Wednesday, February 21, 2007

The Wednesday Morning Zumbo Hangover

I think it's fair to say the fiearms industry is reeling from L'affaire de Zumbo. ik want to refer you to two of the best commentaries I've seen so far from two of my best friends, Tom Gersham of Gun Talk Radio and Jim Shepherd of The Shooting Wire, Both are veteran, lifelong journalists, and both are experts on the "New Media." First from Tom:
We can take away from this experience several observations.

The first is that this attitude of "just let them take those ugly, black guns" is common among hunters and competitive shooters. Anyone with that attitude is a fool. Sit down with a hunter from England or Australia, hear him tell the story of what happened there, and watch the tears well up in his eyes when he says they never thought the government would take away their hunting guns. To gun banners, there is no such thing as a good gun. They want them all. When Tom Diaz, of the Violence Policy Center, was on Gun Talk, I forced him to admit that he would like to ban all guns. What about the police, I asked. Once we get all the other guns, he said, the police won't need their guns, either.

A ban on black guns, or "Saturday Night Specials," or 50-caliber rifles, is a ban on all our guns. There is no such thing as a bad gun or a good gun. We can't throw babies off the back of the sled, thinking it will keep the wolves away from us.

The next thing we learn from this is that the world has just changed. This entire episode took place inside of 36 hours, on a weekend -- a three-day weekend for President's Day. It happened...and this is important...entirely on the internet.
Jim, typically, cuts straight to the point:
AR-style rifle enthusiasts have forced the entire shooting industry to acknowledge a blinding glimpse of the obvious: there are many, many more "recreational shooters" out there than there are hard-core hunting types.

For many in our industry, this was a frightening epiphany. They've continued to market their products to the hunting community while blithely ignoring the growth segments of the industry.

They are decidedly not ignoring us anymore.
Jim, Tom and I have been talking — mostly to ourselves! — about the impending paradigm shift for the last couple of years...scary to see it happen. As Jim Shepherd told me, it's the difference between reading about an artillery barrage and being caught in one!

I urge all of you to take the time to read the text of the new AWB, as introduced by Carolyn McCarthy. This is one heck of a document — it closes every single loophole...every single one! It looks like a Violence Policy Center document to me; I see some signs of their position papers in how carefully the loopholes have been closed. This document is a Democratic Party stalking horse...if you don't believe that, I've got some waterfront property in Arizona I'd like to sell you!

Understand the battlefield...

15 comments:

Anonymous said...

someone needs to figure out the "tree" or method that was created by this response. Then we need to drag it out the next time we hear about the "assault" weapons ban.

Anonymous said...

If the Dems were subjected to the same sort of storm Zumbo experiecned, it would be a step in the direction. Better would have been, and will be, to vote such that the right people are in office. Those that are in-touch enough to understand the fallacy of gun control. Or, at least, politicians that understand that disarming America results in no more America.

The currently proposed legislation is obviously testing the waters. Each Congrerss critter should be inundated with correspondence making the Zumbo affair pale in comparison.

But I'm not going to hold my breath...

Guy

Anonymous said...

The truely sad part is your vote at the election polls are your best bet for protesting your rights.

Locally voters put a NRA rated C on the street and voted in a firm F into office. You guessed it, a Liberal Democrat that tells everyone they should have free health care and drugs.

You can write all the emails and letters you want to some representatives. They will not look at or acknowedge your position.

This last election hurt us badly. If we do not turn it around in the next one the gun grabbers will have won and it will be over. You have to understand the next President will probably put two or three new Supreme Court Justices on the bench. Join the NRA and Vote. Make sure your friends do the same.

Anonymous said...

I need to do more to support great guys like Tom and Jim!!!

Anonymous said...

I see Zumbo is the Brady bunch's new darling. Big surprise there. What bothers me the most about this incident, is that all the damage was done by one of our own. To say I feel betrayed would be a mild understament. Mr. Zumbo, I fear you have done-singlehandedly, and overnight- what orginizations like Handgun control, and the Brady bunch have singularly failed to do in all their years of existance. You have provided them credibility. In allowing your prejudice a public forum, you may have set back our efforts decades. I'm surprised and distressed to learn that a person of your stature didn't know better.


You should have known better.

Anonymous said...

YOU CAN ASK ANY POLITICAL PUNDIT AND THEY WILL TELL YOU ....AMERICANS FIREARMS WILL NEVER BE CONFISCATED.....BUT OBTAINING AMMO WILL BE THE TARGET!!! STOCK UP BEFORE THE HILDEBEAST GETS ELECTED!!!!!!

