Posted Oct 20, 2011
By Debra Cassens Weiss, The ABA Journal

During a courtesy call before her confirmation, Justice Elena Kagan responded to a remark by Sen. James Risch, R-Idaho, about gun rights.

Risch told Kagan she may not realize how important the issue was to most Americans, Kagan recalled in a speech Tuesday to the Beth Tfiloh Congregation in Baltimore.

Kagan said she had never owned or fired a gun, CNN reports. "But I told the senator if I was fortunate enough to be confirmed, I would go hunting with Justice Scalia,” she told the congregation.

Kagan lived up to her word. She has accompanied Scalia to a shooting range and on several hunting trips, she said. “It turns out, it's kind of fun," she added.

Kagan also spoke about being the first girl to have a bat mitzvah at her synagogue, which occurred after she negotiated with the rabbi, the CNN story says. Negotiating with the rabbi "shaped my life,” she said. “It was a formative experience, and I guess I've always been a striver."

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