Who’s thinking about the children?

When I read the other day that T.I. was busted trying to cop three machine guns to add to an already rather formidable arsenal, I couldn't help but wonder: why would one guy need so many guns? Was he planning a school shooting? As much money as he has, it's not like it would be worth his while to try to sell them for a profit.

But then I saw the pictures of them in today's Atlanta Journal-Constitution, and I had to admit: they are kinda cool-looking. I could see why a guy might want to keep a safe full of them in his bedroom closet, if only to show off. Certain kinds of broads might even be impressed enough by such an arsenal to want to have sex with you. Who knows? The South is different from the rest of the country.

If T.I. does end up having to do five-plus years behind this foolishness, it'll be a tragedy not so much in the sense that the world will be denied another T.I. vs. T.I.P. (god forbid!), but in the sense that it's not like he was really about to shoot somebody. He just comes from the kind of place where the best thing a man can do with his time and money is buy a shiteload of guns. Who are we to judge?

However, T.I. should have known better than to do something as illegal as he (allegedly) did, given a) the fact that he's already got a ridonkulous rap sheet, including felony drug conviction from when he was only like 17, plus several probation violations for drugs and guns, and b) the ridonkulous level of scrutiny these rappers face these days. As my new colleague Maurice "The Pompatus of Love" Garland pointed out yesterday, you can hardly get away with shit these days.

I know it's not considered hip-hop to suggest that a little prison time might do a person well, but you have to wonder about the thought process of a person who would put himself in a position like that. Like I said, I doubt T.I. really intended to hurt anyone, but then I doubt that Pimp C was necessarily intending to hurt anyone when he got fried on ace and went to the mall with an AK tucked inside his fur coat. In the middle of the summer. Either way, I don't need him in the mall when I'm there copping my Starburys.

The reason I bring this up - and I'm sure I'll regret even mentioning this - is that there's a separate issue that may have been revealed this weekend, but then subsequently lost in the larger issue of T.I. possibly having to go away for quite some time.

When T.I. was busted Saturday, they also arrested Young Dro and one of the other bums from P$C as well as T.I.'s hideous girlfrined Tameka "Tiny" Cottle. Young Dro and the other guy were let go shortly thereafter, but the girlfriend ended up being charged with drug possession, for some weed and e pills they found on her.

Okay, here's where the story gets gross. You'll recall that earlier this year, or maybe it was last year (I forget), Tiny miscarried one of T.I.'s umpteen children. Well, yesterday, it was reported on one of these ghetto gossip sites that Tiny is pregnant yet again with T.I.'s baby. (She's also the mother of this three year-old son King (heh), who was in his house when ATF kicked in the door.)

I read about this yesterday via Miss Info, who noted that this will make this whole thing that much harder on T.I.'s family, but failed to draw an explicit connection between the fact that she walks around with weed and e pills in her purse and that she just miscarried a baby. I probably shouldn't either, just to play it safe.

And who knows? It could even be a coincidence that she wasn't able to carry a baby to term and that she always looks high. But come on. It may be a stereotype that black women in the South are so fertile that you can get one pregnant just by looking at her wrong, but I think we all know that stereotypes tend to be true more often than not. (Sorry, TPAR!)

Which brings me to my point: If T.I.'s judgment was so poor that he tried to cop three machine guns in the parking lot of a K-Mart down the street from the BET Awards, what's there to suggest he didn't sit around and watch this woman get high while she was carrying his baby? Like I said, I don't necessarily have anything against a guy wanting to own a shiteload of guns, but you have to consider the guy.