“Never Want to Kill Anyone”: Despite Arrest, Charles Barkley Once Defended Carrying a Gun on the Pretext of Racism in America

Back in August 1988, Charles Barkley was caught by a New Jersey state trooper in possession of a loaded 9mm semiautomatic handgun. The Philadelphia 76ers legend was caught with the weapon on the Atlantic City Expressway and was immediately arrested. The news, as one would expect, immediately attracted the media’s attention even though the charges were later dropped. This was a result of Barkley cooperating with the police and claiming that it was due to the still-prevalent racism that he carried the weapon, to potentially protect himself. He claimed that he would never want to kill anyone and not even consider firing the gun unless under extreme circumstances, according to the book ‘Barkley’ by Timothy Bella.

Chuck was returning from a basketball clinic where he had conducted a talk on the dangers of drug abuse and had also been accompanied by Philadelphia 76ers coach Jim Lynam, who heard the news from his wife when he reached home.

Regardless, the 1993 MVP was released when he explained to the police that he had been carrying the weapon for his own safety, considering his status and the fact that he was black.

“I would never want to kill anyone, but I would never let anyone hurt me,” he said. “I feel I can handle myself without a gun, but most people would be intimidated by me and they might use a weapon. I’ve had guns for years, but nobody ever knew. It’s not as if I pull a gun every time I lose my temper or get into an argument,” he said.

The charges were eventually dropped when a judge determined that the search of his 1988 Porsche in itself had been illegal. Regardless, Chuck, being from a poor neighborhood in Leeds, Alabama knew exactly what he was talking about. His neighbourhood had a lot of regular violence and clashes that were often related to race.

This led to Chuck simply preferring to keep a firearm, rather than regretting not having one when, and if, things went awry.

Charles Barkley has been a bit of a menace ever since

Chuck was undoubtedly a menace on the basketball court. He might have had a legitimate reason for having a firearm.

However, he has also been arrested for drunk driving back in March 2009. This time around, he did not have any legitimate excuse and was given a three-day jail sentence, over one weekend, according to ESPN.

Chuck ended up behaving like a model inmate and made a great impact on the other inmates. That seems to be the extent of his run-ins with the law, although Chuck did threaten to beat up none other than Skip Bayless, back in March 2017.

He had humrously claimed that he would want to kill Bayless if he was sick and himself about to perish. However, he later changed his mind and claimed that he wanted to beat up the Undisputed analyst ‘like a dog’ instead, according to UPI.