by I didn’t see CNN’s Piers Morgan Tonight with the interview of Kim Rhode. All I could find of the interview was this clip in which Morgan is asking Kim about the Aurora shooting. While Kim gave an excellent answer, it is sad to think that this is the only thing that CNN deemed worthy of excerpting. There is nothing about her record-breaking performance, nothing about how hard she trained to get there, and nothing really about the shotgun sports.
The United States Is 2 For 2 In Olympic Skeet
Following on the heels of Kim Rhode’s gold medal in Women’s Skeet, Sgt. Vincent Hancock became a back-to-back winner of the gold medal in Men’s Skeet. Hancock took his first gold at the Beijing Olympic Games in 2008 and repeated this year in London.
In the course of winning this gold medal, Hancock broke his own Olympic record by scoring 148 out of 150 clays. He dropped one clay in each of the two qualifying rounds but was perfect in the finals. The silver medalist, Anders Golding of Denmark, had a 146 while the bronze medalist, Nasser Al-Attiya of Qatar, had a 144.
Sgt. Hancock is a member of the US Army Marksmanship Unit. According to this profile of him, he shoots a Beretta DT-10 with a Ergosign stock.
Kim Rhode On NRA News
John Popp of NRA News interviewed gold medalist Kim Rhode on her record-breaking win in London. Unlike some of the other media interviews which have tended to be a little superficial, this interview got into things like social media, the impact of her win on the shooting sports, and the positive attention it has brought to shooting. One of the interviews that Kim mentioned she will be doing is with Piers Morgan of CNN.
The Concealed Carry Holster Fashion Show
The First Annual Concealed Carry Holster Fashion Show was held Saturday a week ago. Not only did it attract the media but it was a sold out event. It was held in the New York State town of Hudson which, as the name might indicate, located in the Hudson River Valley about 30 miles south of Albany. The show was a fundraiser for a domestic violence center, REACH of Columbia and Greene Counties, but it was also an event designed to educate (and entertain) women about responsible gun ownership and use.
Gracie McKee of Packing Pretty had a full write-up of the show yesterday with tons of pictures. Gabby of ArmedCandy has assembled a slide show of the event which can be seen here.
I’m glad to see events like this and think that more are needed. If there are a Million Moms carrying concealed, the gun prohibitionists can start hanging it up. Moreover, self-protection and self-defense with a firearm becomes the “women’s issue” that it rightly should and only misogynistic politicians would stand in the way of this.
Naming Names
Richard Serrano of the LA Times writes that a report that should be released later this week by the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee names five BATFE officials as collectively responsible for Operation Fast and Furious. The report also states that they attempted to hide from the Mexican the fact that is was walked guns that were used in the murder of the Mexican attorney general’s brother.
This report is the first of three to be released. The other two will detail the failure of supervision and leadership by Justice Department officials and will go into the obstruction of the Congressional investigation by the highest levels of the Justice Department. This report is co-authored by Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA) and Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA).
The officials named in the report include William Newell, William McMahon, Mark Chait, William Hoover, and Kenneth Melson.
They found that William Newell, the special agent-in-charge in Phoenix, exhibited “repeatedly risky” management and “consistently pushed the envelope of permissible investigative techniques.” The report said “he had been reprimanded … before for crossing the line, but under a new administration and a new attorney general he reverted back to the use of risky gunwalking tactics.”
His boss, Deputy Assistant Director for Field Operations William McMahon, “rubber stamped critical documents that came across his desk without reading them,” the report alleged. “In McMahon’s view it was not his job to ask any questions about what was going on in the field.”
They added that McMahon gave “false testimony” to Congress about signing applications for wiretap intercepts in Fast and Furious.
His supervisor, Mark Chait, assistant director for field operations, “played a surprisingly passive role during the operation,” the report said. “He failed to provide oversight that his experience should have dictated and his position required.”
Above Chait was Deputy Director William Hoover, who the report said ordered an exit strategy to scuttle Fast and Furious but never followed through: “Hoover was derelict in his duty to ensure that public safety was not jeopardized.”
And they said Melson, a longtime career Justice official, “often stayed above the fray” instead of bringing Fast and Furious to an “end sooner.”
The report, while naming Melson as one responsible officials, said that Justice Department officials tried to make him the scapegoat for the operation after his testimony to the committee on July 4th of 2011.
To date, all the men named in the report still hold positions within BATFE headquarters or the Justice Department in the case of Kenneth Melson.
Congratulations To Kim Rhode
Kim Rhode not only won the gold medal in Women’s Skeet today but she did it with a new Olympic record. Even more impressive, she became the first American to medal in five consecutive Olympic events.
