New NRA poster boys: Duke basketball

Duke's basketball team took a team-building trip to West Point, which included some target practice and a gun safety class. Somewhere along the way, they posed for pictures with some mock-ups of AR15s and M4s -- the guns were practice models fitted with laser gear and pneumatics to simulate firing without using bullets -- and not long after the pictures hit the interwebs and were posted by Deadspin.
Naturally, some folks got their panties in a bunch at the sight of guns and the team is taking some heat.
Duke officials, to their credit, have defended the players but plan to do a little PR counseling. From the look of the pictures, they might also want to run the guys through the gun safety class again.

http://www.wralsportsfan.com/duke-to-use-photo-of-hoops-players-with-guns-as-teaching-moment/12994200/

http://deadspin.com/what-is-this-photo-of-the-duke-basketball-team-handling-1444496025

 

Looks like they're on their way to College Park, Maryland

 

Big deal:

 

Two questions:

(1) Is that a gang sign that the third guy from the left is flashing, a la Derrick Rose?

(2) Who is the hostage in the background?

 

They plan to shoot the lights out this season.

 

I wondered about that too.

Otherwise, this is only scary to people because the kids are black.

 

The Duke uniforms make it considerably less scary.

If they were wearing UNLV or Memphis jerseys I'd be running for cover.

 

just don't put it on the cover of the media guide. Did that 20 years ago this month and got universally crucified for it.