Ex-Player Turned Gun Seller Thinks Plaxico Burress Makes Him Look Bad

Jay Williams played defensive end in the NFL from 1994 to 2004, and, after he retired, saw an interesting business opportunity: He began selling guns to NFL players.

Williams says that throughout his career he carried a gun everywhere he went, including bringing it with him to practice, and he believes NFL players would be wise to follow his lead. He has sent out mass e-mails to NFL players, telling them that if they want guns, he's the man to go to.

But while Williams says he doesn't blame Giants wide receiver Plaxico Burress for carrying a gun, he thinks Burress was foolish in the way he handled his weapon, making responsible gun owners -- like, he says, himself and his clients -- look bad in the process. Burress ended his own 2008 season when he shot himself in the leg in a nightclub, and he now faces felony charges for carrying the unregistered gun.

"I was disappointed because it's going to make all of us who carry guns seem like, 'That's what they're out there doing. They're out there carrying illegally,'" Williams says in an interview that will air tonight on Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel on HBO. "So that shows that he's not mature enough. He's not responsible enough."

The issue of whether we're safer with more guns or fewer is controversial in this country, but the Burress case is one where we can all agree: To bring an unregistered gun into a public place and carry it in such a way that it would go off accidentally is incredibly stupid.