Gun remark makes outdoorsman an outcast
Vedderlution_Baby
Posts: 2,535
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/17307316/
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.
"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. The Feb. 16 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."
Story continues below ↓ advertisement
Squarely in the crosshairs
The reaction -- from tens of thousands of owners of assault rifles across the country, 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.
• More U.S. news
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 gunmaking, 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. He is a 40-year NRA member and has appeared with NRA officials in 70 cities, according to his Web site.
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."
Some outdoors writers drew a different lesson from Zumbo's horrible week.
"This shows the zealousness of gun owners to the point of actual foolishness," said Pat Wray, a freelance outdoors writer in Corvallis, Ore., and author of "A Chukar Hunter's Companion."
Wray said that what happened to Zumbo is a case study in how the NRA has trained members to attack their perceived enemies without mercy.
"For so many years, Zumbo has been a voice for these people -- for hunting and for guns -- and they just turned on him in an instant," Wray said. "He apologized all over himself, and it didn't do any good."
CONTINUED
Circling the wagons
Zumbo's fall highlights a fundamental concern of the NRA and many champions of military-style firearms, according to people who follow the organization closely. They do not want American gun owners to make a distinction between assault weapons and traditional hunting guns such as shotguns and rifles. If they did, a rift could emerge between hunters, who tend to have the most money for political contributions to gun rights causes, and assault-weapon owners, who tend to have lots of passion but less cash.
The NRA appeared to be saying as much in its statement Thursday, when it emphasized that the Zumbo affair shows there is "no chance" that a "divide and conquer propaganda strategy" could ever succeed.
"Jim Zumbo Outdoors" was not broadcast as scheduled last week on the Outdoor Channel and will not air next week, said Mike Hiles, a spokesman for the channel. He said sponsors have requested that they be removed from the program. The show "will be in hiatus for an undetermined period of time," he said.
Story continues below ↓ advertisement
Zumbo's long career at Outdoor Life, which is owned by Time Inc., also came to a sudden end in the past week. Zumbo was hunting editor of the magazine, which is the nation's second-largest outdoors publication. He wrote his first story for Outdoor Life in 1962.
‘Living in very delicate times’
The magazine's editor in chief, Todd W. Smith, said that Zumbo submitted his resignation after hearing of the large number of readers (about 6,000, at last count) who had sent e-mails demanding his dismissal. Smith dismissed as "conjecture" a question about whether Zumbo would have been fired had he not resigned.
"Jim is a good guy, and I feel bad about this unfortunate situation," Smith said. "We are living in very delicate times. For someone to call these firearms 'terrorist' rifles, that is a flash-point word. You are painting a bunch of enthusiasts with the word. They don't like being called terrorists."
When he wrote his now-notorious blog entry, Zumbo was on a coyote hunt in Wyoming sponsored by Remington, a detail he noted in the entry.
That mention -- as it bounced around in recent days among a number of assault-weapon Web sites -- triggered a call for a boycott of Remington products.
That prompted Remington to issue a news release, saying that it has "severed all sponsorship ties with Mr. Zumbo effective immediately."
Remington chief executive Tommy Millner issued a personal appeal to gun owners who might be thinking about boycotting the company's products: "Rest assured that Remington not only does not support [Zumbo's] view, we totally disagree," Millner said. "I have no explanation for his perspective. I proudly own AR's and support everyone's right to do so!"
Zumbo, in his public apology, said that when he wrote the blog entry that criticized assault rifles, he was at the end of a long day's hunt.
"I was tired and exhausted," he wrote, "and I should have gone to bed early."
© 2007 The Washington Post Company
What do you guys think? Is the ruining of this guy's career uncalled for. I mean, big deal, he doesn't like assualt type weapons. Seems like some people are never happy
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.
"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. The Feb. 16 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."
Story continues below ↓ advertisement
Squarely in the crosshairs
The reaction -- from tens of thousands of owners of assault rifles across the country, 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.
