doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Zumbo's comments

You know these constitutional gymnastics happen this time of year. Once they get it out of their system, we'll all feel much better.

I see MSN now has a article, written by Blaine Hardin of the Washington Post on the Zumbo debacle!

Posted on Sun, Feb. 25, 2007
Critics taking aim at famous hunter
By BLAINE HARDEN
The Washington Post

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 nationwide 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.

"Excuse me, maybe I'm a traditionalist, but I see no place for these weapons among our hunting fraternity," Zumbo wrote in his blog on the Outdoor Life Web site Feb 16. The posting has since been taken down. "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."

The reaction -- from tens of thousands of owners of assault rifles nationwide, from media and manufacturers rooted in the gun business and from the National Rifle Association -- has been swift, severe and unforgiving. Despite a profuse public apology and a vow to go hunting soon with an assault weapon, Zumbo's career appears to be over.

His top-rated weekly TV program on the Outdoor Channel, his longtime career with Outdoor Life magazine and his corporate ties to the biggest names in gun making, including Remington Arms Co., have been terminated or are on the ropes.

The NRA on Thursday pointed to the collapse of Zumbo's career as an example of what can happen to anyone, including a "fellow gun owner," who challenges the right of Americans to own or hunt with assault-style firearms.

From his home near Cody, Wyo., Zumbo declined repeated telephone requests for comment.

"Jim is a good guy, and I feel bad about this unfortunate situation," said Todd W. Smith, Outdoor Life's editor in chief.

Blaine Harden's article was printed in yesterday's Washington Post, page 3, with a picture of Zumbo with a large dead bear. As with anything that "makes" the Post, it conveys the idea that NRA and its members are heavy handed in their outrage. However, even the anti-gunners on this site have to admit that firing or discontinuing requested services from a contractor or employee that can no longer make your company money is a common phenomenon in the business world. I doubt that any lawsuit brought by Zumbo against Outdoor Life or anyone else would get past the parking lot of the court house. As in the real world, the antis on this forum do not present a very good case for taking our guns away. If our antis think that Zumbo has not provided well for his retirement, send him a check. I'm sure his 401K looks a lot better than mine.

The issue broadly comes down to security on one side and freedom, liberty and justice on the other. On the same day Ms Rice was in Canada last week on that shadowy "partnership" arrangement between US, Mexico and Canada, our Supreme Court ruled, in effect, that there is no security without freedom. Canada won't lock up suspected terrorists forever without some process that allows a hearing of the evidence against them, which exists in Great Britain. Terrorism will be handled as the crime it is.

All here know that that this can't be conjugated easily, in the same way as Americans---as I understand from their carefully measured comments here about the US Constitution and the Bill, national and state rights etc---grapple with security and freedom issues involving their domestic and national interests. But the essence of the SCOC ruling, applauded by the country, was that Canada will not lose itself through fear.

Risk is our abiding companion. Nothing is safe and nothing is certain. Canada has sacrificed mightily to empire. British and Canadian casualties in the single battle at Passchendaele in 1917 were greater than all US losses in both world wars. Liberal is not a despised word in Canada. A conservative government presides. A strong country's only fear, as FDR said, is fear itself.

Friends may talk candidly to friends. Canada's friendship and trade relations with the US is the envy of the world. We are the country's biggest energy supplier. A billion trade dollars crosses our border every day. "Foreigner" is not in the Canadian lexicon for "American." A cultural difference may be a finely tuned antennae to fearmongering on domestic (i.e. gun laws) and national (i.e. security) issues. It's puzzling to me to read of American concerns of eroding liberty in a country that is so uniquely secure.

Joe - What makes you think no one but you read what Zumbo said? This conversation happened to go beyond his ill-begotten statement. By the way, he has no "freedom of speech" grounds to sue his employer. He can write or say anything he wants, and they can edit his writing or fire him because they own the magazine and can publish or not publish whatever they want.

Jakearo,
Did I call someone a name? What was that name?

Hey, I'm deeply worried about jOe's health. The likelyhood of a breakdown in society is pretty slim, but, the same can't be said of his chances of a grand mal coronary event. The prodding might get him to a healthier lifestyle, and maybe a personal trainer, and a 38" or so waist trouser, which might keep him in the hunt a bit longer.


Nobody wants to be the poster boy for that.

You know, he is deeply worried about the guns I own and all, and whether they fit his criteria of "hunting guns". So I'm just returning a favor, that's all.
Best,
Ted

Once again-Aw rats, Mr. Zumbro.
Best,
Ted

Thanks King for your last reply. We allow too many of our leaders from both parties to play upon our fears. They call it "energizing the base." Our leaders have tried to reduce government to catchy slogans and spin such as "Mission Accomplished," and "Stay the Course," and now a "New Way Forward." We allow ourselves to be led like sheep as policticans play to our basest fears. I have quoted the current administration here for the sake of convienence, but I do realize that both parties are equally culpable.

I hold dearly our rights and freedoms as an American as I can see all of us on this site do. We keep refering back to the Constitution and of course, the 2nd Amendment. What strikes me so much about this document is how much thought and consideration went into every word. What we know about the deliberations in Philadelphia and afterword reveal much candid discussion and debate, but no appealing to energize the base out of fear.

I can say without a doubt, that no one on this site is an "anti," when it comes to our 2nd Amendment rights. We do not need any more polarization on any issue. We all love our freedoms and cherish where we live. We have far more in common than we do not.

Best,

Ed Pirie
West Topsham, Vermont

Who cares what Zumbo said. He paid for it which means no one else in the industry will electrocute himself on this fence for awhile. I'm more interested in what HR-1022 says and what the NRA says it says.

jack