Shame on these writers, like Tim Keown, that try to use Kobe and other celebrities as their vehicle to get attention for unrelated causes or their own selfish agendas. They hop on the status of the celebrity and the attention they receive to push their own agenda like getting their own name out in the public in hopes of furthering their career or for a rise in ratings or web hits.
I wonder if Tim Keown would have been equally disturbed to the point of writing an article and speaking with people affected by death in the streets by guns if say Jerry Stackhouse or Rudy Fernandez was the one toting the automatic weapon in the ad? Of course not because he would have received as much attention as the furniture setting in a hard core adult film; his website would get as many hits as a joint filled with potpourri and rat arsenic.
Young children, men and women being killed by violent acts on the streets are a tragedy in and of itself; rather it be with guns or not. It should get the attention it deserves without linking advertisements or forms of entertainment as causes and/or contributors because it is just not one of them. Unlike the perpetrators in many of the violent acts using guns, the intent to hurt, harm or kill is not there with the Call of Duty ad. The ad is neither irresponsible nor inappropriate in the context that it used and how it is presented. It portrays the fantasy aspect of the game that players feel when playing the game; the key words in this description are fantasy and game.
For the fact that there are people that have a hard time understanding that is probably the reason why they can’t think of better ways of addressing this problems with guns and violence in the streets.