When I heard the news that the New York Giants' Plaxico Burress had shot himself in the leg in a New York City nightclub with an illegal gun, my heart sagged for him, for our country and for the league I still love. As a former lineman for the Washington Redskins and the current president of the American Hunters and Shooters Association, I know something about the cultures of guns and football - and I'm worried about the relationship between them.

Professional football players have long been among the most avid gun owners, but traditionally we owned guns as sportsmen or collectors. Many of today's players have grown up in neighborhoods where the culture of street guns is common, and many of them fear that their wealth and celebrity will make them targets of thieves and thugs. They buy guns to protect themselves. Protecting yourself with a gun can be a necessary choice, and, as the Supreme Court rightly made clear last summer, it's a constitutional right - but players need to follow local, state and federal laws.

Mr. Burress was lucky. So were the people around him. But the next time someone walks around with a gun in his waistband and a drink in his hand - and you can bet that, somewhere in America, it will happen again tonight - someone may die.

Mr. Burress is only the latest in a string of NFL players to be wounded or killed by guns. The NFL can't prevent every act of illegal behavior, but it can - and should - do much more to protect against it.

What the NFL currently lacks, along with the federal government, is a commonsense approach to guns that stresses the responsibilities that come with Second Amendment rights. The discussion of guns during the NFL's "Rookie Camp" is a good start, but a single lecture to a group of bored 22-year-olds is not enough. All players who own guns should be required to complete a safety course. The course should cover the basics of carrying, handling, shooting and storing a gun safely, the benefits and risks of gun ownership, and a primer on the different laws and licensing systems that cities and states employ. Failure to attend the course during the offseason would result in a suspension and fine, and players would be ineligible to suit up until completing the course.

The NFL has shied away from the topic of guns for much the same reason that Washington has: It's a polarizing issue defined by nuts on both sides. Caught in the ideological crossfire are ordinary Americans. Polls consistently show that most Americans believe the Constitution guarantees an individual right to own guns. At the same time 80 percent of Americans, including gun owners, support responsible gun laws designed to protect public safety, such as background checks. But leaders in Washington, like the NFL, have conspicuously avoided the gun issue, as if it were impossible to protect the Second Amendment while at the same time crack down on illegal guns. It's not.

There are commonsense steps the NFL and Congress could take that are consistent with the Second Amendment. In Washington, one step would be closing the loophole in the law that allows thousands of guns to be sold without background checks at gun shows.

Guns are as much a part of American culture as football. But when criminal activity centering on guns is ignored, tragedies occur - and they will continue to occur until the authorities take action.

Ray Schoenke, a former offensive lineman for the Washington Redskins, is president of the American Hunters and Shooters Association.

Article location:  Washington Times