Yes even gun nuts can turn on each other.
This whole entry and controversy is getting me down.
I have never heard of Jim Zumbo before this controversy hit the fan in the last two or three days. Apparently Mr Zumbo is a hunter and outdoor witter. Like I said I don't know a lot about him. I post this hear simply because every single hunting or shooting forum I have been to in the past couple days and I read a fair number of forums, has had at least one if not multiple threads discussion/ranting about this controversy.
The crux of the controversy is in his blog entry here on Feb 16th:
http://outdoorlife.blogs.com/zumbo/2007/02/assault_rifles_.html (link broken see bottom of post)
The link will take awhile to load due to the firestorm of comments to the entry.
In a nut shell this blog entry insinuates that AR or AK = assault weapon and assault weapon owners = terrorists.
As we all know most civilian owned AR or AK's are not assault weapons unless your using Sara Brady and company's definition of assault weapon. Certainly even if you legally own a true assault weapon (yes you can legal own an assault weapon in most states of this union for those that are not firearm enthusiast) is does not make you a terrorist.
So two day later (02/18) after a firestorm of negative feed back Mr Zumbo post an apology to his blog.
http://outdoorlife.blogs.com/zumbo/2007/02/i_was_wrong_big.html(link broken see bottom of post)
Again the number of responses will cause the page to load slowly.
Now I'm and R&D engineer and paid to be an optimist and I'm afraid it sometime seeps into other aspect of my life. I read the apology and thought it was well written and sincere. If you read the comments below the apology many did not feel the same.
I guess I'm not sure how to take all this. I personally thought his original post was greatly in error and very offensive to a large portion of the hunting/shooting community. But given that I read the negative feed back on the original post before actually finding the original post to read I find that I am not reacting as negatively as I might. So much of the negative response is so vehement and savage I find myself wanting to defend Mr Zumbo. There is even a very small part in me that sort of wants to agrees that assault rifles don't belong in the hunting woods. Not that I think there should be law against people hunting with them but I think I feel the sentiment he was after. I would rather carry my 50+ year old bolt action rifle hunting deer than my new AR-15.
It is clear Mr Zumbo has made a big mistake and it seems also clear to me that he has apologized for it. I do not think the apology should let him off without consequences, not by a long shot but the savage comments are not helping either. His comment have already done damage by being twisted and used one one or more anti-gun groups. At the same time I do think he need to be given a chance to make amends. In his apology he claims to want to do just that and I think he should be give a chance, watched very closely, but certainly given a change to fix his mess.
I am dismayed at the way the gun community in large part turned on him so brutally. It's one think to chastise him for his erroneous and offensive comments but what has happened to Mr Zumbo seem to go well beyond what is appropriate. It seems many have written him off as an unrepentant traitor and have no intention to give him a second chance. As far as I know this is his first "anti-gun" remarks but many want to excommunicate him from the hunting/shooting community as if he was Sara Brady's new right-hand man.
The whole thing looks very bad and I fear that the gun community's response to Mr Zumbo's comments may actually do more damage than Mr. Zumbo original comments. What a sorry ugly mess.
ETA: Sorry guys the two above links got killed, in fact it seems Mr Zumbo entire blog got pulled. I will see if I can find the text and add it.
ETA2: Found the text for the orginal blog enty
Assault Rifles For Hunters?
As I write this, I'm hunting coyotes in southeastern Wyoming with Eddie Stevenson, PR Manager for Remington Arms, Greg Dennison, who is senior research engineer for Remington, and several writers. We're testing Remington's brand new .17 cal Spitfire bullet on coyotes.
I must be living in a vacuum. The guides on our hunt tell me that the use of AR and AK rifles have a rapidly growing following among hunters, especially prairie dog hunters. I had no clue. Only once in my life have I ever seen anyone using one of these firearms.
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."
This really has me concerned. As hunters, we don't need the image of walking around the woods carrying one of these weapons. To most of the public, an assault rifle is a terrifying thing. Let's divorce ourselves from them. I say game departments should ban them from the praries and woods.
ETA3: Found his apology
I was wrong, BIG TIME
Someone once said that to err is human. I just erred, and made without question, the biggest blunder in my 42 years of writing hunting articles.
