As I wrote a couple of years ago, it was absurd that New York Giants wide receiver Plaxico Burress went to jail for illegally carrying a gun in a Manhattan nightclub. He has just been released from federal prison.
He did have a license for the gun in Florida, but not where he lived. The Florida license had lapsed 6 months earlier.
Unfortunately for Burress, the gun slipped in his pants and he shot himself in the thigh.
He may not have been very intelligent in this matter, but he shouldn’t have spent any time in jail, much less about 21 months, for basically not filling out some paperwork.
If he shot someone, then that would have been a different story. Prisons are already overcrowded–the system certainly didn’t need to lock up Plaxico Burress who didn’t pose a risk to anyone based on his actions (his thigh may disagree though).
This type of overzealous enforcement of gun laws is just a subtle way of restricting Second Amendment rights.
Now, hopefully, Burress will be able to resume his NFL career. It will be tough though given his age and time away from the game.
