U.S. Olympian defends guns after mass shooting

[M-Tecs]

http://www.msn.com/en-us/sports/more-sports/us-olympian-defends-guns-after-mass-shooting/ar-AAfZPZJ?li=BBnb7Kz

SAN BERNARDINO, Calif. – U.S. Olympic shooting great Kim Rhode said Thursday the tragic massacre that left 14 people dead in San Bernardino only furthers her resolve to protect the rights of citizens to carry firearms.





While the attack on a regional center for the disabled by suspects Syed R. Farook, 28, and his wife, Tashfeen Malik, 27, quickly led to calls for enhanced gun control, Rhode, a five-time Olympian and three-time gold medalist, told USA TODAY Sports the horrific events of Wednesday did not alter her feelings regarding Second Amendment rights.
The attacks had a personal note for Rhode, 36, who is from Whittier, Calif., and whose parents own property in Muscoy, a town on the outskirts of San Bernardino.
“My heart goes out to the victims and their families; it is terrible,” Rhode said in a telephone interview. “But my views on gun control are that I support the Second Amendment and the right to be able to shoot and to protect your family. If anything, what has happened makes me have more of a reason to carry.
“The police do an incredible job and risk their lives every day. But they can only respond to these kinds of issues. I want to be able to protect myself in the interim before police get there.”
Rhode knows her views will attract criticism but says she regards it as a duty to show competitive shooting – in every Summer Olympics except two -- in a positive light. She said the sport has taught her “focus, discipline, respect and control,” while admitting that in the aftermath of her gold medal performance in London in 2012 she received death threats from animal rights activists over her support of hunting.
“Ever since the news (Wednesday) I haven’t stopped thinking about how with Christmas coming up there are all those families who won’t have sons or daughters to celebrate with,” Rhode said. “There seems to be no rhyme or reason to why someone would do this. But I don’t blame the gun.”
When Rhode clinched first place in London, the first question she was asked in her news conference was about the Aurora, Colo., shooting massacre that had taken place weeks earlier.
“As shooters we get lumped in with all the negative aspects of shooting,” she said. “But there is so much more to it than that.”
Rhode was the flagbearer of the U.S. team at the Pan Am Games in Toronto this summer and is in a strong position to qualify for what would be her sixth consecutive Olympics in Rio de Janeiro next year.

[GabbyM]

Well in Egypt last night they killed more people than in CA just using Molotov cocktail fire bombs into a crowded public venue. Sixteen dead. Simply not hard to kill people randomly.

[M-Tecs]

Same happen here 25 years ago. Killed 87

http://www.cbsnews.com/news/25th-anniversary-of-happy-land-nightclub-fire-that-killed-87/

NEW YORK -- Twenty-five years ago Wednesday, 87 people died after a man who was reportedly angry with his ex-girlfriend set fire to a Bronx club, reportsCBS New York (http://newyork.cbslocal.com/2013/03/25/monday-marks-anniversary-of-2-devastating-new-york-city-fires/).
The fire broke out just after 3 a.m. on March 25, 1990 at the Happy Land nightclub. Happy Land was operating illegally after having been ordered closed by the city for building and fire code violations, and a single staircase was the only point of egress.
The club was packed with young men and women - largely recent immigrants from Honduras, Ecuador and other Latin American countries, according to published reports.
Earlier that evening, Julio Gonzalez had been kicked out of the club by the bouncer after getting into an argument with his ex-girlfriend - nightclub ticket taker Lydia Feliciano, according to published reports. He walked to a gas station nearby and returned to the nightclub with a container full of gasoline, which he poured onto the staircase and ignited.
Feliciano survived the fire, but 87 people - 61 men and 26 women, did not. Most of them were reportedly under 25 years old.
Victims trying to escape the flames ended up piled up in a corner alongside the dance floor where they asphyxiated or burned to death, reports said.
Gonzalez was convicted of 87 counts each of murder and arson in 1991, and was sentenced to 25 years to life for every count.
Accounts at the time pointed out that the Happy Land fire was the deadliest blaze in New York City since the Triangle Shirtwaist fire 79 years earlier to the day. The Triangle Shirtwaist fire killed 146 people and helped galvanize the U.S. labor movement in 1911.
The building that housed the Triangle Shirtwaist factory is now owned by New York University.
The remains of the Happy Land club were demolished after the fire of March 25, 1990.

[bubba.50]

I always did like that girl. I've been a fan ever since she was featured in the American Rifleman as a teenager on her way to the Olympics.

[PbHurler]

God bless Kim Rhode, damn fine marksman, damn fine spokesperson. A class act IMO, nothing but respect & admiration for that woman.

[w5pv]

Kim Rhode,you are one fine spokesman for the 2nd,keep up the good work little lady.

[MtGun44]

Good job by a class act.

[jonp]

Kim is The USA's greatest Olympian that nobody except us gun guys and gals have heard of.

[CGT80]

I didn't know who she was, until I met her while shooting skeet at a local range. She is very down to Earth and is a great example of someone who understands what this country was built on. It is great that she sticks up for our rights and the shooting sports. Much of our population are either unaware or don't want to admit, that a very high percentage of firearms owners are much like her. Firearms are a tool often used for sporting and hunting, but we take the right to use that tool for defensive purposes very seriously. Firearms are much like fire extinguishers. They are priceless if you have them when you need them, but we don't hope to have a need to use them and sane people don't use them against others when their lives are not in danger.

When my parents grew up, a rifle was kept loaded and behind the back door to use for varmint control (4 legged and two legged). Kids knew what they were and how to use them, but they didn't touch them without permission. They were not a mystery or considered taboo or bad. It seems that has greatly changed, especially in the high population areas. The guns were put away, when I grew up, but we knew what they were and learned to use them in elementary school. Too many people are uneducated or stupid and are scared about something they know nothing about............but they are all too happy to assume they are qualified to form a real world opinion.

[10x]

The miscreants in this shooting used an automobile to travel to the site of their crime.
Maybe there should be stronger controls on automobiles?
Maybe every one who drives an automobile should be suspected of intentions of a mass shooting.

The bigotry of using the actions of one or two individuals to smear some 200 million American gun owns as some how having criminal intent is astounding.
And it goes right up the highest office in the U.S.

[bedbugbilly]

Excellent Kim Rhode!

And if you all listened to Obama last night . . . he said absolutely nothing new . . . other than we need to do something about guns. And as a law abiding citizen . . . I resent his "slap on the hands" in terms of the treatment of Muslims in this country. I am so sick and tired of all this "political correctness". I judge people by themselves individually . . . not as a group. But his Administration has done more than any other Administration to put a strain on racial/ethnic relations and actively promote it. And if you'll also notice . . . many of these leftist liberals have the luxury of Secret Service protection . . who carry guns. It doesn't take much common sense to realize that if a terrorist is determined to create havoc and cause mass death and injury . . . they will not worry about buying a firearm or ammunition legally . . . and if they can't get them, they will use other alternatives.

10x . . . you make an excellent point. After the Bostom bombing . . . I didn't see a push to outlaw pressure cookers either. What everybody has to realize is that there are a lot of bad people and evil in this world . . . whether it be criminals who don't want to live by society's rules or terrorists who care nothing about their life or the lives of others. And you don't "get" those people by going after the rights of law abiding citizens when that doesn't apply or bother the criminals or terrorists. That lesson should have been learned very well during WWII.