My blog inflamed legions of people I love most..... hunters and shooters. Obviously, when I wrote that blog, I activated my mouth before engaging my brain.
Let me explain the circumstances surrounding that blog. I was hunting coyotes, and after the hunt was over and being beat up by 60 mph winds all day, I was discussing hunting with one of the young guides. I was tired and exhausted, and I should have gone to bed early. When the guide told me that there was a "huge" following of hunters who use AR 15's and similar weapons to hunt prairies dogs, I was amazed. At that point I wrote the blog, and never thought it through.
Now then, you might not believe what I have to say, but I hope you do. How is it that Zumbo, who has been hunting for more than 50 years, is totally ignorant about these types of guns. I don't know. I shot one once at a target last year, and thought it was cool, but I never considered using one for hunting. I had absolutely no idea how vast the numbers of folks are who use them.
I never intended to be devisive, and I certainly believe in United we Stand, Divided we Fall. I've been an NRA member for 40 years, have attended 8 national NRA conventions in the last 10 years, and I'm an advisory board member for the United States Sportsmen's Alliance which actively fights anti-hunters and animal rights groups for hunter's rights.
What really bothers me are some of the unpatriotic comments leveled at me. I fly the flag 365 days a year in my front yard. Last year, through an essay contest, I hosted a soldier wounded in Iraq to a free hunt in Botswana. This year, through another essay contest, I'm taking two more soldiers on a free moose and elk hunt.
When I started blogging, I was told to write my thoughts, expressing my own opinion. The offensive blog I wrote was MY opinion, and no one else's. None of the companies that I deal with share that opinion, nor were they aware of what I had written until this firestorm started.
Believe it or not, I'm your best friend if you're a hunter or shooter, though it might not seem that way. I simply screwed up. And, to show that I'm sincere about this, I just talked to Ted Nugent, who everyone knows, and is a Board member of the NRA. Ted is extremely active with charities concerning our wounded military, and though he's known as a bowhunter, Ted has no problem with AR 15's and similar firearms. My sincerity stems from the fact that Ted and I are planning a hunt using AR 15's. I intend to learn all I can about them, and again, I'm sorry for inserting my foot in my mouth.
I have never heard of Jim Zumbo before this controversy hit the fan in the last two or three days. Apparently Mr Zumbo is a hunter and outdoor witter. Like I said I don't know a lot about him. I post this hear simply because every single hunting or shooting forum I have been to in the past couple days and I read a fair number of forums, has had at least one if not multiple threads discussion/ranting about this controversy.
The crux of the controversy is in his blog entry here on Feb 16th:
http://outdoorlife.blogs.com/zumbo/2007/02/assault_rifles_.html (link broken see bottom of post)
The link will take awhile to load due to the firestorm of comments to the entry.
In a nut shell this blog entry insinuates that AR or AK = assault weapon and assault weapon owners = terrorists.
As we all know most civilian owned AR or AK's are not assault weapons unless your using Sara Brady and company's definition of assault weapon. Certainly even if you legally own a true assault weapon (yes you can legal own an assault weapon in most states of this union for those that are not firearm enthusiast) is does not make you a terrorist.
So two day later (02/18) after a firestorm of negative feed back Mr Zumbo post an apology to his blog.
http://outdoorlife.blogs.com/zumbo/2007/02/i_was_wrong_big.html(link broken see bottom of post)
Again the number of responses will cause the page to load slowly.
Now I'm and R&D engineer and paid to be an optimist and I'm afraid it sometime seeps into other aspect of my life. I read the apology and thought it was well written and sincere. If you read the comments below the apology many did not feel the same.
I guess I'm not sure how to take all this. I personally thought his original post was greatly in error and very offensive to a large portion of the hunting/shooting community. But given that I read the negative feed back on the original post before actually finding the original post to read I find that I am not reacting as negatively as I might. So much of the negative response is so vehement and savage I find myself wanting to defend Mr Zumbo. There is even a very small part in me that sort of wants to agrees that assault rifles don't belong in the hunting woods. Not that I think there should be law against people hunting with them but I think I feel the sentiment he was after. I would rather carry my 50+ year old bolt action rifle hunting deer than my new AR-15.
