Washington Post Questions How Olympic Shooters Feel About Using the Same Tools As Mass Murderers

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**Frazzled**

Wow what a barely disguised hit piece.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/style/2012/07/31/gJQALwmpNX_story.html

Even at the Olympics, athletes in the sport of shooting face questions about gun violence
Kim Rhode is, by any objective measure, Olympic royalty. Or should be.
She has won medals in each of the past five Olympic games, starting at age 17, when she earned a gold during the 1996 competition in Atlanta. On Sunday, as expected, Rhode captured the top prize in her sport and in the process set a new Olympic record. Rhode’s experience as an Olympic athlete is recognizable in many ways: years of training in virtual anonymity; nerve-wracking moments during which dreams can be realized or shattered; medal ceremonies where tears stream out of relief as much as pride.

But Rhode, 33, is confronted with questions that few other athletes face because she is a shooter — a term embraced by Rhode and other athletes who shoot rifles and pistols for sport. Olympic shooters must deal with unfortunate associations: They compete in a sport — one that demands concentration and decades of practice — that also requires a machine that, when used maliciously, can kill people.

At a news conference last Thursday, before she earned a gold medal in women’s skeet shooting, Rhode was asked about another shooter, arguably a more famous one, who used a rifle, a shotgun and a semiautomatic pistol to kill 12 and injure 58 in a packed movie theater. As with most mass shootings, the backdrop was pedestrian. The targets, random — the opposite of what happens at the Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs, where Rhode and other members of USA Shooting practice their sport.

Yes, they have thoughts on Aurora.

Yes, gun violence affects these gold medalists.

Yes, mass shootings will always impact the sport.

“Our event as a sport is completely different from an isolated incident,” Rhode said during Thursday’s news conference, according to press accounts. “It’s very important to us that our sport is not generalized. The lines get blurred between news and a sport that teaches discipline.”

Most other athletes get a pass on the podium. Swimmer Ryan Lochte won’t be asked about drownings in community pools. Gymnast Gabby Douglas will not be asked to comment on freak accidents at school jungle gyms. But with 30,000 firearms deaths in the United States each year, half of which are suicides, questions of gun violence are almost inevitable for sports shooters. The team counters images of violence with stories of Olympic success.

“The biggest challenge in our sport is the education piece,” said Dave Johnson, national rifle coach for USA Shooting. “Whether in the sport or out of it, everyone was horrified [by Aurora] and we’re not different, but the questions sometimes show that folks don’t know what the sport is about.”

“We are one of the safest sports going,” said Vincent Hancock, 23, a U.S. Army soldier who won a gold medal in skeet shooting Tuesday. “There are more injuries in Ping-Pong than there are in shooting.”

“Some of the nicest, most gentle people I have ever met are shooters,” said Matt Emmons, 31, a 2004 gold medalist competing in London. “It’s unfortunate these incidents are reflected upon us.”

Katie Yergensen, spokeswoman for USA Shooting, the Olympic-chartered governing body for the sport, says the team is well aware of stigmatization. “It comes hand-in-hand with the nature of the sport. It is generalized in the public, because what we do is different than other traditional sports. . . . But that’s why we are always emphasizing safety, accountability and team building.”

Remembering Munich

Forty years ago in Munich, American shooter Lanny Bassham, now 65, had already won the silver medal in the men’s 50-meter rifle when Israeli athletes were killed by armed members of the Palestinian terrorist organization Black September, in what was called the Munich Massacre. Bassham, who later won an Olympic gold medal in 1976, remembers the trauma of the day, and how the bloodshed still overshadows the successes of athletes who competed at the Games. Not an interview goes by without questions about his whereabouts that day, although no one appears to have asked him his opinion on Munich, given his sport of choice.

“I don’t think shooting sports suffered after Munich,” Bassham said. “I think shooting suffered in America from the media coverage of Columbine, only because some people drew a conclusion that marksmanship in high schools or colleges is related to somebody killing someone with a firearm.”

The politics of shooting cannot be easily divorced from the sport, perhaps because the National Rifle Association was the organizing body for the USA shooting team until 1995. Then, the U.S. Olympic Committee (USOC) chartered USA Shooting to create an independent governing body to regulate shooting events at the state and national levels. While the team is partially funded by the USOC, it relies upon outside sponsors. Most major gun companies, according to the USA Shooting Web site, are sponsors, including Smith & Wesson and Winchester Ammunition. The site indicates that NRA is still a prominent sponsor of USA Shooting; NRA officials did not return calls for comment.

The team itself is neutral on gun control and politics.

“It’s not shocking to hear questions about gun control legislation,” Johnson said. “But when it comes to athletes in the village, I haven’t heard of a single one ask about anything along the lines of politics or Aurora. They see what we do.”

**Jihadin**

Thats a bit one sided of the reporter. Assualt weapons are not used in the Olympics

edit

They should ask soldiers and marines.

We are one of the safest sports going,” said Vincent Hancock, 23, a U.S. Army soldier who won a gold medal in skeet shooting Tuesday. “There are more injuries in Ping-Pong than there are in shooting.”

Young young young SGT. Little guy hasn't even deployed. His older more experience NCO going to rip him a new one

**hotsauceman1**

Horses kill people too, but no one questioned the equestrian events.
Quite frankly im at a loss of words for this other then what most are thinking, That reporter has her head in the cloud she is about to get hit by a 747

**juraigamer**

Next, after the news at 10, our same reporter asks marines in the field how they feel about using weapons that kill people. More at 11.

**sourclams**

My uncle lost his foot to a combine.

How do you feel about eating a hamburger bun manufactured from the harvest of a TOTALLY NOT HYPERBOLIC MURDERING MACHINE.

