Sunday, February 18, 2007

Zumbo dumps on the Shooting Sports

I just got through reading a thread over at the Other Side Forum, where they linked with Outdoor Life and Jim Zumbo's blog. In the blog, he denigrates the AR weapons platform, calling them "terrorist rifles" and ..... aargh! Go read it yourself.

The main entry is here. The supposed apology is here.

Then, I wrote an email the online editor at Outdoor Life magazine. I am including it here in it's entirety.
Subject: Fire Zumbo today
To: webmaster@outdoorlife.com
Hi, fellows.

I just read Jim Zumbo's rant against AR and AK rifles and his supposed apology.

To say that I am livid is an understatement. I take particular offense at this paragraph:

"I call them "assault" rifles, which may upset some people. Excuse me, maybe I'm a traditionalist, but I see no place for these weapons among our hunting fraternity. I'll go so far as to call them "terrorist" rifles. They tell me that some companies are producing assault rifles that are "tackdrivers."
Sorry, folks, in my humble opinion, these things have no place in hunting. We don't need to be lumped into the group of people who terrorize the world with them, which is an obvious concern. I've always been comfortable with the statement that hunters don't use assault rifles. We've always been proud of our "sporting firearms.""

Who does this guy think he is? The M16 rifle, along with the variants that make up the AR class of rifle is the official shoulder weapon of the US military. With these words, Jim places hundreds of thousands of active, reserve, and guard personnel in the same ranks with terrorists. I carried an M16 for many, many years and I am today qualified with an AR as part of my police training. Does that make me a terrorist? I think not, and I am offended at the implication.

Zumbo isn't anyone that I would want carrying my opinions. I don't think you want him carrying yours. We're all terrorists in his eyes.

I guess all the folks who shoot NRA highpower matches are terrorists, too. I bet the Brady organization is going to have a field day with this. Jim Zumbo just set the 2nd Amendment back thirty years.

I won't buy another Outdoor Life as long as Jim Zumbo is affiliated in any way with the magazine. Fire Zumbo today and get someone who understands all the shooting sports.

Sincerely,

PawPaw
http://pawpawshouse.blogspot.com
http://www.castbullet.com
Zumbo is supposedly sponsored by Remington. I guess I'll write them next.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Wow! Both Outdoor Life and Remington drop him so fast he got whiplash.
I got to the party too late to read his original post or his "apology", but I'm sure someone has it posted on one of the forums.

Rivrdog said...

The problem with hunting writers like Zumbo (I won't call him a gun writer for the obvious reasons) is that they tend to make gun-owners who don't hunt into an expendable class. Sort of like cannon fodder.

John Kerry tried to open this split in the '04 election, but got torn to pieces when the gun he chose to pose (unsafely) with was a Remington 1187, which most antigun outfits want to ban, or at least force the aftermarket suppliers of pistol grip stocks out of business.

Zumbo fell into that trap long ago.

If anything, this should wake us all up: it's not good enough to support "hunting rights", you have to support the Second Amendment, ALL THE WAY.

If one of these "hunting rights" people ever tries to face me down, the reply which I will make is:

"Just where in the Bill of Rights is hunting mentioned?"

Hunters can and should support us 2A people, because if the 2A community actually withdrew from supporting the "hunting rights", you won't be able to hunt for cockroaches in your own kitchen soon afterward.