When you become the first US athlete in an individual sport to medal in five consecutive Olympics, that’s kindof a big deal. As washingtonpost.com puts it, you’re “Olympic royalty. Or should be.” If she was involved in any other sport, she’d be one of the toasts of London right now. “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.” Hard to believe someone would actually call themself…a shooter, no? . . .
Here’s the crux of the problem:
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.
Wonder if javelin tossers suffer those same “unfortunate associations.” And we shudder to think what someone with ill intent could do with one of those rhythmic gymnastic wands. Naturally, Rhode was asked about the Midnight Movie Massacre just before her gold medal winning round of skeet earlier in the week.
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.
Well, yes, those questions are inevitable when ill-informed journalists can’t manage to draw a distinction between target shooting and mass murder.
As the article relates, Lanny Bassham had won a silver in the 50 meter rifle competition in Munich in 1972 before Palestinian terrorists murdered Israeli athletes there.
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.”
And you know who to blame for all this, dontcha? The NRA. Oh, and the gun companies, too.
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.
Meanwhile Rhode, Vincent Hancock and all the other shooting sports winners will polish their medals and deal gracefully with inane media questions the other Olympians are never asked.
I’m beginning to think the US Media is a bigger enemy to gun rights than Feinstein,Schumer,Rahm Emanuel,Sara Brady,and Lautenberg combined.Unlike ignorant politicians,we cannot vote out MSNBS or CNN.
You are “beginning to think the US Media is a bigger enemy to gun rights”? Beginning?
Hey, the media have been the biggest enemy to gun rights since before the 1968 GCA. The media anti-gun frothing leading up to that Act was incredible. Up until that law passed, the NRA was a nice, tame, non-political “shooting sports” group. Neal Knox and other NRA members (you know, the guys you call OFWGs) saw the handwriting on the wall (“ban all handguns! ban gun sales! ban everything!”) and staged the 1971 “Cincinnati Revolution” at the NRA annual meeting, throwing out the old “we’re not involved in politics” board, and setting up the ILA. Knox and other NRA members realized that American shooting sports would not be viable without legal civilian ownership of firearms. Case in point: the British Olympic pistol team has to store their handguns in France, and practice there. Can’t keep them in Britain.
So what have we done to protect our Second Amendment rights lately? (Other than griping about the NRA not doing enough.) Get off yer collective butts and get politically active!
So true. And like ignorant politicans, we have to put up with ignorant voters. And how the politicans and mass media savior this is beyond belief.
Makes ya want to gather all the firearm owners/Americans and move’m into a big state as Texas. Or even better….Draw a line down the middle of the country and have the firearm owners/Americans live on one side and the “sin dipped in misery” live out their lives on the other. But no, we can not do this, right mass media ? Oh no. Why, that would be “racist.” Or against your Constitutional rights, yes ? What other scam can the mass media, trial lawyers, judges, politicans, leftist thugs can come up with, and we just sit and do nothing ? How about we run’m outta town ?
One other thing, the mother of the first historic half white leftist in chief, was white in color. How can it be the leftist in chief is referred to as the “historic first black President” ? Because the mass media tries to shove it down our throats.
Did I mention C. Dobbs and B. Frank ?
Of course we can “vote them out.”
Refuse to deal with them. Boycott companies that advertise on them AND LET THEM KNOW WHY you are taking your business elsewhere. File complaints with the FCC whenever an opportunity presents itself. Send letters opposing license renewals. Sure, your letter isn’t going to result in a license being revoked, but it costs them money to deal with the FCC’s bureaucracy.
Bleed the bastards with a thousand mosquito bites of regulatory busywork.
Media companies are run by people with political agendas, but those agendas don’t make money to pay the bills and keep the shareholders happy.
The media is powerful only because we make it powerful by blind slack-jawed consumption of its products.
Absolutely correct. As a fellow harley rider was fond of saying ” The shortest way to an Idiots heart is through his wallet” ( works for the “her” type idiots too).
“Unlike ignorant politicians,we cannot vote out MSNBS or CNN.”
Yes we can! Don’t watch them, don’t click on their links, don’t support their sponsors and make sure that everyone you know, knows who their sponsors are.
Not many watch them to begin with so reducing the number that do is a win for liberty and the things that we support. Eventually the ad dollars dry up and they face a choice that they are incapable of making, change or go out of business. It has been my experience that they will pretend to change however while nurturing that Marxist core of though and belief and commitment. Marxists lie. It is their path to power. They believe in the rightness of their KOS so much that they are will to lie as much as necessary and eventually injure and kill as much as necessary to seize and then maintain power. They can only achieve this through lies and suppression of the truth because the truth destroys their power and is therefore incompatible with them.
Welcome to the club, Kim. We are all vilified by the media because we shoot. Which is to be expected, since we vilify the media because they lie, every day, all the time.
Know how to tell when the media is lieing? When their mouths are moving… THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU, I had to sorry guys!