It is clear Mr Zumbo has made a big mistake and it seems also clear to me that he has apologized for it. I do not think the apology should let him off without consequences, not by a long shot but the savage comments are not helping either. His comment have already done damage by being twisted and used one one or more anti-gun groups. At the same time I do think he need to be given a chance to make amends. In his apology he claims to want to do just that and I think he should be give a chance, watched very closely, but certainly given a change to fix his mess.
I am dismayed at the way the gun community in large part turned on him so brutally. It's one think to chastise him for his erroneous and offensive comments but what has happened to Mr Zumbo seem to go well beyond what is appropriate. It seems many have written him off as an unrepentant traitor and have no intention to give him a second chance. As far as I know this is his first "anti-gun" remarks but many want to excommunicate him from the hunting/shooting community as if he was Sara Brady's new right-hand man.
The whole thing looks very bad and I fear that the gun community's response to Mr Zumbo's comments may actually do more damage than Mr. Zumbo original comments. What a sorry ugly mess.
ETA: Sorry guys the two above links got killed, in fact it seems Mr Zumbo entire blog got pulled. I will see if I can find the text and add it.
ETA2: Found the text for the orginal blog enty
Assault Rifles For Hunters?
As I write this, I'm hunting coyotes in southeastern Wyoming with Eddie Stevenson, PR Manager for Remington Arms, Greg Dennison, who is senior research engineer for Remington, and several writers. We're testing Remington's brand new .17 cal Spitfire bullet on coyotes.
I must be living in a vacuum. The guides on our hunt tell me that the use of AR and AK rifles have a rapidly growing following among hunters, especially prairie dog hunters. I had no clue. Only once in my life have I ever seen anyone using one of these firearms.
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."
This really has me concerned. As hunters, we don't need the image of walking around the woods carrying one of these weapons. To most of the public, an assault rifle is a terrifying thing. Let's divorce ourselves from them. I say game departments should ban them from the praries and woods.
ETA3: Found his apology
I was wrong, BIG TIME
Someone once said that to err is human. I just erred, and made without question, the biggest blunder in my 42 years of writing hunting articles.
My blog inflamed legions of people I love most..... hunters and shooters. Obviously, when I wrote that blog, I activated my mouth before engaging my brain.
Let me explain the circumstances surrounding that blog. I was hunting coyotes, and after the hunt was over and being beat up by 60 mph winds all day, I was discussing hunting with one of the young guides. I was tired and exhausted, and I should have gone to bed early. When the guide told me that there was a "huge" following of hunters who use AR 15's and similar weapons to hunt prairies dogs, I was amazed. At that point I wrote the blog, and never thought it through.
Now then, you might not believe what I have to say, but I hope you do. How is it that Zumbo, who has been hunting for more than 50 years, is totally ignorant about these types of guns. I don't know. I shot one once at a target last year, and thought it was cool, but I never considered using one for hunting. I had absolutely no idea how vast the numbers of folks are who use them.
I never intended to be devisive, and I certainly believe in United we Stand, Divided we Fall. I've been an NRA member for 40 years, have attended 8 national NRA conventions in the last 10 years, and I'm an advisory board member for the United States Sportsmen's Alliance which actively fights anti-hunters and animal rights groups for hunter's rights.
What really bothers me are some of the unpatriotic comments leveled at me. I fly the flag 365 days a year in my front yard. Last year, through an essay contest, I hosted a soldier wounded in Iraq to a free hunt in Botswana. This year, through another essay contest, I'm taking two more soldiers on a free moose and elk hunt.
When I started blogging, I was told to write my thoughts, expressing my own opinion. The offensive blog I wrote was MY opinion, and no one else's. None of the companies that I deal with share that opinion, nor were they aware of what I had written until this firestorm started.
Believe it or not, I'm your best friend if you're a hunter or shooter, though it might not seem that way. I simply screwed up. And, to show that I'm sincere about this, I just talked to Ted Nugent, who everyone knows, and is a Board member of the NRA. Ted is extremely active with charities concerning our wounded military, and though he's known as a bowhunter, Ted has no problem with AR 15's and similar firearms. My sincerity stems from the fact that Ted and I are planning a hunt using AR 15's. I intend to learn all I can about them, and again, I'm sorry for inserting my foot in my mouth.