• More U.S. news
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 gunmaking, 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. He is a 40-year NRA member and has appeared with NRA officials in 70 cities, according to his Web site.
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."
Some outdoors writers drew a different lesson from Zumbo's horrible week.
"This shows the zealousness of gun owners to the point of actual foolishness," said Pat Wray, a freelance outdoors writer in Corvallis, Ore., and author of "A Chukar Hunter's Companion."
Wray said that what happened to Zumbo is a case study in how the NRA has trained members to attack their perceived enemies without mercy.
"For so many years, Zumbo has been a voice for these people -- for hunting and for guns -- and they just turned on him in an instant," Wray said. "He apologized all over himself, and it didn't do any good."
CONTINUED
Circling the wagons
Zumbo's fall highlights a fundamental concern of the NRA and many champions of military-style firearms, according to people who follow the organization closely. They do not want American gun owners to make a distinction between assault weapons and traditional hunting guns such as shotguns and rifles. If they did, a rift could emerge between hunters, who tend to have the most money for political contributions to gun rights causes, and assault-weapon owners, who tend to have lots of passion but less cash.
The NRA appeared to be saying as much in its statement Thursday, when it emphasized that the Zumbo affair shows there is "no chance" that a "divide and conquer propaganda strategy" could ever succeed.
"Jim Zumbo Outdoors" was not broadcast as scheduled last week on the Outdoor Channel and will not air next week, said Mike Hiles, a spokesman for the channel. He said sponsors have requested that they be removed from the program. The show "will be in hiatus for an undetermined period of time," he said.
Story continues below ↓ advertisement
Zumbo's long career at Outdoor Life, which is owned by Time Inc., also came to a sudden end in the past week. Zumbo was hunting editor of the magazine, which is the nation's second-largest outdoors publication. He wrote his first story for Outdoor Life in 1962.
‘Living in very delicate times’
The magazine's editor in chief, Todd W. Smith, said that Zumbo submitted his resignation after hearing of the large number of readers (about 6,000, at last count) who had sent e-mails demanding his dismissal. Smith dismissed as "conjecture" a question about whether Zumbo would have been fired had he not resigned.
"Jim is a good guy, and I feel bad about this unfortunate situation," Smith said. "We are living in very delicate times. For someone to call these firearms 'terrorist' rifles, that is a flash-point word. You are painting a bunch of enthusiasts with the word. They don't like being called terrorists."
When he wrote his now-notorious blog entry, Zumbo was on a coyote hunt in Wyoming sponsored by Remington, a detail he noted in the entry.
That mention -- as it bounced around in recent days among a number of assault-weapon Web sites -- triggered a call for a boycott of Remington products.
That prompted Remington to issue a news release, saying that it has "severed all sponsorship ties with Mr. Zumbo effective immediately."
Remington chief executive Tommy Millner issued a personal appeal to gun owners who might be thinking about boycotting the company's products: "Rest assured that Remington not only does not support [Zumbo's] view, we totally disagree," Millner said. "I have no explanation for his perspective. I proudly own AR's and support everyone's right to do so!"
Zumbo, in his public apology, said that when he wrote the blog entry that criticized assault rifles, he was at the end of a long day's hunt.
"I was tired and exhausted," he wrote, "and I should have gone to bed early."
© 2007 The Washington Post Company
What do you guys think? Is the ruining of this guy's career uncalled for. I mean, big deal, he doesn't like assualt type weapons. Seems like some people are never happy
Post edited by Unknown User on
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Comments
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Vedderlution_Baby! wrote:What do you guys think? Is the ruining of this guy's career uncalled for. I mean, big deal, he doesn't like assualt type weapons. Seems like some people are never happy
I guess it is important to know your audience when your living depends on your audience. A number of media people have lost their market share or jobs by making statements that their viewers or sponsors took issue with."I'll use the magic word - let's just shut the fuck up, please." EV, 04/13/080 -
jeffbr wrote:I guess it is important to know your audience when your living depends on your audience. A number of media people have lost their market share or jobs by making statements that their viewers or sponsors took issue with.
