To calm skeet-shooting skeptics, a photograph

In this photo released by the White House, President Barack Obama shoots clay targets last August on the firing range at Camp David, Md.
In this photo released by the White House, President Barack Obama shoots clay targets last August on the firing range at Camp David, Md.

— When President Barack Obama mentioned last week that he had picked up a new hobby - skeet shooting at Camp David - it was a surprising disclosure by a president whose main identification with guns these days is his effort to ban assault rifles and high-capacity magazines.

To some, Obama’s new found enthusiasm for shooting clay pigeons - he said in an interview that he did it “all the time” at the presidential retreat - also seemed a bit suspicious.

So on Saturday, the White House tried to silence the skeptics by releasing a photograph of Obama shooting on the range at Camp David in August. The president, wearing safety glasses and ear protectors, is squinting down the barrel of a shotgun, moments after pulling the trigger. Smoke is streaming out of the front of the gun.

The White House said the photo was taken on Aug. 4, Obama’s 51st birthday. But it offered no further details on whether his target practice was a regular hobby or a one-time event.

The notion of the president taking aim at targets flung into the air captivated some in the political and social media worlds at a time when he is pushing Congress to enact sweeping restrictions on high-capacity rifles and magazines.

Conservatives scoffed; comics mocked; a woman in Congress challenged him to a skeet shooting contest; a fake picture of an armed Obama circulated on the Internet; and the White House tried to make the whole matter go away.

“It was a surprise to a lot of people in the industry when we saw that and heard that,” said Michael Hampton Jr., the executive director of the National Skeet Shooting Association, whose 35,000 members do not include the president.

Obama is hardly the first politician to draw scorn for boasting of experience with guns. In 2007, during his first presidential campaign, former Gov. Mitt Romney of Massachusetts was ridiculed when he said, “I’ve always been a rodent and rabbit hunter - small varmints, if you will.” In 2004, John Kerry, then a presidential candidate, was lampooned for showing up in camouflage to go hunting less than two weeks before the election.

The latest commotion has its origins in the interview Obama gave to The New Republic, now owned by Chris Hughes, a Facebook co-founder and former Obama campaign aide. In the interview, Franklin Foer, the magazine’s editor, referred to the fight over gun control and asked the president if he had ever fired a gun.

“Yes, in fact, up at Camp David, we do skeet shooting all the time,” Obama said.

“The whole family?” Foer asked.

“Not the girls,” he said, “but oftentimes guests of mine go up there. And I have a profound respect for the traditions of hunting that trace back in this country for generations. And I think those who dismiss that out of hand make a big mistake.”

Obama went on to say that the reality of guns in urban areas differs from that in rural areas. “So it’s trying to bridge those gaps that I think is going to be part of the biggest task over the next several months,” he said. “And that means that advocates of gun control have to do a little more listening than they do sometimes.”

The skeet-shooting comment caught many off guard because it is not something the president has talked about. While other presidents have used the skeet shooting range at Camp David, database searches of Obama’s speeches and interviews turned up no previous mention of participating. No friend or guest has stepped forward in recent days to publicly describe shooting with the president.

“I would refer you simply to his comments,” Jay Carney, the White House press secretary, told reporters who asked after the interview was published how often the president shoots.“I don’t know how often. He does go to Camp David with some regularity, but I’m not sure how often he’s done that.”

Asked why no one had seen a picture or heard about it before, Carney said, “Because when he goes to Camp David, he goes to spend time with his family and friends and relax, not to produce photographs.”

Front Section, Pages 5 on 02/03/2013

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