Hindsight from The New Gun Week
October 01, 2000
International Gun Control Policies
And Shooting at the Olympics
by Joseph P. Tartaro, Executive EditorGetting results of the shooting games at the 2000 Olympics in Sydney, Australia, can be pretty near impossible. NBC, which has paid for the rights to telecast the Olympics on its three channels (including CNBC and MSNBC), has taken the view that no one is interested in shooting. Or maybe it is that the media elitists are ashamed of shooting, especially if Americans win.
American newspaper sports editors aren't much better. If they report on shooting and many other sports events they don't understand, they bury that news in columns of very small type, eliminating all information except the bare essentials.
A few newspapers in the US took special note of the victory of Nancy Johnson in the Women's 10-meter Air Rifle event. That was because Johnson's victory-and a quirk of scheduling-gave the USA bragging rights to the very first gold medal of the 2000 Olympics.
It's unlikely, however, that Johnson will be signing any $100 million celebrity promotional contracts with any manufacturer of over-priced athletic shoes. If she's lucky, she may earn a few dollars in the promotion department of one of the US gun manufacturers.
Can We Learn?Considering the pressure on gun manufacturers and gunowners these days, it might be worthwhile reflecting on the Olympics and the drive for global gun control.
In the US these days, the anti-gunners seem to be shaping the debate because of their iron grip on media channels. Law-abiding gunowners and their firearms have been so demonized that organized school shooting programs are being shut down, and anything to do with guns is becoming anathema-even the marksmanship training under high school junior ROTC programs.
If that weren't bad enough, we have people trying to disarm bronze statutes of children playing with water pistols. Absurd as that may sound, it actually happened in Santa Fe, NM.
Then we have people with a political axe to grind organizing marches, demonstrations and first Monday events all across the country to further demonize guns, gunowners and the gun industry. If that weren't enough, we have cities suing the gun industry to force them out of business, or to at least raise the cost of defense so high that people will not be able to afford guns.
And in almost every state, some politicians are fighting educational programs that will really help children understand that guns require special care and special responsibility.
From the standpoint of world competition like the Olympics, the politicians who want to raise the minimum age for lawful firearms acquisition and use to at least 21, are likely to usher in a day in which the USA will be unable to win any Olympic medals in shooting.
Twenty-one is not an age when someone embarks on the difficult road to achieving world-class proficiency with a firearm-or air gun. That's about the age when most competitors are starting to reach their peak.
Occasionally, there are prodigies, like Kim Rhode, who won the first Women's Double Trap event in Atlanta in 1996. Another young person I knew made the US pistol team at 20 several years ago. Unfortunately, he never got to compete, because that was the year we boycotted the Olympics in Russia.
But he was from Western New York and had been weaned on pistol shooting from his early years. And he had, unusual as it may seem, been granted a New York state pistol license in his early teens.
I've talked with aspiring members of the US Shooting Team at the Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs. Shooters, like swimmers, gymnasts and other competitors, lead a very regimented life if they want to aspire to world class excellence.
Rigors of TrainingTheir lives are very regulated. Besides schooling they seldom have time for anything but practice in their chosen sport. Serious young shooters aiming for the Olympics don't play ball, or engage in other activities in their free time. Every available moment is devoted to training. It's not an easy life.
Now we have the politicians, the media, the civic leaders, and the schools telling them that this is not only a wasteful pursuit, but a dangerous one. When a young boy or girl these days tells someone they want to be a world-class shooter, people roll their eyes and start expecting the young person to be featured in the next school shooting story.
Schizophrenic as this American attitude may be, consider that many of the young people who earned gold, silver or bronze medals in the Olympic events that I have included at the end of this article come from countries like Australia, Great Britain, China and even Japan. One might wonder how that is possible, but the simple fact is that while these countries have pretty much disarmed their civilian populations, they still cherish the bragging rights they get when their people earn medals.
Let me suggest how the communist Chinese government manages this, based on some pretty reliable sources with whom I have spoken.
For one thing, China still believes that it needs lots and lots of infantry if it decides to fight a war or is forced into one. To assure a steady supply or soldiers, sailors and marines, the Chinese do not shrink from teaching young people about guns, or about how to shoot.
When you have a commitment to winning medals in world competition, you plan and build for the long term. When China starts looking for trainable young shooters for the Olympics, it starts with a pool of some 12 to 20 million youngsters. Little by little this huge reservoir is shaken down to include only the very best possible trainees.
Preparation for VictoryThose selected are sponsored and cared for by the government. They are given the best training with the best guns and ammunition possible. They are prepared physically and psychologically for the role of champions.
Most importantly, they are honored and respected by their government, their teachers and their fellow countrymen.
Check the list below and you'll see more Chinese medal winners in shooting than you could possibly have imagined. You'll also find Australians and Russians, and even a winner from Great Britain.
The people of those countries and the politicians who govern may be anti-gun when it comes to private possession and ownership of guns. They may even be hypocrites. But they are different from the anti-gunners in this country who want to remake and brainwash all of society, and who haven't the slightest regards for the fact that they are also blocking the path to future shooting medals for the USA.
I guess they figure they can win world respect by winning medals in cheerleading when that becomes an Olympic sport in 2004.
Women's 10-meter Air Rifle
Gold-Nancy Johnson, USA, 497.7; Silver-Kang Cho-Hym, Korea, 497.5; Bronze-Gao Jing, China, 497.2.
Men's 10-meter Air Rifle
Gold-Cai Yalin, China, 696.4; Silver-Artim Khadjibekov, Russia, 695.1; Bronze-Evgeni Aleinekov, Russia, 693.8.
Men's 10-meter Air Pistol
Gold- Franck Dumoulin, France, 688.9; Silver-Wang Yifu, China, 686.9; Bronze-Igor Basinsky, Belarus, 682.7.
Women's 10-meter Air Pistol
Gold-Tao Luna, China, 488.2; Silver-Jasna Sekaric, Yugoslavia, 486.5; Bronze-Annemarie Forder, Australia, 484.0. In fourth was Michiko Fukushima, Japan.
Men's Trap (Singles)
Gold-Michael Diamond, Australia, 147; Silver-Ian Peel, Great Britain, 142; Bronze-Giovanni Pellielo, Italy, 140.
Women's Trap (Singles)
Gold-Daina Gudzineviciute, Lithuania, 93; Silver-Delphine Racinet, 92; Bronze-Gao E, China, 90.
The New Gun Week is published three times a month by the Second Amendment Foundation (SAF) on the 1st, 10th, and 20th. Hindsight is a commentary written by SAF President and Gun Week Executive Editor Joseph P. Tartaro. This commentary may be reprinted so long as credit is given to the author and the publication. For more information or to subscribe, write Gun Week, PO Box 488, Buffalo, NY 14209, or call 716-885-6408 Monday through Friday 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. EST, or inquire on Compuserve to John Krull, Production manager-JohnSAF@Compuserve.com or gunweeksaf@broadviewnet.netAlso, check out the New Gun Week at http://www.GunWeek.com