Via THR and a few other places, we have yet another camo-clad anti-gunner -- Jim Zumbo, who apparently is the hunting editor for Outdoor Life magazine spouting off the same old anti-anything-but-hunting crap:
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."
I wouldn't call him a traditionalist. I'd call him an enemy of freedom.
...hunters don't use assault rifles.
How about sniper rifles? Do they use those? Mr. Zumbo might not want to call them that, but I guaran-damn-tee you, that's exactly what those who would ban, confiscate and/or otherwise restrict the use of AKs and ARs are going to cast his precious deer rifle as before they come after them. No doubt the hacks at the Brady Center & the VPC are reading this and thinking, "that whole divide-and-conquer strategy of ours is working like a charm..."
I absolutely do not think any free person deserves to be disarmed -- but there are fleeting moments, such as when I read missives like this from the hook-and-bullet writers, when I think that if the people were disarmed who thought like this character does, that they'd be getting exactly what they deserved for throwing all the other gunnies under the anti-freedom bus. It's encouraging to see so many of the commenters to the piece upbraiding him for his craven, hidebound perspective, but I shudder to think of how many hunters agree with him. It'll be interesting to see how many subscriptions and sponsors Outdoor Life loses for it, though -- not to mention the potential losses that at this point I'd say will be taken by various companies Zumbo's affilliated with, such as Polaris & Remington, and others.
UPDATE:
As I said at JR's place, I was looking through Zumbo's Outdoor Life blog, and it seems this particular post has generated more feedback from readers than any of his other recent blog posts -- almost 1,400 reader comments as of 11:01 am East Texas time, with at least 100 of those in the last 30 minutes alone. The second-most-commented on post from Zumbo got 45 comments. If this is any indication, the shite has definitely hit the fan here.
Comment count as I check in...
Sunday, 2-17-07, 12:00 pm East Texas time: 1,552
Sunday, 2-17-07, 1:01 pm East Texas time: 1,748 -- and with that, for right now I'm gonna go enjoy the beautiful, sunny Texas day!
Sunday, 2-17-07, 7:50 pm East Texas time: 2,816
(More commentary from Xavier, David Codrea, Kim du Toit, the Layabout Sailor, the GeekWithA.45, AlanDP, Kevin Baker, JR, Fits , 45superman , Civis Proeliator, Joe Lemire @ Cold Fury The Freeholder, Dave Markowitz, LawDog , Michael Bane, SayUncle, Shooter , Porta's Cat & Tam; more links to come as I find them)
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