Brandon Jacobs and some of his Giants teammates were trying to help take some of the heat off teammate Plaxico Burress and his ongoing firearms case, but they may have brought a whole lot of negative attention on themselves, instead.

(Burress and Jacobs debate: Glock or Smith and Wesson?)

When asked about how Burress accidentally shot himself in the leg — and, more importantly, about why he was carrying a concealed handgun that may or may not have been correctly registered — Brandon had some choice words … and an open threat against anyone who might considering some light holiday breaking and entering at the Jacobs household:

“All I will say is in the streets for me, there is no need for it,” running back Brandon Jacobs said of carrying a gun. “But if you come in between that door frame of my home, I am going to kill you. Hands down.”

Hmmm. Not too much gray area there. What about Santa Claus? Maybe he’ll clear that up in later quotes.

And no matter how many times you read what his says, well, Jacobs sounds more than happy to off any interlopers on his property. All in the season and spirit of giving, of course.

Here’s the rest of what Jacobs told the NEW YORK DAILY NEWS:

When asked if he owns a gun, Jacobs added, “Listen to the words that are coming out of my mouth,” Jacobs said. “If you come between the door. … If I am out in the streets, I don’t have anything to do with that. But at my house, where I have my wife and son there …”

Wow. Well, let’s just scratch the Jacobs household right off our Holiday card list.

Look, we’re sure that Jacobs is just trying to help out his teammate and buddy, but insisting that he will kill any intruders, no ifs ands or buts about it, doesn’t exactly help make the Giants look like the most compassionate crew of players.

(Does this look like a man who would shoot you? It should.)

It’s doubtless that nearly every NFL team has similar issues with gun possession. Back in 2006, Bob Hohler of the BOSTON GLOBE did this investigative piece that exposed just how prevalent guns were in professional football. In print, it had an accompanying chart that not only listed Burress as one of the Giants players who admitted to owning handguns, but also terrifyingly foreshadowed Colts receiver Marvin Harrison’s shooting incident from last summer -  in 2006, more guns were licensed to Harrison than any other football player.

Of course, all those issues have horrifically come home to roost. Sean Taylor’s chilling murder in his Miami home last year serves as a strangely appropriate symbolic backdrop to Burress self-inflicted mishap, which may or may not have him packing for 42 months in jail at some point this offseason. That balance is made more delicate by crime inflicted upon the athletes themselves, with one of Burress’ fellow wide outs — second-year man Steve Smith — held up at gunpoint outside his house last week.

Even Giants CEO and President John Mara seems to be viewing the Burress incident with a sad mix of realism and slightly unfortunate pragmatism.

“I do know that a lot of NFL players do carry guns,” Mara said. “A lot of players for whatever reason feel the need to carry guns with them. It’s not something that we’re particularly pleased about, but that’s a choice that they make. You’d like to think that most of them are licensed to do that, but I’m not sure that’s always the case.”

Now we just want to know what he thinks about Jacobs’ comments. Something tells us he won’t be best pleased. After all, Jacobs practically just made himself a walking future court case if anyone has the misfortune of surprising him at his house.