Particularly concerning, said the shooter, are recent efforts out of her home state to enact some of the nation’s toughest gun control measures.
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Rhode, unfortunately never mentioned which presidential candidate she supports in the current 2016 Campaign.
“We should have the right to keep and bear arms, to protect ourselves and our family”, Kim Rhode, 37, told Time.
Rhode and Italian luger Armin Zoeggeler are now the only athletes to earn a medal in six straight Olympics, with Rhode being the first woman to accomplish the feat.
“I shoot 500 to 1,000 rounds a day, so having to do a background check every time I purchase ammo, or every time I want to bring ammo in or out of a competition or a match, those are very challenging for me”, Rhode explained. She said there’s a “stigma attached to our sport”.
Rhode, who lives near Los Angeles and whose parents own property near San Bernardino, said new gun laws passed in California in the wake of that attack do more harm than good. And they will not be passed on to my son, or to me from my father.
When she competes Friday afternoon in the women’s skeet shooting final, she has the chance to reach even more rarefied air and become the first American athlete to win a medal in an individual sport at six consecutive Olympic Games.
Hill said: “I definitely feel a lot of pride”.
One very sad effect of being an Olympic shooter and an articulate supporter of the Second Amendment is the lack of corporate sponsors other champion athletes enjoy.
Rhode defeated Wei Meng of China in a shoot-off to take the bronze after both women made 15 of 16 shots in regulation.
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In the stands was International Olympic Committee President Thomas Bach, his presence signalling the importance of Rhode’s historic moment. A year ago she secured a gold medal at the European Games in Baku, making her the youngest victor in the event’s history, and arrived in Rio as one of the top new faces in a sport dominated by older performers. She’s the only American woman to win a skeet shooting medal since the event was added to the Olympic roster in 2000.
