been, he expects some of it is coming from the “gun lobby.” He continues:

So, I’m thinking I can’t address all of the possible aspects of this. Domestic violence; the possibility of athletes, especially athletes who play a violent sport are more prone to domestic violence than people the same age elsewhere in society. The possible connection between football and this particular tragedy. We know that football is connected, and it’s effects are connected to other situations. We don’t know yet whether it’s connected to Belcher, but that’s certainly a question that could be asked. The easy availability of guns is another.

And so I saw what Jason Whitlock had written and a portion of what he wrote resonated with me and given the time that I had, I thought that was on aspect that I could put out there and maybe, maybe I gave the audience too much credit, but I said if you’re looking for perspective, a bit of it could be found. And my implication there — with every second counting, I had maybe 50 seconds total for this — my implication was a bit of perspective, here’s one aspect of it. I also put in parenthetically that in the days ahead, Belcher’s actions, and their possible connection to football, will be analyzed. That was meant to imply there are many aspects of this, I’m addressing one by quoting what Jason Whitlock said in his column.

So I think that my mistake there was that I left it open to too much interpretation.

Gun-control advocates immediately jumping to the dastardly “gun lobby,” a.k.a. the National Rifle Association, always amazes me. What and why is the NRA so successful? Because it has the support and commitment of so many people. A lobby with well over 4 million normal Americans in it is indeed pretty darn huge, and it’s because the cause is as basic and enduring as freedom itself. There is a “war on women” in this country, but it’s not coming from Republicans — guns are the great equalizer, and there are few things that chill me more than when I hear progressives trying to think up new ways and means of depriving me of my right to defend myself.

I’m going to let Greg Gutfeld take this one away:

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