Gun issues in professional sport-has it always been like this?

• SportsAndLady

  

  Okay, so I am writing a paper with a group about gun laws, issues, etc. in professional sports, and I am writing about the history of it...as in, have leagues in the past (60s, 70s, 80s, 90s) always had issues with their players carrying around guns?
  
  Any help would be appreciated.
• BigAppleBuckeye

  

  Of course! Don't you remember Roy Hobbs almost getting whacked back in the 50s?
  
  
• Sonofanump

  Several years ago, Billy Martin managed the Texas Rangers. The team had a great season, and Billy was voted AL manager of the year. As a gift from his players, they knew of his love of hunting, so they gave him two shotguns.
  
  During the offseason, Billy got a call from his good friend from his playing days that also resided in Texas during the offseason, Mickey Mantle. Mickey suggested that they take the new guns out and do some hunting. Mickey told Billy that he had a doctor friend that had several hundred acres to hunt on. Billy agreed.
  
  When they got to the doctors property, Mickey told Billy that he was going up to the doctors house to let him know what they were doing. Mickey went to the door and told the doctor that they would be hunting. The doctor said "fine", but asked Mickey to do him a favor. He had a mule that was on it's last legs, and he asked Mickey if he would put it out of it's misery, because he didn't have the heart to do it himself.
  
  So on the way back, Mickey decided to play a little joke on Billy. Once he got back to Billy, he had a real pissed off look on his face. Mickey told Billy that the doctor would not allow them to hunt on his property. Mickey said that he would fix his ass, and proceeded to walk up to the mule and plug him. He then turned around, but Billy was nowhere in sight. All of a sudden, Mickey heard shots fired from the other side of a hill. When Mickey reached the top of the hill, he saw Billy shooting the doctors cattle.
• LJ

  

  When talking about issues are you talking about inside facilities or players possesing weapons outside of league sanctioned facilities?
• SportsAndLady

  

  LJ wrote: When talking about issues are you talking about inside facilities or players possesing weapons outside of league sanctioned facilities?

  Both.
  
  Here's the thing..it's a group paper for a law class titled sport law...25 page research paper on anything current in sports that deals with a legal issue.
  
  One of guys in my group chose "gun issues in sport" as our subject...I mean it's not a bad topic, but I don't know TOO much about it...and the part of the paper I've been assigned is the history of gun issues (such as, players getting arrested for anything related to guns, players possessing guns, the league penalizing players for gun issues, etc.), and being as how I am only 20 years old and can't find a good website with a history of the issue, I'm sorta lost.
  
  One guy has NBA, one guy has NFL, one guy has MLB/NHL, and I have past issues for professional sport in general. So I'm supposed to compare and contrast how it was "dealt with" back then (in terms of the law, respective leagues penalizing the players) and if it was any more severe or less severe than today (as in, were players back in the day carrying around guns, getting arrested for gun charges, etc.).
• Nate

  Sports Law
  
  You should have done something on Gambling. Tons of content to research.
• SportsAndLady

  

  Keebler wrote: Sports Law
  
  You should have done something on Gambling. Tons of content to research.

  Only 2 groups per subject, and that was taken already.
• stroups

  

  It just happened but you could use the Jayson Williams case.
  
  Here is good article with good article with athletes and Guns
  http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/columns/story?id=2691043
• Nate

  SportsAndLady wrote:

  Keebler wrote: Sports Law
  
  You should have done something on Gambling. Tons of content to research.

  Only 2 groups per subject, and that was taken already.

  Damn, that sucks. I'm sure steroids was also taken then.
• BigAppleBuckeye

  

  Might be cool to do a transition, how some players in the 40s were FORCED to carry guns when called to WWII, and now carrying guns has become more of a conscious choice in some circles. Or not, just a thought.
• LJ

  

  You probably won't find much about issues until the 80's. That is when a lot of the more restrictive gun laws started to come into play.
  
  You know they made a big stink about the Arenas incident, but how many players do you think have brought guns to facilities in the past because of showing up to a practice or a game right after hunting?
  
  I did a short google search and most information I find is blogger type anti-gun articles. The information I DID find though is that a lot of professional players are either ignorant or don't care about local firearms laws. That could be a good angle to take. Instead of just punishing players for breaking local gun laws, why not have league sanctioned training to inform players about local laws. A lot of these guys are not getting in trouble for using guns, but merely for breaking local laws on possession and siuch.
• ytownfootball

  

  A place to start might be Jackie Robinson, Hank Aaron as they had serious threats against them and good reason to carry, though I know of no specific story relating to them carrying. I could easily see a tie in there somehow.
• SportsAndLady

  

  Thanks for the info, LJ.
  
  BAB, good idea, I'll definitely go into that a little.
  
  ytown, carrying guns for protection from crazy fans is a big part of our paper, so I will definitely start it out w/ those 2 athletes...thanks.
• stroups

  

  I was thinking since many people are in college it would be cool if we could have a school forum. You could post questions about some homework or ideas for papers.......IDK just a thought
• SportsAndLady

  

  If anyone has any specific examples of a professional athlete getting in trouble, either by the law or the league, for gun charges...that'd be extremely helpful.
• ytownfootball

  

  Delonte West this past off-season from the Cav's.
• SportsAndLady

  

  My bad, I forgot to put in from the past..as in, before this decade.
  
  Like say, a player for an NBA team in 1985 getting arrested and suspended from the NBA for a year for a gun charge. Something like that..because that's basically what I am writing about.
• LJ

  

  Tank Johnson
  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tank_Johnson#Legal_troubles
  Allen Iverson
  http://www.njweedman.com/iverson.htm
  Socttie Pippen
  http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1355/is_n14_v85/ai_14809660/