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| Kim Rhode at the medal ceremony |
The previous Olympic record for Women’s Skeet was a score of 93 (out of 100). Kim’s winning score was a 99. This means she only missed one clay pigeon on her way to a gold medal.
Rhode’s history-making performance began with an Olympic record score in the qualification round, as she missed only one target out of 74 shots.
She then erased any doubt about who would take the gold, nailing all 25 targets in the final to tie the world record with her gaudy total score of 99, a number that blew the Olympic record of 93 out of the water. Rhode had shared the record of 93, which she and two other women turned in at the Beijing Olympics, but Italy’s Chiara Cainero wound up winning gold in a shoot- off.
This time, Rhode didn’t leave anything to chance. Her closest competition on Sunday was China’s Wei Ning, who hit a total of 91 shots to fall way short of the standard set by Rhode. In those terms it was the most dominating performance in Olympic shooting history, with Rhode securing the largest margin percentage between first and second place.
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| Kim Rhode after the prelims |
The New York Times had this to say about her making US Olympic history.
Under drizzly, gray British skies, the shooter Kim Rhode made American Olympic history.
Rhode, 33, became the first American athlete to win five medals in an individual event in five consecutive Olympic Games. She earned a gold medal in women’s skeet on Sunday, setting an Olympic record and tying the world record by hitting 99 out of 100 targets. She also became the first woman to win three gold medals in Olympic shooting.
In her first Olympics in Atlanta in 1996, Kim won a gold in Double Trap. She was all of 17 at the time. She followed this with a bronze in Sydney in 2000 and another gold in 2004 in Athens. The Olympics then did away with Double Trap for women and she switched to Skeet. She won silver in 2008 in the event in Beijing and now the gold again in London. With five medals in five Olympics, does she plan to retire? What do you think!
This success marked another high in Rhode’s amazing career, but she insisted she is far from finished and she now has her shotgun sights set firmly on Rio 2016 – and beyond.
‘I do not see myself quitting any time soon,’ Rhode said.
‘I’m looking forward to 2016 and a few more after that. The oldest Olympic medallist was a shooter and he was 72, so I still have a few more in me.’
According to a story in the San Gabriel Valley Tribune, Kim’s family had some special pins made for this Olympics with the approval of the US Olympic Committee. The pin even has a battery operated light that makes the shotgun muzzle glow red when you push on it.
Many countries fully financially support their shooters. The US does not unless you want to count the US Army Marksmanship Unit. Given she shoots anywhere between 500 and 1,000 rounds daily, the costs add up. The Christian Science Monitor estimates she has shot over $3 million worth of shells over her career. I do think her training and competition ammo is provided free by Winchester but still…
Training since before she won gold in Atlanta as a 17 year old, Rhode estimates she shoots 500 to 1,000 rounds shot a day. The total cost of that ammunition over the course of her competitive life (again thanks to the math whizzes at the Times): $3.65 million.
Can we remember her name now? Kim Rhode. Please take out a piece of paper and write it down if you have to.
At every competition, she is “competing against people who have everything given to them,” she said at a media event in May, noting that other top shooting countries fund their shooters. And still, she has accomplished more than any of them.
“In China,” she added, “if they win, their families are taken care of for life.”
She lugs all her own gear to practice at a California range. In her spare time, she builds cars. Builds them. She has 13, including a 1917 Model-T, she said. Her favorite? A Shelby Cobra she built from a kit.
Aren’t famous Olympians supposed to be winning cars, not building them?
In conclusion, congratulations to Kim Rhode on her record-breaking performance. She had done her country and her family proud.
NRA News On Last Day Of Arms Trade Treaty Talks
Ginny Simone of NRA News interviews Tom Mason of the World Forum on the Future of Sport Shooting Activities about the last day of the Arms Trade Treaty talks. They discuss the speech by the State Department’s Tom Countryman which said that consensus had not been found and the talks need to be continued later. In essence, the US can’t agree to it…yet. They also discuss the letter from Sen. Jerry Moran (R-KS) and 50 other senators saying they won’t support the treaty.
In a later interview with Tom Mason, Ginny Simone asks about the report that Russia and Canada both indicated they can’t support the treaty at this time.
H/T Weer’d Beard
US Refuses To Sign Arms Trade Treaty According To CCRKBA
The Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms just sent out a news flash a few minutes ago applauding the United States for its refusal to sign the UN’s Arms Trade Treaty. They said the announcement was made in New York this morning.
I did see that Russia is refusing to sign the draft treaty saying they are dissatisfied with it and the draft needs more work.
BELLEVUE, WA – The Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms today applauds the decision by the United States to not sign the proposed International Arms Trade Treaty, and CCRKBA credits grassroots action for the gun rights victory.
CCRKBA Chairman Alan Gottlieb, who is at the United Nations in New York, said the announcement came Friday morning after a week of intense negotiations.