Anonymous said...

Mr. Zumbo's comments are beyond reprehensible. No appology can ever undo the damage that his elitist comments have caused. He has become a victim of his own arrogance and should do what every noble man should do in situations like this; "Fall on his sword" by resigning and disapperaing into oblivion. His legacy has been finalised, by him! May his memory be eternal!
We should all be reminded that all sporting guns are derived from military, or defensive arms. Mr. Zumbo's beloved bolt-action rifles probably have traceable lineage to a Mauser 98. We know where that came from. The "Antis'" know this, so when they tell you that "Sensible Gun Bans" are for Military Guns ONLY, this is why. Get it?
This whole incident should serve as a wake-up call to supporters of the Second AND First Amendments. We should all send our thanks to Remington and Outdoor Life Network for their instant response and support.
Life Member

NotClauswitz said...

This explains to me now all the hunters in California, and yet we have an AWB that bans AR's and Ak's, and a legislature in no fear of a gunowner backlash. Now I get it, thanks.

Monty said...

Jim is a good man brougt down by is own doing, But wait. Because of his words, we have been brougt together to fight for our rights as we have not for a long time. Lets keep this going and wright the represntative for our area , and let them know we are one again. Tanks Jim Zumbo.

Anonymous said...

1)Anyone who enjoys owning guns and who votes for any Democrat for any national office does not understand the battlefield.

I cannot tell you how many "gun owners" I heard during the last election bragging how they were going to "send a message" to the Repubs by voting for a Dem or, even worse, third party.

Are there individual pro-gun Dems?

Sure.

Are there individual anti-gun Repubs?

Yep.

But putting Dems in power puts Schumer and Feinstein and McCarthy and Kennedy and Boxer, et al, in positions of oversight, power and authority.

And if you actually enjoy owning guns, doing anything to put that anti-gun circus into power is insane.

The Dems quite simply cannot be trusted with any gun legislation until the current party has been burned completely to the ground and rebuilt from scratch.

And even then, they should not be trusted.

2)There will not be the same kind of out-pouring of emotion by gun owners (at least those who understand the battlefield) against the gun-grabbing Dems as there was over Zumbo for exactly and precisely one reason.

Zumbo, unlike Schumer and Clinton and Waxman, was thought to be "one of ours."

He turned out to be a traitor.

Traitors always elicit more rage and passionate intensity than those who have always openly identified themselves as the enemy.

That's just the way it is.

You simply will not see this kind of rage and intensity against somebody who has always identified himself or herself as anti-gun.

There's a reason the name "Benedict Arnold" is still a pejorative over 200 years later.

There's a reason the same goes for "Judas" over 2000 years later.

Anonymous said...

Hey mouth breathers..Bush and his ambulance chasing lawyer Gonzalez have said they will not veto a new AWB. Republicans in Congress for the most part will not fight this either.

Anonymous said...

Here is a direct link to the House Judiciary Committee. Write them a nice little note.

Brass

Anonymous said...

"AR-style rifle enthusiasts have forced the entire shooting industry to acknowledge a blinding glimpse of the obvious: there are many, many more "recreational shooters" out there than there are hard-core hunting types.

For many in our industry, this was a frightening epiphany. They've continued to market their products to the hunting community while blithely ignoring the growth segments of the industry.

They are decidedly not ignoring us anymore."

That statement is a little off. It should read there are more recreational shooters on the Internet then hunters.
The bad part is most of these recreational shooters don't vote.

Dana said...

Of course there are bad and good guns you twerp. Some guns are junk, and some are not.

Some guns are too high-power to have in an apartment for, "self defense", because they'll kill people the next six apartments over if you fire them!

Some guns are serious overkill for use in killing rodents. If you hunt rodents with an AK-47, you have not only a gun with no class, you have problems with your CPU.

I've always wondered why I didn't join the NRA, and now I know. You people are Rush Limbaugh lovin', all guns are good, Bush the God fanatics!

Anonymous said...

In response to Dana...
Your ignorance is typical on many levels. Please note, however, this is not an insult, but an education opportunity to correct your thinking.
In many cases, home or self defense high-power weapons(as you call them) also have ammunition designed for that purpose, which limits the number of walls the bullet will penetrate.
As for the AK-47, while in fact an AR type weapon, is not designed, nor suited for, killing rodents.To large a caliber, and not accurate enough. Not sure where you came up with that gem. There are some AR type rifles specifically designed for this type of activity, which shoot a .22 caliber bullet, an ideal size for rodents. We are not talking of household critters here, but larger, and typically several hundred yards away.

And thanks for not joining the NRA.