I watched the show Dexter for the first time — Season 7, Episode 10 — “The Dark . . . Whatever.” Dexter Morgan (Michael C. Hall) is a blood spatter pattern analyst for the fictional Miami Metro Police Department who also leads a secret life as a serial killer. That’s why it took me seven years before I decided to watch an episode.

In order for Dexter to justify killing his victims, they must be killers themselves who have killed someone without justifiable cause and are likely to do so again. This makes him a sympathetic serial killer, like an avenging angel intent on justice when the system fails.

Up until this episode, Dexter blamed his inner desire to kill on what he described as a “Dark Passenger.” His claim was that some dark force separate from his own being was driving him to kill, albeit in a just way. In reality, Dexter was using the Dark Passenger as an excuse for his own urges, his own choices, his own murdering ways. In this episode, he makes the following admission: “[I]f there’s no Dark Passenger, then I’m responsible for everything I’ve done.”

There is no Dark Passenger; no Twinkie Defense; no “the devil made me do it”; no genetic predisposition. It was all Dexter.

Jovan Belcher, a linebacker for the Kansas City Chiefs, murdered his girlfriend, the mother of his 3-month-old daughter, before killing himself in front of two coaches. Belcher shot her nine times while his mother looked on. As usual, Liberals are blaming everything but the person who actually did the murdering.

During halftime on NBC’s “Sunday Night Football,” Bob Costas told viewers he believed, “If Jovan Belcher didn’t possess a gun, he and Kasandra Perkins would both be alive today.” Kansas City-based writer Jason Whitlock blamed the murder on “our current gun culture.” For people like Costas and Whitlock, guns are like Dexter’s Dark Passenger. Guns are a way to excuse evil behavior. The gun didn’t leap into Belcher’s hand. Belcher bought the gun and the bullets. Belcher picked up the gun he loaded with bullets, pointed it at his girlfriend, and shot her dead. If Belcher hadn’t done these things, the gun would have sat undisturbed in a drawer. There are millions of guns in America, but not millions of murderers.

People are murdered by poisoning, stabbing, strangulation, physical abuse, automobiles, hanging, burning, bludgeoning, drowning, falls, beheadings, explosions, starvation, electrocution, box cutters, crossbows, and high powered bows.

Jim Jones led 908 people to their deaths with cyanide mixed with Flavor -Aid, not Kool-Aid. Muslim extremists killed more than 3000 people with jet planes. Timothy McVeigh murdered 168 people with a bomb made from fertilizer and kerosene.

Some are arguing that Belcher had a concussion. It’s possible that he did. There are a number of NFL players who have had concussions, and not one of them pumped nine bullets into his girlfriend.

Belcher and his girlfriend were in a bad relationship. She had threatened to leave him after a long history of fighting between the two of them. Belcher was taking drugs and abused alcohol.

Why didn’t Costas blame the murder on the violent nature of football that Belcher was involved in? If it’s OK to attack someone on the football field, maybe that aggression transferred over to his bad relationship with his girlfriend. If he hadn’t played football, given liberal logic, there’s a good chance that he never would have murdered or committed suicide.

Look what O. J. Simpson did with a knife. He also played the violent game of football. Simpson doesn’t count because he used a knife. Neither the gun nor the knife is the problem; Belcher and O.J. were and are.

Costas can’t blame football because he makes his living from football, so he has to blame the Dark Passenger – the gun. Maybe Belcher was a controlling and violent man. If he hadn’t used a gun, he was big and strong enough to beat his girlfriend to death. Maybe Belcher’s girlfriend may have fared better if she had had a gun to protect herself from Belcher. John Lott writes:

“There are two groups of people who benefit the most from gun ownership: people who are weaker physically (women and the elderly) and those who are most likely to be victims of violent crime (primarily poor blacks who live in high crime urban areas).”

There’s the story of the man who called the nationally syndicated “Schnitt Show.” He claims that Belcher had “regularly bullied and beat up his son.”

“We went to the police. We went to the Department of Education. We couldn’t do nothing about this kid. Around adults, he always acted like he was such a sweet little guy.”

The caller went on to say that he had to relocate his family to Florida, just to get away from Belcher. “He destroyed my family.” At least his family is alive.