Reporter Links Sport Shooters, Murderers

August 3, 2012 by Sam Rolley

UPI
The Olympic Games are underway in London.

Is there any correlation between Olympic shooting sports and deranged murderers?

Of course there isn’t, unless you happen to be a reporter for The Washington Post.

In a seemingly desperate attempt to tie two completely unrelated topics that have been dominating mainstream news media over the past couple of weeks, Post reporter Katherine Boyle attempted to tie James Holmes’ horrific massacre to Olympian target shooting.

The piece, entitled “Even at the Olympics, Athletes in Sport of Shooting Face Questions About Gun Violence,” Boyle asserts the following regarding Olympian shooter Kim Rhode:
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. 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.

At a news conference last Thursday, before she earned a gold medal in women’s skeet shooting, Rhode was asked about another shooter, arguably a more famous one, who used a rifle, a shotgun and a semiautomatic pistol to kill 12 and injure 58 in a packed movie theater. As with most mass shootings, the backdrop was pedestrian.

The targets, random — the opposite of what happens at the Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs, where Rhode and other members of USA Shooting practice their sport.
Particularly revealing of Boyle’s attempt to use a piece about highly skilled athletes competing in an Olympic event into a politically charged narrative on how different gun owners are from “normal” people who don’t have them are the words, “that also requires a machine that, when used maliciously, can kill people.”

Just for fun, here are some ad-lib variations of the statement using other tools Olympians might have:
[Swimmers] compete in a sport — one that demands concentration and decades of practice — that also requires a [speedo] that, when used maliciously, can kill people.

[Fencing competitors] compete in a sport — one that demands concentration and decades of practice — that also requires a [foil, epee or sabre] that, when used maliciously, can kill people.

[Badminton players] compete in a sport — one that demands concentration and decades of practice — that also requires a [shuttlecock] that, when used maliciously, can kill people.

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