Outdoor Life's Jim Zumbo comes out of the closet

[Derby FALs]

He is taking a serious reaming on the Ourdoor Life blog...

http://outdoorlife.blogs.com/zumbo/2007/02/assault_rifles_.html

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.   

[Ben]

That's a shame to see. In recent years, Outdoor Life has been the outdoor magazine most sensitive of the right to own firearms, not just to hunt with them. Maybe he should move to Field & Stream -- those guys are always talking about banning stuff.

[Manedwolf]

My reply to him in concise terms could be summed up as "STFU, GTFO".

In less concise terms, it'd be unprintable here, and include profanity in likely several languages. 

BTW, someone needs to show this guy Teddy Kennedy's condemnation of the 30-30 round as a "cop killer" and claims that it should be banned. Or the very fact that to anti legislators, bolt-action hunting rifle = sniper rifle.

This sort does MUCH more damage to the cause than the whining anti's.

I'll go so far as to call them "terrorist" rifles.

So he's calling currently serving soldiers in Iraq "terrorists", then? Or myself, since I own a custom-built AK for fun and as a way to defend family and friends if a natural disaster occurs? This guy needs to go work for the Brady people instead!

[DJJ]

Didn't they try to ban scopes (no one "needs" a sniper weapon to hunt) after the UT Austin incident? Maybe someone should point that out to him.

[grislyatoms]

Looks like his readers are ripping him a new one. Good. He deserves it.

I can hear the Brady Bunch now:

"World renowned hunter denounces 'assault weapons'"

Thanks for giving the antis more to use against us. Idiot.

[Manedwolf]

Looks like his readers are ripping him a new one. Good. He deserves it.

Former readers. Either Outdoor Life drops his column, or they're going to lose half their subscriptions, looks like. Hopefully cancel the show, too, lest he express the same sentiments on the air...or appear with Sarah Brady, who knows?
If I were in their boardroom, the choice between profit margins tanking and axing one apparently senile Fudd writer would be pretty easy.

Remington should drop their association as well, or it's going to bite them in the a$$ financially.

[RevDisk]

With friends like this, who needs enemies?

In my mind, he's worse than the Brady Campaign.  They are honest in their dishonesty.  They are very forward with their totalitarian ideology.   He is stabbing us, and himself, in the back.  If one is a subscriber to Outdoor Life, I'd recommend writing the editor.  Editors are not stupid, contrary to popular belief.  Especially when it comes to money.  If they feel that they'll lose a significant source of revenue, they'll drop this guy like a ton of bricks.

[El Tejon]

The flabby flannels are no friends of freedom.

[Gewehr98]

Bogie posted a good reply.

Hey, if an AR-15 is an assault rifle and used by terrorists, then what about the M14/M1A, M1 Garand, M1903 Springfield, and M1898 Krag?   

[Manedwolf]

Bogie posted a good reply.

Hey, if an AR-15 is an assault rifle and used by terrorists, then what about the M14/M1A, M1 Garand, M1903 Springfield, and M1898 Krag?   

If you're going for just association rather than action, don't forget the sporterized K-98s. Weren't K-98's used by (gasp) NAZIS to kill thousands of Americans' relatives? 

[Gewehr98]

Yes, they were all such evil implements, just ready to jump out of their racks and commit fratricide all by themselves.  Then they were prettied-up and sold as the Winchester Model 70 and Ruger Model 77 to wanna-be terrorists in these United States...

Wonder if Mr. Zumbo would care to partake of the venison I have in my freezer courtesy of a Bulgarian SLR-95 AK variant? 

[The Rabbi]

You're such a terrorist, Gewehr. 

[280plus]

You're such a terrorist, Gewehr.

Yea, I heard the deer are convening a group of their brightest minds to study the problem and present a report.

[Ron]

Posted by Tom Gresham from GunTalk on THR at 12:45

FYI, Jim knows nothing about this controversy. He has been on a hunt, and gets home in about an hour. I don't know when he wrote that piece, but he has not been on the internet for several days. I just talked with his wife a few minutes ago.

Jim **might** be joining me on the radio show, live, in a couple of hours. I wouldn't blame him if he decided to not do that, since he needs to get up to speed on this.

Jim is a long-time friend. He has always said he is not a gun guy, but a hunter. He knows hunting, but not guns or the gun rights issues or sensitivities.

[280plus]

I'd say he be learning soon... 

[Derby FALs]

Jim is a long-time friend. He has always said he is not a gun guy, but a hunter. He knows hunting, but not guns or the gun rights issues or sensitivities.

That's an understatement. 

[Fly320s]

Here, fixed it for him.  Bold is mine.

Sniper 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 bolt-action and single-shot 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 "sniper" 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 sniper 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 sniper 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 sniper rifle is a terrifying thing. Let's divorce ourselves from them. I say game departments should ban them from the praries and woods.   

[Perd Hapley]

ARs aren't terrorist weapons.  They're just cheesy little poodle-shooters. 

[Gewehr98]

He's posted an apology on the blog now.

http://outdoorlife.blogs.com/zumbo/2007/02/i_was_wrong_big.html#comment-60860718

So does that mean we're no longer terrorists, Jim? 

[SteveS]

I can't add much that hasn't already been said about this article.  One thing that did stand out was that he admitted only seeing ONE person hunting with a "terrorist" rifle and that a few guides told him that this was becomng more popular.  He doesn't cite anything that shows that this is a problem, other than he doesn't like how it looks.  

Every so often, I have to defend hunters on gun boards by saying that most are not supporters of the abridged Constitution (now with 40% less freedom) where the 2nd amendment only applies to sporting arms.  After stuff like this, I can understand why many gun owners look down on hunters, which is very short-sighted on the part of the hunters.  There are millions more gun owners than hunters and with the erosion of hunting opportunities, hunters can use all the support they can get.

Depending on how Dumbo and OL handle this, I may be cancelling my subscription.  The last Field & Stream had an article on hunting with a .50 and one on the AK about 9 months ago.  They have been pro-gun in the time that I have been reading them.

[Harold Tuttle]

[grislyatoms]

I find his apology almost as insulting as his original comments.

[CAnnoneer]

Some hunters are perfectly happy to sacrifice the rest of us, including black-riflemen and pistoleers, so long as they get to keep what matters to them - shotguns or bolt-actions. Divide and conquer.

Btw, just wait and see how much howling will happen in the media when the new sniper movie comes out. "scoped-rifle = assassin".

[SteveS]

Some hunters are perfectly happy to sacrifice the rest of us, including black-riflemen and pistoleers, so long as they get to keep what matters to them - shotguns or bolt-actions. Divide and conquer.

Btw, just wait and see how much howling will happen in the media when the new sniper movie comes out. "scoped-rifle = assassin".

Excellent point.  Most of the anti's are hoping to eventually get rid of private gun ownership and are happy to do it gradually.  It is not just hunters.  I have heard plenty of other gun owners say that they are fine with a machine gun ban or making them very difficult to get. 

[Sylvilagus Aquaticus]

I find his apology almost as insulting as his original comments.

I do too.
He's invoking the Nuge to help pull his carcass out from under his own bus.
He sure seemed earnest in his opinions when we published them originally, and he seems to eager too eat crow to be truly sincere, in my estimation.

Regards,
Rabbit