Damn man, it'd be nice if we just realized people have different opinions.0 -
Vedderlution_Baby! wrote:Damn man, it'd be nice if we just realized people have different opinions.
I think we do realize that. But if you have a show on Socialist Workers Network (is there one?), and you get on there espousing the virtues of making big bucks ticket scalping, I bet you lose your audience. If you have a gun/hunting show on the Outdoor Network, and start disparaging types of guns/hunters you're going to lose your audience. I guess I don't see the big problem."I'll use the magic word - let's just shut the fuck up, please." EV, 04/13/080 -
jeffbr wrote:I think we do realize that. But if you have a show on Socialist Workers Network (is there one?), and you get on there espousing the virtues of making big bucks ticket scalping, I bet you lose your audience. If you have a gun/hunting show on the Outdoor Network, and start disparaging types of guns/hunters you're going to lose your audience. I guess I don't see the big problem.
I get what you're saying. I just don't get why people turn off the shit instead o setting out to ruin the guy. I mean, I can't stand O'riley so I don't watch him. I don't try to get him off the air.0 -
if he'd avoided using the word terrorist and instead focused on how un-sportsmanlike it is, he might have emerged ok. but he's dealing with a pretty irrational group there so im not surprised they flipped.0
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soulsinging wrote:if he'd avoided using the word terrorist and instead focused on how un-sportsmanlike it is, he might have emerged ok. but he's dealing with a pretty irrational group there so im not surprised they flipped.
Hunters are irrational?"I'll use the magic word - let's just shut the fuck up, please." EV, 04/13/080 -
jeffbr wrote:Hunters are irrational?
no, people that feel they really NEED an assault rifle lest the us government... "take over," or something... are irrational.0 -
soulsinging wrote:no, people that feel they really NEED an assault rifle lest the us government... "take over," or something... are irrational.
Maybe. But people who see "assault rifles" as something they aren't are also irrational. I don't own an "assualt rifle" (quotes because the label is a silly construct of gun banners), but I also don't see them as any more/less dangerous than other rifles. Congress did a study that shows that on 1% - 2% of violent crimes involved "assault rifles". That alone seems to highlight who is irrational about this particular topic."I'll use the magic word - let's just shut the fuck up, please." EV, 04/13/080 -
what classifies a gun as an assault type?0
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Vedderlution_Baby! wrote:what classifies a gun as an assault type?
Semi-automatic
High capacity magazines
scary looking"I'll use the magic word - let's just shut the fuck up, please." EV, 04/13/080 -
jeffbr wrote:Semi-automatic
High capacity magazines
scary looking
is it a high capacity magazine if it holds 30 or more?
I figured the looks have something to do with it. I know I'm not the only one that thinks "AK" when they think assault typer rifle.0 -
Vedderlution_Baby! wrote:is it a high capacity magazine if it holds 30 or more?
I figured the looks have something to do with it. I know I'm not the only one that thinks "AK" when they think assault typer rifle.
The original assault weapons ban covered magazines with a capacity of more than 10 rounds. If course that doesn't stop someone from carrying extra magazines."I'll use the magic word - let's just shut the fuck up, please." EV, 04/13/080 -
jeffbr wrote:The original assault weapons ban covered magazines with a capacity of more than 10 rounds. If course that doesn't stop someone from carrying extra magazines.
wow. i never would have thought it would be ten. i thought the lowest it would be would be 150 -
jeffbr wrote:Maybe. But people who see "assault rifles" as something they aren't are also irrational. I don't own an "assualt rifle" (quotes because the label is a silly construct of gun banners), but I also don't see them as any more/less dangerous than other rifles. Congress did a study that shows that on 1% - 2% of violent crimes involved "assault rifles". That alone seems to highlight who is irrational about this particular topic.
