Bucs wide receiver Michael Clayton owns a gun. Big deal!

In the wake of Giants wide receiver Plaxico Burress (who Steelers fans still refer to as “Plexiglass”) being a moron (yeah, Joe knows that’s a redundant phrase), some members of the MSM are going to hysterical lengths to brand guns as the most evil aspect of American life.

Stephen F. Holder of the St. Petersburg Times sort of jumped on the bandwagon of the “Guns in the NFL” hysteria with an article Thursday that was curiously crafted, possibly by a copy editor at the far-left leaning Times.

While the story was mostly reasoned, Joe wonders why the critical element of the story – clearly spurred by Burress’ criminal misconduct and abject ignorance — was buried in the latter part of Holder’s article?

Receiver Michael Clayton, 26, owns multiple weapons but emphasizes responsible use.

“You have to really know your weapon,” he said. “It’s not just something you carry around and mess with. You need to know how to handle it, how to take it apart, everything. It has to be your best friend, because if you’re in a situation where you have to use it, you can’t be messing up.

“I have a family to protect, and I will protect myself at all times. But I’m very careful with my weapons. I use them at the range, and everything I do with them is legal. I keep them locked up around my kids, and I take all the precautions you have to take with weapons.”

Look, Joe isn’t going to go all Second Amendment today. Joe doesn’t own a gun and has no plans on purchasing one. But Joe isn’t anti-gun, either.

Joe grew up in a small town where people often left their doors unlocked at night. It was also a community in which hunting is popular and many, if not the majority of households, had firearms. To this day, Joe wouldn’t be surprised if more families there had guns than Internet access.

Yet it wasn’t until Joe left for college (and never returned home) that a murder occurred in the town: a crime of passion. Few citizens in the burg could remember the last local murder in town.

What does all this tell Joe? That if guns are used responsibly by responsible people they are harmless. Joe still can’t figure out how, if a human being doesn’t load a gun and doesn’t pull a trigger, the inanimate object can be dangerous.

Joe doesn’t have a problem whatsoever with anyone owning a firearm so long as the person knows how to handle it and isn’t an idiot.

Walking around with a loaded rod in your pocket is moronic beyond words. Walking into a bar at 2 a.m. with a loaded rod in your pocket is begging for trouble. Who the hell brings a gun into a bar and why the hell would you even want to go to that bar if you have to pack heat?

That’s like saying you want to go to Iraq!

This whole issue has zero to do with guns but everything to do with the functionally retarded masquerading as products of higher institute of learning.

Like matches, children or morons shouldn’t play with guns. Joe has zero problem with any Bucs owning a firearm. Last Joe checked it’s still legal in the United States.

Just don’t bring the gun into a bar (especially if you don’t know how to use it) and please don’t flash it in front of a high school.