Olympic skeet shooter talks "right to bear arms" in USA

RIO DE JANEIRO, Aug. 11 (UPI) -- Team USA's most decorated skeet shooter is using the Rio de Janeiro stage to talk about gun control in her country.

"We have that stigma attached to our sport," Kim Rhode told TIME. "When you are talking to a NASCAR driver, they're not asked to comment on an incident that occurred with a vehicle."

Rhode, 37, said she began shooting at 7 or 8-years-old. Now she dominates the field with her Perazzi shotgun.

"We should have the right to keep and bear arms, to protect ourselves and our family," Rhode told TIME. "The second amendment was put in there not just so we can go shoot skeet or go shoot trap. It was put in so we could defend our first amendment, the freedom of speech, and also to defend ourselves against our own government."

Rhode has won a medal in five straight Olympic Games. If she wins in Rio, she would be the first-ever female to win in six straight Games. She will take aim at 8 a.m. Friday, Aug. 12 in women's skeet qualification.

On Wednesday, the NBC Olympics website wrote an exposé on Rhode's affection for Olympic pin collecting. But its medals that stick most to Rhode.

When asked by Forbes' Frank Miniter how she keeps winning them, Rhode pointed to her self confidence.

"You can't stop and doubt yourself," Rhode told Miniter. "You have to move positively forward with your eyes wide open. Once you set your sights on something you have to be dogged about it."

Rhode enrolled in the NRA's Junior Shooting Program at just 10-years-old. She was just 17-years-old when she won gold at the Atlanta Olympics in double trap shooting.

She has been asked several times about mass shootings happening in the United States. After her victory in the London Summer Games, the first question she received was about the Aurora shootings. She also gets asked about shootings in San Bernardino and Orlando.

"We have a lot of bills and legislation that are making it very difficult for people to go out and enjoy that sport that I personally love," Rhode told NPR last month.

"Everything we hear [about guns] on the media and news is nothing positive," Rhode told NPR. "They don't talk about the scholarships that kids are getting or the shooting teams around the country where kids are learning things like discipline, respect and teamwork — things they'll use for the rest of their life."