perhaps, but i think there is a culture of gun violence in this country and small but highly visible victories in changing that can be important. sure they are a mainly emotional victory, but it's a move towards sensible policy. separate real gunowners from hollywood wannabes... the people who actually hunt and own real hunting rifles from the people who collect machine guns to feel macho. guns can be practical, but i think it's time we start having some serious debate about reasonable policies. there are the people who feel like they need machine guns in case of a revolution, and there are the people who feel that if we ban all guns crime will disappear. neither extreme makes much sense. but certain weapons really serve no purpose and i think semi-automatic assault rifles are one of them.
trouble is, most violent crime involves handguns and those are tough to control or draw meaningful distinctions about.
at the same time, the constitution says nothing about your right to own guns.0 -
soulsinging wrote:at the same time, the constitution says nothing about your right to own guns.
Do you consider the Bill of Rights part of the Constitution? If so, someone needs to have a word with your con law prof. beause he's doing his students a grave disservice."I'll use the magic word - let's just shut the fuck up, please." EV, 04/13/080 -
Vedderlution_Baby! wrote:what classifies a gun as an assault type?
Australian gun laws were severely tightened after the Port Arthur massacre about ten years ago. It is now illegal to own a semi-automatic or automatic rifle, or any rifle with a magazine capacity of more than ten rounds. Pump action shotguns are still legal, but restricted to those who are illegible for a professional shooter's or primary producer's licence. The government ran a massive buy-back scheme after the new laws were brought in so that gun owners could surrender any illegal rifles they had for reasonable prices.
I grew up around firearms, and still go shooting occasionally, and I think this was one of John Howard's best moves as Prime Minister. There is absolutely no reason whatsoever for anyone to own a semi-automatic rifle for hunting purposes. Nor is there any need to have a high capacity magazine. If you're such a lousy shot that you need to be able to empty 30 rounds into an animal to bring it down you shouldn't be shooting.It doesn't matter if you're male, female, or confused; black, white, brown, red, green, yellow; gay, lesbian; redneck cop, stoned; ugly; military style, doggy style; fat, rich or poor; vegetarian or cannibal; bum, hippie, virgin; famous or drunk-you're either an asshole or you're not!
-C Addison0 -
Don't mess w/ country bumpkins. They're the same people who go after the Dixie Chicks and try to ruin them too. Crazy people they are.
"dey better not take me shootin rights away"0 -
I think that the use of the word terrorist to describe anything other than a terrorist immediately detracts from ones integrity, or my ability to listen to anything that they say.
We're such a society of lemmings. It's really depressing to think about sometimes.0 -
Scubascott wrote:Australian gun laws were severely tightened after the Port Arthur massacre about ten years ago. It is now illegal to own a semi-automatic or automatic rifle, or any rifle with a magazine capacity of more than ten rounds. Pump action shotguns are still legal, but restricted to those who are illegible for a professional shooter's or primary producer's licence. The government ran a massive buy-back scheme after the new laws were brought in so that gun owners could surrender any illegal rifles they had for reasonable prices.
I grew up around firearms, and still go shooting occasionally, and I think this was one of John Howard's best moves as Prime Minister. There is absolutely no reason whatsoever for anyone to own a semi-automatic rifle for hunting purposes. Nor is there any need to have a high capacity magazine. If you're such a lousy shot that you need to be able to empty 30 rounds into an animal to bring it down you shouldn't be shooting.
Do you kjnow how much Howard's gun buyback program cost? Do you know how many guns were destroyed? Do you know what the net effect that program had on crime is?"I'll use the magic word - let's just shut the fuck up, please." EV, 04/13/080 -
jeffbr wrote:Do you consider the Bill of Rights part of the Constitution? If so, someone needs to have a word with your con law prof. beause he's doing his students a grave disservice.
perhaps you should reread that second amendment and tell mw where you see the word guns written.0
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