Zumbo Undoing = Officially National News Story

[Cosmoline]

The story is now making the rounds in larger news sources. What amazes me is how fixated these guys are on the NRA. Check this out:

News Item: Outdoorsman TV host Jim Zumbo comments on semi- automatic assault rifles, calling them "terrorist weapons" and saying, "Maybe I'm a traditionalist, but I see no place for these weapons among our hunting fraternity."
News Item: National Rifle Association coordinates "grass-roots response" to Zumbo's remark.

News Item: Zumbo loses his weekly TV program on the Outdoor Channel and is forced to resign from Outdoor Life magazine.

Remember: The NRA makes its bucks off the Second Amendment.

http://www.suntimes.com/news/quicktakes/272976,CST-NWS-qt26.article

Having made an example of Zumbo, the NRA lost no time in telling Congress You're Next if it attempts "to create a new ban on semi-automatic firearms." As if Congress lives off Mossy Oak, Cabela's and Viagra ads like commerical media. Or 5,000 angry emails would sway an election.

http://www.opednews.com/articles/genera_martha_r_070225_enjoy_the_hillary_2fob.htm

Now I was here when it happened. We all were. It was a during long weekend. Nobody from the NRA said bupkus. Indeed I think their response came well after Remington's. There was no secret email going out to members instructing them to get Zumbo.

They're determined to paint us as some sort of robot army of the NRA, which is so wrong as to be hilarious. They had nothing to do with anything.

 

[Wayne02]

Words mean nothing, action means everything. The next headline I want to see on this subject should read something like this:

"Hunting writer Jim Zumbo in Washington today testifying at the state capital for a complete defeat of Assault weapons ban HR1022".

 

[arthurcw]

What amazes me is how fixated these guys are on the NRA.

It’s just the media trying to understand the world through the prism they’ve created for themselves. “Gun? Guns mean NRA? Ok… The NRA did this. Well, who takes them seriously? They are just a bunch of inbred drunk yahoos who have tobacco juice on their wife beaters and pray to the shrine of Charlton Heston. No one takes them seriously. Glad we figured this all out. *flush* Next story.”

And you know what, I think I’m OK with that.

1) Everybody DOESN’T know that inside the beltway. If this gives the NRA a larger cache in twisting the arm of a few of the new “pro gun” Democrats *coughBScough* into actually, maybe, living up to some campaign rhetoric. Good.

2)If Gun Haters totally misread this and attribute it totally to the NRA, they will be looking the wrong direction if we get our collective panties in a wad again. Reminds me of that Clouseau bit:

Gun Haters: “Doez you’re doog bite?”
NRA: “No.”
Gun Haters: “Nice Doogie.”
Citizen Gun Owners: CHOMP!
Gun Haters: “I thought you said your doog deed not bite!”
NRA: “That’s not my dog.”

 

[SteveS]

And I'm unhappy with just under 200,000 copies in print of my stuff. I'm small time. Need a few hundred thousand more.

Don't blame me, I've bought two of your books and will probably keep getting them, unless I start seeing a bunch of fat, lazy, bad-shot hunters in your books.

 

[Jmeyer1292]

I know I'll be ripped to shreds for posting this, but:

Whether or not one agrees or disagrees with anything in this article or any of Zumbo's comments, it can not be said that the gun owners I've seen on world wide web have not attacked Zumbo pretty much without mercy. I had never heard of the man before this incident, but I find it amazing the degree of hate which has been expressed. From wishes that he'll "go to hell" (with Anna Nicole Smith, no less) to all manner of "holier than thou" attitudes.

I can respect reasoned arguments because I am, after all, an owner of 'assault weapons'. What I can not respect is the ignorance and blind antagonism in some of the posts.

And as for the article, I think you're looking for things to get riled up about. Yes, the many crusaders against anti-guns moved faster than the NRA, but the NRA is the face of the anti-gun movement because it is the 800lb gorilla. I also think that there IS a gap between 'assault weapon' owners and many hunters. And yes, the word 'assault-weapon' is thrown around a lot in the article, but ultimately it's our job to educate people in a respectful manner about the insignificant differences between these weapons without ripping them to shreds, creating a new enemy and making ourselves seem ignorant.

