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Bob Costas' monologue on guns sparks ire on right

The long-simmering debate over guns exploded this weekend after veteran NBC sports broadcaster Bob Costas took on America's gun culture during halftime on Sunda
NBC's Bob Costas
NBC's Bob Costas

The long-simmering debate over guns exploded this weekend after veteran NBC sports broadcaster Bob Costas took on America's gun culture during halftime on Sunday Night Football.

Costas' passionate plea followed Saturday's tragic and disturbing murder-suicide, in which Kansas City Chiefs linebacker Jovan Belcher allegedly shot and killed Kasandra Perkins, the mother of his 3-month old daughter, before killing himself in front of the Chiefs' coach and GM.

Sunday night, Costas cited a piece by Fox Sports columnist Jason Whitlock, who argued America's gun culture ensures "more and more domestic disputes will end in the ultimate tragedy." Whitlock added: "If Jovan Belcher didn't possess a gun, he and Kasandra Perkins would both be alive today."

Costas didn't mention explicitly gun control, but he made clear he agreed with Whitlock, saying the writer "said it so well."

In response, the right came out swinging. Former Republican presidential candidate Herman Cain tweeted, “You tune in for a football game and end up listening to Bob Costas spewing sanctimonious dreck.”

Fox Business Network’s Lou Dobbs also took to Twitter, writing “The Media Left at Halftime: Bob Costas pushing gun control, quoting…who else? .. a sports writer on ridding the country of the 2nd amendment.”

Conservative columnist Michele Malkin: Costas “hijacks Sunday Night Football to give anti-gun lecture.”

And no anti-gun-control backlash is complete without oustspoken rocker and Second Amendment advocate Ted Nugent.

“Blaming guns for crime is like blaming helmuts for headbutts. WTF Costas! Uve lost it," Nugent wrote.