Time: Gold Medal Shooter Takes Aim at Gun Control Supporters
Olympic shooter Kim Rhode used her large platform at this year’s games to advocate for all elements of the Second Amendment. Not only did Rhode mention the right to defend your family, but also the right to defend oneself from an overreaching government. Via Time:
Kim Rhode shoots guns for a living, but she has long seen them as the tools of her trade, no different than a golfer’s clubs. She was surprised, then, when she was asked about gun control at the London Olympics, shortly after winning gold in skeet shooting and becoming the first American to medal in five straight Games. Four years later, America’s most-decorated Olympic shooter is more willing to wade into questions about guns and their role in American society.
“We have that stigma attached to our sport,” says Rhode, 37, as she readies to compete in Rio. If she medals on Aug. 12, Rhode will be the first female Olympian to win medals in six straight Olympics. Italian luger Armin Zoeggeler has done it on the men’s side. “When you are talking to a NASCAR driver, they’re not asked to comment on an incident that occurred with a vehicle.”
Yet Rhode, who is funny and personable in conversation, doesn’t resort to typical athlete dodges when talk turns to gun control. “We should have the right to keep and bear arms, to protect ourselves and our family,” she says. “The second amendment was put in there not just so we can go shoot skeet or go shoot trap. It was put in so we could defend our first amendment, the freedom of speech, and also to defend ourselves against our own government.”
Read more here.
