

Charles Barkley says carrying gun gives 'sense of peace'

11:20 PM, December 5, 2012   |  
NBC's Bob Costas continues talking about gun violence on NBC Sports Network cable show this week. / Matthew Emmons-USA TODAY Sports

TNT NBA analyst Charles Barkley, saying he feels safer carrying a gun, says the issue in the wake of the Kansas City Chiefs linebacker Jovan Belcher shootings is domestic violence, not gun control.

"There's never a reason to hit a woman, touch a woman, or obviously kill a woman," Barkley tells USA TODAY Sports.

"I hope people don't (overemphasize) the gun situation. I'm very sensitive to domestic violence because I have a daughter (23-year-old Christiana), and that's just one thing that I cannot accept in any shape or form whatsoever. It's just a crazy situation.

"I don't get into the gun stuff. Some guys have guns who go hunting. Where do we stop (the gun control) at? I'm not a hunter, but we can't say people can't have guns. ... Let's not make this thing about guns. Let's make this about mistreating women. That's unacceptable."

Barkley also will appear in an already-taped episode of Costas Tonight, airing on the NBC Sports Network cable channel Thursday (9 p.m. ET), joined by host Bob Costas and tennis legend John McEnroe.

On the show, Barkley says he's "carried a gun in my car, every day of my life since I was 21 or 22 -- never had to use it."

Costas has already drawn attention for suggesting, during NBC's Sunday night NFL coverage, that Belcher and his girlfriend Kasandra Perkins would be alive if Belcher didn't have a gun.

Tuesday, Costas was on The Dan Patrick Show and explained he had made a "mistake" in addressing the topic in the 90-second NBC segment because he didn't "have enough time" to raise related issues.

On Costas Tonight, Barkley addresses broader issues. He says, "Especially in the black culture, it's a crime culture. We, as black people, and I always say 'we', we won't have respect, we don't have respect for each other. We have more black men in prison than we do in college, and crime in our neighborhoods is running rampant. I know everybody reacts when something like the Belcher thing happens. But being black, this is something you deal with all the time, and it's just sad. I'm a guy and I carry a gun."

Would he use it? Says Barkley: "I feel a sense of peace when I have it with me, but it would take extreme circumstances for me to even touch it."

McEnroe says he feels "safer" by not carrying a gun.

And while Costas in Thursday's show says he "didn't say anything specifically about gun control legislation or the second amendment" in his Sunday segment, McEnroe talks about his support for some sort of gun control: "That's why someone like Mayor Bloomberg, in New York City, where I live, has advocated, I think rightly, that we get as many guns off the street."

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Mike Thompson