If anyone sees this as a troll post, well... :banghead:

 

[bogie]

Hey, for once I agree with something that someone with fewer than a hundred posts says...

We need to unite, instead of snacking on our own.

 

[HonorsDaddy]

Bogie...

Traitors are treated more harshly than the enemy for a very good reason.

 

[AndyC]

What I've learned from this:

Merely owning a rifle doesn't make anyone automatically "one of our own".

Someone who stands up for everyone else's 2A rights, regardless of what firearm they own, is "one of our own".

Zumbo never was "one of our own".

 

[MudPuppy]

We need to unite, instead of snacking on our own.

I agree completely. I don't, however, think Zumbo is one of our own anymore than the duck hunter Kerry was.

Zumbo may be turning it around, but that needs to be between him and his own convictions. Indeed, lets stand united. United against anyone who would ignore the BOR or twist it to their own desires.

Why hasn't he updated his site to promote the values of the 2nd? http://www.jimzumbo.com/index.html

 

[bogie]

Because he's probably internet-savvy enough to call his webgeek, who likely has already decided not to return any phone calls, because he's also working for _other_ people...

He's started to learn. That's enough for me.

It isn't perfect, but it's a start.

 

[Aguila Blanca]

I just kind of wonder. How many people out there are mad that crazy gun-nuts got their favorite hunting writer fired?

Why be mad?

Zumbo certainly wasn't my favorite hunting writer. In fact, I dislike all hunting writing. It's a waste (IMHO, of course) of paper and ink. If I want to look at photos of dead animals, I'll go to the news stand and buy a copy of Dead Animal Monthly. I buy gun magazines to read about and look at pictures of guns, not dead animals.

Accordingly, the man's fall from grace disturbs me not one iota. By spouting off his inner belief that "hunters" are somehow different from "gun nuts," he verbally assaulted/insulted me. I don't own a single firearm for the purpose of hunting (although a couple could be used for that). My sadly small collection of firearms are virtually all essentially military-pattern rifles or handguns, (mostly examples of obsolete technology) whose primary purpose is killing people. That's why I own them. I use them to punch lots of holes in defenseless pieces of paper, but I do that only to maintain proficiency in a skill I hope never to use -- shooting another human being in defense of myself or a member of my family, or perhaps even an innocent third party.

Anyone who thinks that defines me as a terrorist deserves to rot in literary limbo for a lot longer than Mr. Zumbo has left to live on this planet.

 

[Hardtarget]

I think Waiteone in post #19 said it right. We need to politically destroy the most vocal political "persona" that we can. Then pick another one. There needs to be a real shake up of the whole system/process. Its past time.
Mark.

 

[js]

Anyone who thinks that defines me as a terrorist deserves to rot in literary limbo for a lot longer than Mr. Zumbo has left to live on this planet.

+1

Well said...

 

[Travis McGee]

Aquila Blanca sed:

"I don't own a single firearm for the purpose of hunting (although a couple could be used for that). My sadly small collection of firearms are virtually all essentially military-pattern rifles or handguns, (mostly examples of obsolete technology) whose primary purpose is killing people. That's why I own them. I use them to punch lots of holes in defenseless pieces of paper, but I do that only to maintain proficiency in a skill I hope never to use -- shooting another human being in defense of myself or a member of my family, or perhaps even an innocent third party."

Well said, white eagle. Well said.

 

[Eleven Mike]

jmeyer, welcome to the internet. Zumbo has received no worse treatment than anyone else who said something controversial. I've had the same treatment myself. It's unfortunate, but monotously predictable.

 

[Dr. Dickie]

What amazes me is how fixated these guys are on the NRA.

Yea, I got my marching orders for the GOA!
It really goes to show you how they think. They would need somebody to tell them what to think, so they figure everyone else does as well. When they see a large group of individual minded folks all coming to the same conclusion, they figure there must be a mastermind behind the curtain. They are natural followers, they look at a group of leaders like a dog looks at television!