There are a few reasons I’d like to thank Plaxico Burress for turning the gun on himself and putting a slug in his leg.  First and foremost, this incident has shed light on just how uncapable of being a functional person in society Plaxico is.  Lets paint the scene here and look at just how mind blowing this incident is.  Plax goes to the club, gun stashed away (which wasn’t registered), in a state where it’s illegal to carry firearms.  Not only was the gun loaded at this point, the bullet was already in the chamber and the safety wasn’t on.  What the hell else did he think was going to happen?  Might as well pull the pin on a grenade and stash it in your back pocket while you’re at it.  Better yet, lets carry around some butcher knives in our pockets without any sheaths or means of covering them.  All of these scenarios will probably have favorable outcomes.  Okay, no they won’t.

Now lets talk about the legal aspect.  If he Plaxico gets pinned with carrying a firearm illegally (which if he didn’t would be the second best lawyer performance next to Ray Lewis getting off clean) he will face a minimum mandatory sentence of 3 and a half years in federal pound me in the ass prison.  But that’s not all, right?  There’s no way Plax was rollin to the club alone.   Sure enough, linebacker Antonio Pierce was there with him and Pierce is being investigated for potentially moving the gun.  Tampering with the weapon of a crime is a misdemeanor within the state but if Pierce happened to take that gun to, say, New Jersey, then he’s looking at a federal crime as well.

Finally, the best part about this whole situation.  The hype.  This incident has people talking; media, players, people who think Plaxico is a moron.  Violence with athletes is becoming a more and more prevalent issue.  Hell, last week Giants wide receiver Steve Smith was robbed at gun point.  Should athletes be carrying weapons?  That’s not for me to say.  It’s easy for me to sit here and bark out opinions on what guys should and shouldn’t be doing with their lives at night because I’m not in those shoes.  But is it really that hard to put yourself in a position where you aren’t going to run into the homies at 3 am and gunshots might be exchanged?  I don’t think so.