The MSM certainly is the enemy. They are not only complicitous in gungrabbing, they lead the charge.
They are professional liars.
Fully agreed.
And this is why I seek to humiliate, denigrate, and ridicule their ignorance at every turn I can. I relish and enjoy the job of proving “journalists” are fools, idiots, liars and frauds. I make my insults of journalists personal, biting and deep.
If we are not careful, the news media, who should be guardians of our liberty, will surely cause the downfall of this country. Just as they were a major factor in the Viet Nam war fiasco. The Tet Offense was a military disaster for the North Vietnamese, but Walter Cronkite and his ilk continued to say it was a loss for the U.S., which it most certainly was not. It just proves that the media, especially in cahoots with corrupt politicians with an agenda, can control much of the American public like puppets.
ST, they’re one and the same. Not a flicker of daylight between them.
I seems like I read this before.
“Journalists” must deal with unfortunate associations as well.
Let us take just one: Walter Duranty, mouthpiece and liar for Joseph Stalin and his mass murder during the 30’s.
The NY Times still displays the Pulitzer Prize won by Duranty for his lies.
The association of journalists with the Pulitzer and the NY Times puts them closer to mass murder of a far larger scale than any shooter is put in proximity to murder performed with guns in the US.
Oh, and the Pulitzer Board’s findings on Duranty’s mendacity?
Here:
http://www.pulitzer.org/durantypressrelease
Not bad enough to remove his prize.
The mind boggles at what would constitute deception bad enough to make these communist boot-lickers revoke a prize. Journalists have been handmaidens of evil throughout the 20th century, and we should take pains to remind them of this.
Light Foot Militia rises in Idaho’s backcountry
MSNBC on its front page to 20 really nice photos and decent commentary on the militia of Idaho. The piece is not the usual past attack type on the independent militias. Overall, I was surprised to find it there. The front page links to the photo journalism and I was not able to copy a direct link to the photos and stories.
http://www.nbcnews.com/
“The politics of shooting cannot be easily divorced from the sport”
Yes, yes it can…it just requires one not be a complete and utter dumbass. Guess that rules journalists and leftists out.
How dare the NRA (with funds mostly from CITIZENS) influence legislature to adhere as closely as possible to an important part of the Constitution! Typical crap spouted by those who view the Constitution as an obstacle rather than a document keeping the government from trampling our natural born rights.
And what about hammer throwing in track and field? How many people have used hammers to murder others? How about archery?
More importantly, I think those of us who are passionate about gun rights have a small opening at least for on-line articles. Most major news outlets allow reader comments below the story. This is where gun rights supporters have to be vocal. Make sure to state simple, compelling truths in a respectful manner. Who knows how many people — especially people sitting on the fence about gun rights — read those comments. Nevertheless it is so simple, quick, and easy to help spread the truth. Let’s make sure we all take advantage of it.
The main stream media is an enemy to any civil right or value that they don’t like … and unless we all pool our money and buy them out we cannot stop them.
So why are we not organizing massive demonstrations? What if just 10% of firearms owners peacefully assembled at their state capitals all on the same day? Assuming 80 million firearms owners and spreading them equally across all 50 states, that would be 160,000 people demonstrating at every state capital in every state of the U.S. on the same day.
First of all, I cannot imagine the mainstream media ignoring such an unprecedented, massive event. Second of all and more importantly, it would send a very clear message to our elected representatives, the mainstream media, and the public that owning firearms is a civil right and we demand that everyone respect that civil right.
No. Our Constitutionally guaranteed rights are not “civil rights”. Civil rights are created – and can be taken away – by governments. The Bill of Rights (first 10 articles of amendment) are part of the Constitution and were included to PRESERVE and keep inviolate from any government’s ability to denigrate them. Therefore, and as it was made clear at the time and on 4 July 1776, the rights enumerated are unalienable and pre-date any government. Civil? Not when they are NOT protected by UNcivil servants in elected and appointed burro-crats in government!
Somehow, WE have to get uncommon_sense and JinInMt together ! They happen to make so much sense of it all, it ain’t funny. Basic knowledge. ….Our Republic, for which it stands, is not a testing ground for communism, or abuse for an out of control mass media. And what I mean by “out of control” is simple and basic. When a media presents only one side of an issue. Lies about it, to cover any truths. It is abuse. It is even worse abuse when the populance sits on their laurels and accepts this without holding anyone accountable. Being desensitized is no excuse. Get with it, we are being attacked from within. There are plenty of other places to exist if anyone wants the realm of socialism in the lives. Not here, not America. Stop the watering down of our American beliefs. Stop the infiltration of dishonorable people flowing into our America. Resume proper immigration. All this means holding the guilty responsible, for the lies, non truths, the incredible burden placed on the American working class to break our spirit and well being. Now notice the leftist media playing for our hand. Why, because they realize their leftist experiment in the W.H. is over. Do not drop our guard for one moment, not one. Every last citizen, able and willing to hold a rifle, do so for Life, Liberty, and for those who fell before, and for Us. Buy the arms and ammo, it promotes the firearm industry and our Freedom. Which, by the way, is thriving,. It truly is our only defense, and the enemy from within knows it ! Stand together.
