The event took place in 2006, but the pictures have just now begun circulating are now causing the police department a lot of very deserved grief. (The photos were mailed anonymously to the Philadelphia Daily News.) Not only is the event itself a questionable move—private citizens wasting police ammunition at a time when real officers were forced to ration—but the photos show players violating pretty much every imaginable rule of gun safety. They're firing weapons without ear or eye protection, handling rifles away from the firing line, and even pointing guns directly at their teammates' heads as they pose like "gangsters" for ridiculous photos.

Worst of all, sources familiar with the event say that some of the guns used were illegals assault weapons taken from the evidence room. In addition to being both against the law and highly unethical, use of such weapons could have compromised the cases they were a part of. Police critics are furious.

"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."

A police spokeswoman said these types of "gun safety" events happen all time. Even Girl Scouts do it! She denied the more serious allegations of using illegal weapons and wasting police ammunition, but the pictures seems to indicate otherwise. An evidence tag can be seen on one of the guns and boxes of police-issued bullets are clearly visible in others. Police say the Steelers requested a gun safety course, but it appears they got the worst-supervised training session ever.

At the Daily News' request, a National Rifle Association-certified training counselor and firearms instructor examined the photographs and detected multiple "dumb and dangerous" safety violations.

"The photos show generally unsafe gun-handling techniques," said Paul Raynolds, a chief range-safety officer from North Jersey. "The players look to be poorly supervised. Basic firearm-safety rules are not being followed." ....

"Here," he added, referring to the group portrait, "you have [a player] pointing this straight at his [another player's] skull. [Other players] are pointing the gun directly at the other guy and the cameraman. That's just negligent beyond belief."

The players pictured include Ike Taylor, James Harrison, Max Starks, James Farrior, Brett Keisel, as well as former Steelers Najeh Davenport and Joey Porter. The NFL has a policy against anyone carrying guns when representing the team or league, but it's not clear if this would qualify. What is clear is that Joey Porter should really not let untrained goofballs points gun at his head. Even Tony Montana knows better than that.

Targets of criticism [Philadelphia Daily News]

UPDATE: The good folks at PSAMP have jogged our memory and pointed out that these photos have actually been on the internet for months. (Including Deadspin. Oops.) But it does appear that the News was the first to report on the connection between the photos and the State Police, who are the real target of their story.

The author of the piece, Dana Difillipo, spoke to Deadspin and says there was some internal debate about running the photos since they were so old, but sports editors at the paper suggested that it was still news, saying "look at all the steroid stories coming out." Also, the source was definitely someone with an axe-to-grind against the state police, but "just because someone has a shady motive doesn't mean it's not news."

As for her use of the phrase "gangster poses," she says, "Well, what would you call them?" Well ... um ... I'm stumped on that one, actually.

What Is Philly.com Trying To Prove? [PSAMP]

Q: What are the benefits of driving that?

A: Not that much on gas. Other than that, there's a lot of room, but not for the suitcases. It's fast, too. It'll go 90, 95.

Q: Not too worried about gas are you

A: No. Not too worried about gas. I just want to help the environment.

Of course. Of course James Harrison wants to help the environment.

(Also, someone is paying him.)

No, in a follow-up interview with the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Harrison says the whole thing has been blown out of proportion but he still says he's not going. HOWEVAH. This apparently isn't about politics, Obama's front-running, Bush, 9/11 or any other conspiracies corroborating Harrison's perceived political agenda or even his dumbfounding ignorance. Nope:

A well-placed source, however, later revealed the real reason for Harrison's reluctance to make the trip: He has a fear of flying and is a "wreck" whenever he must take team flights

.

Really. Still, that didn't stop Harrison from reverting to the third person and spouting off some other gem-filled quotes when he confronted the press corps after Steelers practice:

Silverback spoketh :

"Hey, James ain't changed," Harrison responded. "I guess my profile did but I didn't change. I'm not going because I don't want to go."

He added, seemingly in a joking manner, that the White House is not in the safest area of Washington, D.C.

"It's not a good neighborhood over there either," Harrison said. "It's a bad neighborhood."

Harrison said he was surprised at the reaction to his declining an offer to visit the White House.

"They're making a big deal out of this: 'Oh, my, James Harrison is not going to the White House, he must be a devil worshiper!'"

And then our of nowhere George Brett stormed into the locker room and yelled "Fuck you and fuck them!"

Fear of Flying Is Why Harrison Will Skip White House Visit [Pittsburgh Post-Gazette]

In an interview with Pittsburgh's WTAE-TV, Harrison went been there-done that when asked about the traditional Super Bowl Champions visit to the White House. "No big deal," he said. And then he added this:

"If you want to see the Pittsburgh Steelers, invite us when we don't win the Super Bowl. So as far as I'm concerned he would have invited Arizona if they had won."

He's right! Had Santonio Holmes' toes not grazed the corner of the end zone in the final minute of play, the Arizona Cardinals would have been invited to the White House. The nerve of that Obama guy.

Harrison continued:

"I don't feel the need to actually go," he said of the visit with President Obama. "I don't feel like it's that big a deal to me."

And this is the line that really set people off. How can you, as a proud black man, James Harrison, not want to go meet President Obama? You are a disappointment to your race. Bear in mind that Harrison also didn't make the trip to the White House in 2006. So it's not an Obama thing but more of a White House thing. Maybe he had a bad experience during a middle school class trip or he doesn't like wearing suit?

And remember back in 2006 it wasn't Harrison's snub of the visit that made news (most likely because it was Bush and probably because nobody asked him) but, as Mondesi's House reminds us, Joey Porter's wayward mouth that had Steelers flacks red in the face:

"Yeah, I got something to say to Bush, I'm going to have a swagger when I walk in there, too. I'm looking forward to it. I have something to tell him, too. I don't like the way things are running right now. I feel like he has to give me some of my money back, so I got something to tell Bush."

Porter actually said nothing to President Bush that day. So much for that famous Peezy swagger. And as this latest "controversy" generates more press, we'll most likely see a similar reconsideration from Harrison this time around. Doesn't he know that Obama appointed Dan Rooney ambassador to Ireland? He can practice his diplomacy skills on Harrison.

James Harrison Plays For Pittsburgh But Won't Be Going To Pennsylvania Avenue [USA Today]
Steelers' Harrison Won't Visit Obama [ESPN]
Steelers Will Visit Whitehouse Sans Silverback [Mondesi's House]

Rooney says the Harrison arrest is different because he had a perfectly reasonable excuse for hitting her. Really.

"I know many are asking the question of [why] we released Wilson and Harrison we kept,'' he said. "The circumstances — I know of the incidents, they are completely different. In fact, when I say we don't condone these things, we don't, but we do have to look at the circumstances that are involved with other players and things like that, so they're not all the same."

"What Jimmy Harrison was doing and how the incident occurred, what he was trying to do was really well worth it," he said of Mr. Harrison's initial intent with his son. "He was doing something that was good, wanted to take his son to get baptized where he lived and things like that. She said she didn't want to do it."

You kind of have to admire that. Harrison could have set the lady on fire, but if he had just been trying to take the kid to church, it would have been totally understandable. Cedric Wilson should slap women around for honorable reasons. Live and learn, people.

Dan Rooney's Legacy Gets A Black Eye [Lion In Oil]