The Slanch Report

Reportedly, three years ago the Pittsburgh Steelers phoned the Pennsylvania State Police for some “gun safety instructions” which led to 14 members of the team heading to the Greensburg barracks. There, the troopers and the Steelers players took out the illegal assault weapons from the evidence room, some ammo and had a fun ol’ time.

“It’s a state police firing range used for state police to train. When we’re there, it’s downright military,” said one state police official, who requested anonymity. “But at this event, it’s chaos. Everybody’s throwing contraband assault weapons around like they’re toys; it’s like they’re having G.I. Joe tryouts. Not only is this totally unethical, but it’s totally illegal.”

The State Police insist that nothing was amiss in their actions, saying they do these kinds of events regularly and denied that the Steelers players used ANY of the seized weapons.

“This was a good-faith gesture to ensure that they [Steelers] knew how to operate firearms safely,” Lt. Myra Taylor said. “We do this with a number of other community groups – Boy Scouts, Girl Scouts, citizen police groups.”

Unfortunately for the troopers, anonymously distributed photographs from the event show the players shooting M-16s and other handguns and rifles at targets in the barrack’s firing range. All around the players are the smiling happy faces of troopers, instructors and barracks superiors.

While Taylor insisted that the guns were “personal weapons owned by others,” there appears to be evidence tags visible on at least one assault rifle that a player is holding.

In addition to all that, the players violated basic safety rules, under the eyes of the instructors and supervisors, shooting without ear or eye protection. Later, in posed photographs the players are seen pointing their guns at their teammates’ heads, which must do wonders for team chemistry.

Among the players pictured were now-former Steelers Joey Porter and Najeh Davenport, and still current Steelers such as last year’s defensive player of the year James Harrison, Ike Taylor, Max Starks, James Farrior and Brett Keisel were also clearly seen. Other players were in attendance but due to the poor quality of some of the photos were difficult to identify.

The Steelers have not commented on the story.

[Philly.com]