Garden State Youth Baseball (a.k.a. Little League) has affirmed a “just say no to guns” policy. Well, gun dealers. By a vote of 8 to 1 (Chief Justice Roberts dissenting), The South Orange-Maplewood Baseball Committee rejected licensed gun dealer Matt Carmel’s application to sponsor a team. Apparently, kids playing ball in shirts festooned with the words “Constitution Arms” and/or the company’s logo could spark “controversy” and “backlash” from players’ parents. “They’re just hypocrites,” the shot down dealer told AOL News. “They want this rainbow, welcoming, all-inclusive community . . . but they really don’t want diversity.” Carmel feels the Committee has cried foul unfairly, especially when other sponsors are so foul. Not to mention fowl. “I might not object if they had a policy that said ‘no guns, no tobacco, no sexual innuendo. But I’m galled by the fact that they would accept other sponsors who are clearly inappropriate.” Among those sponsors: Cluck-U Chicken and liquor and tobacco stores. So what of young Carmel’s baseball aspirations, now that his father has struck out with the committee? “Carmel’s son decided against playing this spring,” AOL dutifully reports. “but Carmel said 10-year-old Kalman wasn’t affected by the committee’s decision. ‘He knows what Daddy does for a living. He’s a good shot, too.” Message received?
