Congresswoman Challenges Obama to Skeet Shooting match

(CNN) – It’s about time for some bipartisan…skeet shooting?

Rep. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tennessee, joined a chorus of skeptics who questioned President Barack Obama’s recent comments about his hobby of skeet shooting, a sport where participants fire shotguns to break airborne clay disks.
 

“If he is a skeet shooter, why have we not heard of this? Why have we not seen photos? Why hasn’t he referenced this at any point in time?” Blackburn said Monday on CNN’s “Erin Burnett OutFront.”

“I tell you what I do think,” she later added. “I think he should invite me to Camp David, and I’ll go skeet shooting with him and I bet I’ll beat him.”

Obama said in an interview published Sunday by The New Republic that he won’t ignore the concerns of hunters and sportsmen as his administration pushes for tighter gun laws. To illustrate his point, he added an anecdote about his previously unknown penchant for shooting.

“Up at Camp David, we do skeet shooting all the time,” he said, responding to a question about whether he had ever fired a gun. He also added he has included guests on his skeet shooting outings.

Some found the comments puzzling and wondered why he hadn’t mentioned his gun experience in the high-profile firearm debate over the past six weeks. The remarks especially fired up some conservative blogs and news outlets.

“We had this debate that is ongoing,” Blackburn said. “You would have thought it would have been a point of reference.”

When asked by Jessica Yellin, CNN’s chief White House correspondent, how often the president goes skeet shooting, White House press secretary Jay Carney said earlier Monday that he doesn’t know.

“He does go to Camp David with some regularity, but I’m not sure how often he’s done that,” Carney said during the daily press briefing.

Pressed further if there was a photograph of the president taking part in the sport, Carney said “There may be, but I haven’t seen it.”

“Why haven’t we heard about it before?” Yellin continued.

“Because when he goes to Camp David, he goes to spend time with his family and friends and relax, not to produce photographs,” Carney said.

– CNN’s Ashley Killough contributed to this report.