Back on January 5, I described Gilbert Arenas’ gold-plated Desert Eagle pistol as “The Perfect Combination of Deadly & Gaudy”. Turns out, I didn’t know the half of it, as the Washington Post’s Christian Davenport helpfully explains. “It’s a ‘bling’ thing”, declares Davenport of the newly convicted Arenas — subsequently dumped by Adidas— though I suspect the former learned his lingo from Christopher Reeve’s character in the movie “Street Smart”.
The .50-caliber semiautomatic Desert Eagle, which with gold plating costs about $2,000, was not the most powerful in the arsenal that prosecutors say Wizards star Gilbert Arenas brought into the Verizon Center locker room. That would be the Smith & Wesson .500 magnum revolver, area gun dealers said. Arenas pleaded guilty Friday in D.C. Superior Court to a felony count of carrying a pistol without a license.
“It’s serious business,” said Jamie McAdams, a saleswoman at Maryland Small Arms, a gun dealer in Upper Marlboro.
“They bill that as the most powerful production handgun available,” said Steve Schneider, owner of Atlantic Guns in Silver Spring and Rockville.
Unless you’re an Arnold Schwarzenegger action hero, it’s a pistol made to be fired with two hands, or off a rest. Its kick is vicious and can send the unstable shooter staggering backward while the bullet hurtles forth with such force that it can, as several YouTube videos attest, make a watermelon explode like a starburst.