**AustonT**

She probably feels like her accomplishment is being diminished by a reporter with an agenda. So she took a glamor shot with her favorite assault weapon.

**SoloFalcon1138**

Good troll, Washington Post... talk about a writer with an agenda. Next they'll be asking men how they enjoy having sex using the same organ that rapists use...

**kronk**

That's got to be an older picture, AustinT.

She looks like this, now.

**sourclams**

Very interesting she uses a side-by-side. I wonder what she views the pros as, that vs an over/under?

**English Assassin**

This is just an embarrassingly poorly-conceived article. It's also rather embarrassingly parochial, since the author fails to note that other nations prominently represented in competitive shooting (notably the UK) have neither American's gun politics nor their gun-crime problem.

I had hitherto been under the impression that the Post was one of the better American papers. Was I mistaken?

**Jihadin**

New reporter?

**Frazzled**

English Assassin wrote:
I had hitherto been under the impression that the Post was one of the better American papers. Was I mistaken?

Yes, severely.

**AustonT**

That's just a particularly bad picture. I mean she's not 28 anymore. But she still looks good.

Automatically Appended Next Post:

sourclams wrote:Very interesting she uses a side-by-side. I wonder what she views the pros as, that vs an over/under?

It's not a side by side. It's an over under, the angle is just funny. She used a Perazzi Mx-2000 for this games she normally uses an Mx-12

**d-usa**

When will we stop glamorizing the use of deadly weapons!

**Phanatik**

SoloFalcon1138 wrote:Good troll, Washington Post... talk about a writer with an agenda. Next they'll be asking men how they enjoy having sex using the same organ that rapists use...

Or, I wonder how the reporter feels about writing a stupid article with the same language Shakespeare used to entertain folks for 4 centuries?

Cheers,

**Grakmar**

Javelin, Archery, Boxing, Fencing, Taekwondo, and Judo are all inherently violent acts that are celebrated in the Olympics.

Get over it.

As many of you may know, I'm not exactly pro-gun. However, this article is an absolute waste and a terrible way to start a dialog about gun control. Nothing more than a reporter with an axe to grind.

Uh oh, he's got an axe!!!

**dogma**

Phanatik wrote:
Or, I wonder how the reporter feels about writing a stupid article with the same language Shakespeare used to entertain folks for 4 centuries?

It isn't the same language. EModE is not the same language as contemporary English.

Also, how have you not been banned?

**streamdragon**

I have to admit I am not seeing what the fuss is about. The article, to me, read like it was empathising with the Olympic shooters and their plight with constant comparisons to violent shooters. Granted the article mentions another reporter who needs a boot to the head (why bring up the Aurora tragedy at a metal ceremony?).

I'm not anti-gun at all. I own a .45 and a 12 gauge; will probably apply for a cc permit when MD's law change goes into effect later. Im just not seeing what part of this particular article is so offensive.

**Manchu**

streamdragon wrote:why bring up the Aurora tragedy at a metal ceremony?

Metal Ceremony?

METAL CEREMONY! Ceremonial Metal should be a new genre.

Er, but I do agree with the rest of your post -- article seems entirely sympathetic.

**Frazzled**

gold is heavy. Shouldn't it be a heavy metal ceremony?

**azazel the cat**

I hear that Olympic pommel horse and floor routines can be quite deadly.

**Phanatik**

Frazzled wrote:gold is heavy. Shouldn't it be a heavy metal ceremony?

It's heavy water ceremonies one needs to worry about.

Best,

**Frazzled**

azazel the cat wrote:
I hear that Olympic pommel horse and floor routines can be quite deadly.

Synchronized swiming is an absolute killer. Do you see how synchronized it is? Its like Nazis marching to war, in the water, to music!

**streamdragon**

Manchu wrote:
streamdragon wrote:why bring up the Aurora tragedy at a metal ceremony?
Metal Ceremony?

METAL CEREMONY! Ceremonial Metal should be a new genre.

Er, but I do agree with the rest of your post -- article seems entirely sympathetic.

It took me entirely too long to spot my mistake.

**GalacticDefender**

That is one of the most rediculous olympics related articles I have ever read. What the crap? Are they seriously suggesting that the shooters are bad people because another guy used guns to kill people? What the feth?

**Manchu**

GalacticDefender wrote:That is one of the most rediculous olypics related articles I have ever read.

Are you saying you read it?

GalacticDefender wrote:seriously suggesting that the shooters are bad people because another guy used guns to kill people

No, that is seriously not what the author is suggesting.

**GalacticDefender**

Manchu wrote:
GalacticDefender wrote:That is one of the most rediculous olypics related articles I have ever read.
Are you saying you read it?
GalacticDefender wrote:seriously suggesting that the shooters are bad people because another guy used guns to kill people
No, that is seriously not what the author is suggesting.

I didn't mean the article/author of the article.

I meant whoever asked the olympic shooter those questions. Most rediculous subject matter of an article I should have said.

**Mannahnin**

Manchu wrote:
GalacticDefender wrote:That is one of the most rediculous olypics related articles I have ever read.
Are you saying you read it?
GalacticDefender wrote:seriously suggesting that the shooters are bad people because another guy used guns to kill people
No, that is seriously not what the author is suggesting.

This.

The article doesn't draw any stupid connection between violence and sport shooting. I can't imagine how someone could think of it as a hit piece, unless they just didn't read it.

**rubiksnoob**

This glosses over the main issue, which is shooting shouldn't be an Olympic sport. You don't have to be particularly athletic to be really good at blowing away clay pigeons with a shotgun. I cite Kim Rhode as an example. Archery same thing. One of the Italians who won gold had a fething beer gut!

**Melissia**

juraigamer wrote:Next, after the news at 10, our same reporter asks marines in the field how they feel about using weapons that kill people. More at 11.

"Pretty darn good, sir."