While all the media attention has been focused on Jovan Belcher’s murder of his girlfriend and his own suicide and the supposed NFL gun culture, there was an interesting article in USA Today that helps to put the present dependency culture in perspective. What does NFL players owning guns have to do with the way people vote to increase taxes on the wealthy?

I might be the only person who has applied the comments of former Kansas City Chiefs running back Thomas Jones to government taxing policy, but I believe it’s a great analogy.

Jones saw the need to carry a weapon when he was a college student. “Jones bought his first gun his senior year at the University of Virginia, and, as a rookie with the Arizona Cardinals a dozen years ago, he learned quickly that guns were an ingrained part of the NFL culture.”

The reason for the gun purchase is not what you think. He was not a thug. It wasn’t a macho thing. It was for a very specific reason:

“‘Most guys when they first come into the league is when they first start to realize they need protection,’ Jones says. ‘Because money brings a lot of positive things. But most of the time, it brings more negative things. People don’t like you for what you have, for who you are. They don’t like you for what you represent. And people will go to any length to take what you have or harm you in some way just because they don’t have what you have. If you don’t have a firearm to protect you from situations and God forbid something happens to you, you wish you would have a firearm.’”

NFL players buy guns in order to protect themselves from people who “don’t like you for what you have.” If you won’t give what you have to these leeches, then they might use violence to take it away from you.

“Redskins kick returner Brandon Banks echoes the mantra that it’s all about protection. The third-year player, who declined to say whether he owns a gun, says ‘70% of the NFL players have guns. Guys get them as soon as they start getting some money, when people start knowing where you live.’”

Let’s apply what these NFL players say about gun ownership to politics. What do liberals do to incite voters to vote to raise taxes on the rich? They say that the rich don’t pay their “fair share.” Here’s the lingo: “You don’t have what they have, but if you vote for us, we’ll see that you’ll get some of it.”

Liberals use the sin of envy to exploit the prosperous. They’re just like the people who resent NFL and NBA players because of the money they have and the lifestyle it will buy. They’re people who “will go to any length to take what you have,” and they don’t need a weapon to do it. All they have to do is vote for some politician who promises to take away what the rich people have.