“I think the grassroots surge by American gun owners against this treaty convinced our government to not sign this document,” Gottlieb said. “The proposed treaty, as written, poses serious problems for our gun rights, and the sovereignty of our Second Amendment.”
CCRKBA has been active in raising public awareness about the proposed treaty, and Gottlieb said he is proud of members and supporters who made “stepped up to the plate” and contacted their U.S. senators.
“This is freedom in action,” Gottlieb stated. “We are gratified that so many did so much to protect their Second Amendment rights from an international gun rights grab.
UPDATE: According to Colum Lynch, UN reporter for the Washington Post and Turtle Bay blogger for Foreign Policy Magazine, the US isn’t actually refusing to sign the ATT. They and the Russians are putting out a joint statement saying that they need more to study the proposed treaty. From his Tweet on the subject, “UN diplomat said Washington wants to put off action on a new arms trade treaty, after the US election.”
The United States upended a major international treaty negotiation, telling foreign delegates at the final session today that they needed more time to consider the pact. Some diplomats said that Washington is seeking another six months, pushing off any decision on the politically sensitive treaty until after the U.S. election. Russia, Indonesia, and India also asked for more time.
Thomas Countryman, U.S. deputy secretary of state for international security and nonproliferation, informed representatives of the U.N.’s 193 member states that the United States still needed time to consider the text.
He continues:
The United States told delegates that it did not have “core” objections to the draft treaty under consideration, but that it needed more time, saying that while the U.N. negotiations have been playing out since July 2, they only received the final text in the past 24 hours.
In my opinion this is something for great concern. That the US doesn’t have “core” objections and wants to wait until after the election spells trouble for gun rights. I say this because they have no real objections to a treaty that, despite their denials, has negative implications for the Second Amendment. Moreover, putting it off until after the election means a treaty could be approved by a lame duck US Senate. This may seem paranoid but I don’t trust either Obama or his State Department on this issue.
SAF Files Suit In Missouri Over Concealed Carry For Legal Immigrants
In a case that is similar to their winning efforts against the City of Omaha, the Second Amendment Foundation has filed suit in Federal District Court on behalf of a Canadian who is a legal permanent resident. Edward Plastino resides just north of St. Louis and is seeking to obtain a Missouri concealed carry permit but is prohibited by law. As noted here a number of times in the past, discrimination based upon alienage is considered suspect and is subject to strict scrutiny.
From the SAF release:
BELLEVUE, WA – The Second Amendment Foundation has filed a federal lawsuit on behalf of a Canadian citizen who is a legal resident of Missouri, challenging that state’s statutory prohibition on the carrying of concealed firearms by non-citizens.
The case seeks to overturn the state’s non-citizen concealed carry ban on constitutional grounds, specifically the Second Amendment right to keep and bear arms, and the 14th Amendment’s equal protection clause. The plaintiff is Edward F. Plastino, a Canadian citizen and Status Indian, based on his partial Chippewa heritage. He has lived primarily in this country since 1995, and in Missouri since 2006. SAF and Plastino are represented by attorneys Matthew Singer of St. Louis and David Sigale of Glen Ellyn, Ill.
“This is a case similar to our successful lawsuits against the City of Omaha and Washington State, and our current action in New Mexico, challenging local gun laws that discriminate against legal resident aliens,” said SAF founder and Executive Vice President Alan Gottlieb. “Mister Plastino can legally carry a firearm openly in Missouri, but he cannot legally conceal a firearm for personal protection. That simply does not make sense.”
Plastino was in Mississippi during Hurricane Katrina and its immediate aftermath, but his employer transferred him to St. Louis and then to St. Charles, Mo.
“Mr. Plastino would carry a concealed firearm for personal protection,” Gottlieb said, “except that he realizes he could face prosecution, fine and imprisonment, and other repercussions because he is a non-citizen.”
Defendants in the case are Missouri Attorney General Chris Koster and St. Charles County Sheriff Tom Neer, in their respective official capacities.
“Mr. Plastino has lived and worked in the United States for more than a decade,” Gottlieb noted. “His case represents the plight of untold numbers of legal resident aliens who have demonstrated their willingness to be good members of their communities and abide by our laws. It seems only right to allow them the same protections as our citizens against people who do not abide by our laws.”
Quote Of The Day
The quote of the day comes Miguel at GunFreeZone. In a story about an Alto Bonito, TX teen who used not only a gun but an AK-47 to protect himself and his family from four armed men, Miguel commented:
Remember, every time a Criminal gets shot by a Law Abiding Citizen, Japete sheds a tear, Everitt Ladd throws a fit and Paul Helmke has to pop a Cialis to get his neck straight up again.
That is Tam-worthy snark!