Urban Thought Collective

Snoop Dogg said he loves country music — especially the music of Johnny Cash – because it expresses a lot of the same emotions and themes as hip hop. He’s right about that. In fact, a 40-year-old song by The Man in Black has been running through my mind a lot because of some recent celebrity crime news.

“Don’t Take Your Guns to Town” tells an Old West tale of a cocky young man who “grew restless on the farm,” buckled on his six shooters and headed to a bar in search of adventure. Billy Joe believed that having a gun on his hip made him a man. But his mama knew better. She knew that a pistol was more likely to get her son into trouble than protect him from trouble so, as her headstrong son left home, she tried to talk sense to him:

Don’t take your guns to town, son
Leave your guns at home, Bill
Don’t take your guns to town

If Plaxico Burress had paid heed to that simple warning he wouldn’t be in the mess he’s in today. He wouldn’t have made the foolish decision to carry an unlicensed and loaded handgun to that club in Manhattan and he wouldn’t now be faced with prosecution and the potential loss of his NFL career (the New York Giants have already suspended him for the rest of the season).

I don’t believe that Burress went to that club strapped for personal protection. Rich, high-profile sports stars and entertainers can be targets for criminals, but the smart ones employ bodyguards to deal with those dangers. Or they stay out of certain places. Maybe the real reason Plax went “heavy” to that club is that he — like far too many of today’s young black men — is caught up in a street culture that glamorizes guns and promotes violence as a favored method of conflict resolution. Guns are standard accessories for brothers who admire and emulate the gangsta lifestyle.

Of course, fumbling with a pistol and allowing it to slip down your pants and shoot you in the leg doesn’t do much for one’s street cred. So, in addition to criminal charges, the loss of his livelihood and a bullet hole in his leg, Plaxico Burress is now a laughing stock among the thugs he may have been trying to impress.

The idea that carrying a gun around in public will keep you safe from crime or will make you manly is a tragic fallacy. Rarely does a civilian thwart a crime by pulling out a piece. Accidental shootings, deadly crimes of passion and arrests on charges of illegal possession are much more common occurrences.

Johnny Cash’s song ends with the young protagonist being shot dead by a tough cowboy he stepped to for laughing at him…

As Billy Joe fell to the floor the crowd all gathered ‘round
And wondered at his final words
Don’t take your guns to town, son
Leave your guns at home, Bill
Don’t take your guns to town

Deep. Maybe Snoop will remake that song for his country album.

Thanks for listening. I’m Cameron Turner and that’s my two cents.

THINK! IT AIN’T ILLEGAL…YET!

Cameron Turner is a Los Angeles-area native whose editorials, entertainment news features and audio documentaries have appeared on national radio networks, online and in print for over 20 years.