Looks like The Fuddite of the Year, Jim Zumbo, recognized the hornet's nest he stepped in and is now backtracking...
I was hunting coyotes, and after the hunt was over and being beat up by 60 mph winds all day, I was discussing hunting with one of the young guides. I was tired and exhausted, and I should have gone to bed early. When the guide told me that there was a "huge" following of hunters who use AR 15's and similar weapons to hunt prairies dogs, I was amazed. At that point I wrote the blog, and never thought it through.
Maybe not, and he might well be sorry, but it seems to me like he was saying he was sorry for speaking his mind on something he knew nothing about, as opposed to insulting and alienating millions of black rifle owners with his commentary -- which is only furthered by his whine about being insulted himself and his half-hearted attempt to establish his pro-liberty bona fides:
I never intended to be devisive, and I certainly believe in United we Stand, Divided we Fall. I've been an NRA member for 40 years, have attended 8 national NRA conventions in the last 10 years, and I'm an advisory board member for the United States Sportsmen's Alliance which actively fights anti-hunters and animal rights groups for hunter's rights.
What really bothers me are some of the unpatriotic comments leveled at me. I fly the flag 365 days a year in my front yard. Last year, through an essay contest, I hosted a soldier wounded in Iraq to a free hunt in Botswana. This year, through another essay contest, I'm taking two more soldiers on a free moose and elk hunt.
As some others have said, what does it matter what he did yesterday if he stabs other gun owners in the back today, as he did? He might well fly that flag, but he seems to be perfectly content to take a big, steaming crap on what it stands for, which speaks a hell of a lot louder than any kind of symbolic gesture. More hollow words follow:
Believe it or not, I'm your best friend if you're a hunter or shooter, though it might not seem that way. I simply screwed up.
Not hardly. A best friend wouldn't throw you under the bus in a short-sighted attempt to protect his own interests, which is what Zumbo did. I agree completely with Xavier:
You have shown unequivocally who you are. You cannot drop enough names, attend enough conferences or pay enough dues to the NRA to change your words. These were your words. They were spoken when you thought you were unopposed, and you thought your Elmer Fudd readership would fawn over your elder gun writer wisdom. Wake up Zumbo! It's a new world! The internet ain't a damned gun rag!
When you said "I'll go so far as to call them 'terrorist' rifles", you called every American serviceman a terrorist. Now I don't care if you fly a thousand flags in your yard, paint your whole damned house red, white and blue, and take the entire 82nd Airborne to a free hunt in Botswana, you cannot change that. Those are your words, and they reflect your thoughts and character.
Abso-freakin-lutely. This clown has potentially set the movement to regain our rights back for years, if not decades. And he should be canned. Pronto.
(More thoughts from Michael Bane, Kevin Baker, and Yosemite Sam.)
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