OK, now for the OTHER rattlesnake in Seattle's take: When shooters fight, Bradies win. I'm not ready to trust Mr. Zumbo yet, but I am willing to give him a chance to prove his "conversion" to the "2A Gospel."
I once thought as he did before. After a couple years, I saw the light and now am solidly in the "any gun-anytime-anywhere" camp. Are you going to call for a "FIRE MISSION" against ME, too? Go ahead--I haven't used my fangs in a while, they could probably use the exercise...
This thread is certainly not very "High Road" so far. Bogie & Co., round of applause to y'all for trying to drag it back in.
For the rest of you who are actually THINKING, I've drafted a note I'm thinking of sending on this, and I'd like some advice on tone and wordsmithing:
[sender/recipient block here]
Mr. Luth, I believe some key tactical factors are being overlooked in your debate about retaining Ted Nugent.
First, if the people who've been sieging you with "Ditch the Nuge" emails are truly Militant Hoplophobes (commonly known as "anti-gunners"), there is nothing you can possibly do to appease them. They want you out of business, plain and simple, will stop at nothing to achieve that goal, and will take chunks out of you at every opportunity to weaken you in preparation for the Big Push. Them trying to say "Get Rid of Nugent or We Won't Buy From You" is something straight out of Monty Python: "Stop! Or I'll Yell 'Stop!' Again!" Or, in this case: "Dump Nuge or we won't buy anything from you! Oh wait, we don't buy anything from you anyway..."
Let me point out for the record that I am not a Nuge fan, I am certainly not one of the "BloodBrothers" from NugeBoard. Nor am I really a Black Rifle fan; being a WWII-history aficionado, I'd much rather have a Garand or M1 Carbine. (Although I do plan to have a couple AR-type irons around just in case...) What I am is an analyst, historian, tactician and sometime psychology student who has been watching the Jim Zumbo/Ted Nugent "Black Rifles vs. 'Traditional Sporting Arms'" situation develop with great concern. It strikes me that we're observing a school of sharks with blood in the water on both sides, from the more extreme members of the AR community, as well as the fanatical "traditionalists." Nuge is trying to help Mr. Zumbo and a lot of other people get out of the water and focus on the real problem, and certain elements at both AR15.com and various hunting-community sites are only having the effect, perhaps intentionally so, of just dumping blood and chum by the oil-tanker-load into these shark-infested waters. (Part of me wonders if some of these people aren't Militant Hoplophobes acting as classic agents provocateur.)
With HR 1022 proposing to (if not totally, very close to it) end your business in the non-government firearms market, right now the arms industry needs all the friends it can get.
Mr. Zumbo has now taken a position strongly supporting ALL firearms rights with a proclaimed zeal to rival the religiously converted. He might even, in tandem with Nugent, represent a unique opportunity for a marketing campaign: "Think AR's aren't for hunting? THINK AGAIN", or something like that, or maybe an Oleg Volk-style juxtaposition of a fully-geared-up AR on one side and a scoped deer rifle on the other with a caption like "These Today. And These Tomorrow. A Threat To One Gunowner's Rights Is A Threat To All."
When "Traditional Hunters" and "Black Rifle Guys", indeed when ANY two factions within the arms community go to war with each other, the Militant Hoplophobes ae the only winners. Everybody else loses, it's just a question of when. Consider these words from German "enemy of the Reich" and concentration-camp survivor Martin Niemoeller:
First they came for the communists, and I did not speak out--
because I was not a communist;
Then they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out--
because I was not a socialist;
Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out--
because I was not a trade unionist;
Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out--
because I was not a Jew;
Then they came for me--
and there was no one left to speak out for me.
If we only change those words by replacing groups of people with groups of arms, we can see exactly where the Militant Hoplophobes intend to go and how they intend to do it. Ted Nugent may be colorful, perhaps sometimes a little too much so, but he's like George Patton: a pain in the neck at times, but definitely someone you want on your side when there's a tough fight ahead.
I cannot guarantee I will ever buy an AR, nor that any I buy will be from you, but I can guarantee one thing for certain: If you throw Ted Nugent to the wolves and I ever buy an AR, it will not be a DPMS. Under this scenario, even if I don't enter the AR market, I would advise friends and clients of mine who ARE to not do business with you.
However, if you decide against the "fair-weather friend" path, I can also guarantee that you will still have a chance for my business, perhaps even a better probability for it. Along with my recommendation to said AR-aficionado friends and clients that "DPMS Panther Arms is a friend of the Second Amendment community."
Do the math, sir:
Option "Ditch." Militant Hoplophobe: not buying from you. Me/mine: not buying from you. Net sales: ZERO, perhaps even some loss of possible sales.
Option "No-Ditch." MH: not buying from you. Me/mine: still a good chance of a sale. Net sales: none guaranteed, but still possibility of several.
Bottom Line: A chance at something beats a guarantee of nothing, right?
Sincerely,
REDACTED
"Diamondback6" at TheHighRoad.Org
"Diamondback" at AmBackForum.com
This, I think, is how threatening the wallet is DONE.