Gun Remark Kills Outdoorsman's Career (WP)

The Washington Post ^ | 24 FEB 07 | Blaine Harden

[xsrdx]

SEATTLE - Modern hunters rarely become more famous than Jim Zumbo. A mustachioed, barrel-chested outdoors entrepreneur who lives in a log cabin near Yellowstone National Park, he has spent much of his life writing for prominent outdoors magazines, delivering lectures across the country and starring in cable TV shows about big-game hunting in the West.

Zumbo's fame, however, has turned to black-bordered infamy within America's gun culture -- and his multimedia success has come undone. It all happened in the past week, after he publicly criticized the use of military-style assault rifles by hunters, especially those gunning for prairie dogs.

[BallyBill]

"America's gun culture" they use that phrase like guns are just something Americans treat like Baseball. You don't have to even own a gun to understand that there wouldn't be an America without guns.

[flashbunny]

The brady bunch used his comments as fodder almost the next day.

There was no apology until his meal ticket was in trouble.

When he apologized, it was less than half hearted. It was barely quarter hearted.

Too bad for zumbo.

[okie01]

Huh?????

The "reporter's" opinion. Nothing more.

Except that it reveals how pitifully ignorant Blaine Harden is.

[holymoly]

Hunting prairie dogs with assault weapons?

FYI Semi-automatic rifles ("assault weapon" is a propaganda term), fire one round (bullet), and one round only, with each pull of the trigger. Just like a bolt-action or lever-action rifle.

How is that a sport?

How is it NOT sport?

It is no easier to hit a target with a semi-automatic rifle, than it is with a bolt-action or lever-action rifle.

[Oztrich Boy]

They do not want American gun owners to make a distinction between assault weapons and traditional hunting guns such as shotguns and rifles.

What is the distinction between a traditional hunting rifle, and a Sports Utility Rifle - aka terrorist rifle (both semi-auto, chambered for .223 Remington) ?

[DTogo]

It all happened in the past week, after he publicly criticized the use of military-style assault rifles by hunters, especially those gunning for prairie dogs.

Getting a buck with an open-sight SKS is far more "sport" than with some "magnum" shell through a high-powered scope.

[AnAmericanMother]

Define "assault weapon".

< crickets >

[WorkingClassFilth]

...it amazes me how vicious we on the right become when someone steps off the reservation for even one split second.

Shut up! Go to hell! You are a traitor and your tongue should be cut out!

Aren't you glad that the 1st Amendment is understood here on FR and people are zealous in it's defense? Maybe the clarity of 2A defenders is justified...

[Pro-Bush]

Big mistake!

[Thumper1960]

For someone who had such a long association with firearms and who has had the ability to write clearly and with passion to associate 'scarey looking firearms' with select fire automatic weapons used by terrorists and infer the term terrorist when writing of American hunters, I expect no failings.

Period.

In the world we live in, today, I demand of others the same attention to principle I adhere to. He may have been tired when he wrote what he did. That is no excuse. That his fatigue would allow his subconscious to put into words what he had in his head reveals much of the man. There was/is a grain of himself in the blog despite his furious backpedaling.

If he's truly appalled at what he wrote, he can make amends. His trip back into the fold will be long and arduous. As well it should be. If he's unwilling to make the trip, that will be telling, as well.

[freeplancer]

Correcting your ignorance is not a sport either.

[dfwgator]

At the time of the first AWB, in 1994:

I thought the first AWB was around 1974.

[George W. Bush]

Shot across Congress’ bow

In announcing that it was suspending its professional ties with Zumbo, the NRA -- a well-financed gun lobby that for decades has fought attempts to regulate assault weapons -- noted that the new Congress should pay careful attention to the outdoors writer's fate.

"Our folks fully understand that their rights are at stake," the NRA statement said. It warned that the "grassroots" passion that brought down Zumbo shows that millions of people would "resist with an immense singular political will any attempts to create a new ban on semi-automatic firearms."

The day of reckoning for The Rudy and McStain is nearing.

The NRA and GOA are coldly awaiting their moment. And it will be bloody.

[billorites]

I'm an NRA member and a Republican. I've been both for at least 25 years, cumulative.

The NRA has always been the stupid wing of the stupid party.

[WorkingClassFilth]

What do you know of either guns or prairie dog hunting?

[tcostell]

LOL

[DJ Taylor]

"As hunters, we don't need to be lumped into the group of people who terrorize the world with them. . . . I'll go so far as to call them 'terrorist' rifles."

Zumbo just found out the hard way that around here you don't bad mouth a man's rifle or his pick up truck, and, by the way, you need to be somewhat careful what you say about his wife too.

[1COUNTER-MORTER-68]

And this is Ted Nugent's post to the people coming down on Zumbo at Nugents Blog...
...if you don't accept his apology, get the hell away from my campfire..."

A sad day it is...
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Great Catch,,,
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
DEER TED,,,Done !!...

Dumbo~Zumbo shot himself in the foot and got his Butt
"Nailed To The Barn" for his remarks...

GIT~SOME !!!

Breath~N~Squeeze...;0)

[Poison Pill]

"it amazes me how vicious we on the right become when someone steps off the reservation for even one split second."

We've seen what being "reasonable" gets you.

When the anti-smoking thing started up the smokers we're told "hey, all we want is a small part of the plane where you can't smoke". Oh gee, everybody thought that was reasonable. And it was. 15-20 years later entire cities have banned smoking and some states are looking to follow.

In a perfect world Zumbo's punishment would have been less than what he got. But the crap he spewed is what the banner live for and will use without mercy. And once the banners get going, reason goes right out the Fing window.

[tarheelswamprat]

What Zumbo said was stupid and wrong but it amazes me how vicious we on the right become when someone steps off the reservation for even one split second. We attack like a pack of jackels and that person is, from that point on, dead to us. Zumbo isn't the only one this has happened to, just the latest.

With respect, Russ, that is absolute nonsense.

Zumbo didn't just "step off the reservation for even one split second" and then try to get back on. He arrogantly proclaimed that HE was in charge of the reservation and told a huge segment of the law-abiding gun owners of America that they were the ones who didn't know where they were nor what they were talking about. His so-called apology did not in any way address this issue. Worse than that, he stupidly gave enormous "aid and comfort" to the mortal enemies of the Constitution and the Bill of Rights.