U.S. biathletes speak out on gun control for America
For his profession, Lowell Bailey wears a .22 calibre rifle strapped to his back.
It has taken him across the world and to four Olympic Games, most recently to the biathlon mixed relay Tuesday night at Alpensia Biathlon Centre, where he skied the anchor leg for a United States team that finished 15th. His sport and his livelihood revolve around shooting. His competitors from other countries often wonder about his country’s relationship with guns.
The U.S. team woke up last Thursday to terrible news back home. Seventeen students, teachers and staff had been murdered at Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, by a 19-year-old with an AR-15.
Biathlon and mass murder of innocent people share no connective tissue, other than the broadest definition of the tool used. Even understanding that intellectual fact, Bailey and his teammates often experience a visceral need to reconcile the shooting portion of their sport and the destruction guns have caused in their country. They are shooting rifles while representing a country where debates over gun control have once again become a central issue.
Tuesday night, under the lights and in front of a packed grandstand, Bailey spoke out.
“I support an assault weapons ban,” Bailey said. “I really do. Our county needs to wake up. Our country needs to change. There’s just no excuse. I compete against all of these other World Cup nations — Germany, Norway. How good are they on the range? They’re great at rifle marksmanship. Do you know how strict their gun controls law are? It’s a travesty America hasn’t changed and continues to go down this path. It just makes me want to cry.”
The U.S. biathletes, from their words, are not gun enthusiasts.
“Not only am I a biathlete, but I’m also an avid hunter,” U.S. biathlete Tim Burke said. “If locking up all of my sports rifles and my hunting rifles meant saving one life, I would do it.”
South Korea has some of the strictest gun laws they had seen.
When they arrived in Seoul, the biathletes handed over their rifles at customs. Government officials delivered them to the biathlon centre here and placed them in lockers roughly the size of a rifle. Biathletes had to match their name to a serial number and scan them out, even for the purpose of “dry fire,” — going through the motion of aiming and shooting, without ammunition. Typically, biathletes can do the 15-minute exercise in a hotel room. In Korea, they had to jog to the centre, scan their rifle out, then scan it back in.
The rules apply to ammunition also. When a biathlete took his gun to the practice range, an official counted out 100 rounds. When he returned from target practice, the official counted how many bullets remained.
Bailey said he has discussed the U.S. laws with rivals, and mostly they are left at a loss.
“They’re absolutely baffled. They’re baffled at the political landscape of the United States and how we can continue to put assault weapons in the hands of anyone who wants to walk into a gun store and buy one.”
Bailey, also an advocate for clean sport and a father, became emotional when discussing the kind of guns available in the U.S. compared with the guns available elsewhere in the world.
“We’re a sport that uses a .22 calibre rifle,” Bailey said. “A .22 calibre rifle with a bolt action that shoots a single round is a much different thing than an AR-15. In my opinion, there’s just no reason for assault rifles to be in the hands of ordinary citizens. I understand the Second Amendment. I appreciate hunting. I appreciate rifle marksmanship. You’re talking about rifles. You’re talking about targets. You’re not talking about weapons that are designed to kill people.
“It’s important people understand the vast, vast difference between a .22 calibre 50-metre target rifle and an AR-15. I have no interest in owning an assault rifle. I have no interest in owning another weapon that can kill another human being, that’s designed to kill another human being, and to do it an expeditious way. Why is that allowed? It’s maddening.”
Bailey, 36, is almost certainly in his final Olympics. He has one more event here, the men’s relay, before he fires his last round as an Olympian, trying to hit a small target from 50 metres away while his heart pounds. He will put down his gun and return to a country grappling with its relationship with firearms, trying amid chaos to find the target.