Late to the party, but a comment, if not a correction:
Generally, the word “rights” refers to something stronger than privileges. Civil Rights are in fact the rights that the Bill of Rights seeks to protect; I don’t think they were referred to as such until the Emancipation, but they are the same thing. The basis of these rights is often understood to be a natural law or natural right. The phrase “civil rights” of course implies that the rights are those afforded due to being a citizen, but citizenship cannot be preempted by laws below the level of civil rights, and for practical purposes, being considered a citizen is equivalent to being an adult human (leaving aside foreigners).
You, Sir, hit the nail RIGHT on the head !
You Are an American Patriot !
Uncommon_sense….You hit the nail right on the head ! Good for you Patriot !
“Anything for a story” is the unwritten motto for these ill-conceived journalists who make a living through blatent lies and those that choose to believe them.
Living in Utah, I’ve had quite a few articles come up lately that have made a tangible question mark rise above my head. During the whole Susan Powell investigation, there was a headline titled “HUMAN REMAINS FOUND IN UTAH’S WEST DESERT”. As I read the article I found that there was no piece of evidence that actually talked about said human remains being found. Turns out some cadaver dogs found a couple pieces of burnt wood that were buried a couple inches beneath the soil. Hmm…
Another one that just popped up the other day, in the midst of this ridiculous shooting ban in the state due to dry fire conditions, talked about how the fireworks and target shooting bans had drastically reduced the fires in the state as of late. Alright, let’s get out facts straight. Last I checked there were about 18 fires that were supposedly started by guns (which turn out to be almost all from exploding targets, tracer rounds, and hot vehicles starting brush on fire to get to the area), and that’s out of a total of more than 400 human caused fires. I think the more important factor to consider, however, is that there were afternoon thunderstorms and high humidity throughout most of July. You think that was mentioned in the article? Nope.
That’s not to say journalism as a whole is evil. That generalization should never be used under any circumstance. There are a few trusted journalists who do their best to tell it how it is. I just think looking under the whole scope of things, it would be good for them to step back and ask themselves, “Okay, what is the point of media to exist in the first place?” I won’t assume an answer for them, but I will say it is far from what they are doing at the present time.
turnabout is foul play i say. we need to sponser bills that would remove the credentials from ittesponsible reporters and their agencies. after all, they’re moving to restrict our rights, we should push back.
How bout just finding enough honest lawyers to prosecute & “judges” that understand that their job is to enforce the law, not re-writing it, to see that this law is enforced at all levels.
Title 18, U.S.C., Section 242
Deprivation of Rights Under Color of Law
Here’s the taxonomy of moral rectitude: People>lawyers>politicians>Justin Bieber>mammals>slugs>diseased rats>genital warts>journalists.
There is no more morally bankrupt profession in the world, not pimps, not drug dealers, not even IRS agents.
Umm, last time I checked, NRA was still the sanctioning body for state and national championships. At least for rifle and pistol. Is that different for shotgun?
I think, since the media is for “reasonable” restrictions on the second amendment, we need a law placing reasonable restrictions on the first amendment. In order to be a journalist you must take a two week class on ethics in journalism, you must undergo a thorough background check to ensure that you do not have a history of making biased statements / facebook posts / tweets / etc that do not have a factual basis, you must pay a fee each time you want to publish an article / make a broadcast (hey, we have to pay background check fees every time…well, depends on the FFL), and if you are caught lying in an article you will face a minimum of a $500 fine per false statement and up to 3 months in jail per statement (far less punishment than any breaking any silly gun law like putting a vertical grip on a pistol).
You’ve probably stopped checking comments by now, but last paragraph: …”polish there medals”
*their*
Fixed it!
Text amended. Thanks.
For every person killed by a bullet in the United States seven die of medical error…When oh when will this country embrace “common sense” QUACK CONTROL?
For every person killed by a bullet in the United States seven die of medical error. Why is no one calling for QUACK CONTROL?
I was hoping for an article about her shotgun 🙁
All the critics of “shooters” feel themselves to be morally superior, and they of all people, who decry intolerance and bigotry in every other area are such hypocrites that it boggles the mind. (My mind is getting over boggled lately from all the B.S. out there.) As my significant other says, this lady should have used her immoral machine on the critics, but then that’s not what people like her do. We love her and her accomplishments. It’s hard to appreciate all the time, work, and money expended to reach these high levels and I personally, for what it’s worth, commend her deeply.
Shooting is one of the events at which the UK does well, though you wouldn’t think so by how any success is almost totally ignored by the media.
Political bias at its worst.
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