I admit I’m a Johnny come lately to the Jim Zumbo controversy. I freely admit I didn’t pay that much attention to his article, primarily because I make it a rule to ignore people that offend me by way of stereotyping me with terrorists. That is how he came across and I think that is the reason the gun community had such a backlash on him.
I respect the man and his opinions but it did hurt to think that just because I choose to use a type of firearm, he thinks of me as a terrorist. To say that hunters (which I am) have no business with these riffles is like saying that the modern riffle shouldn’t be used as compared to say a black powder percussion riffle.
It was personal and I took it as such because I am also “that gun guyâ€.
Although it wasn’t asked for he has my forgiveness. We are a community and like any community we can’t expect to get along all the time. Unfortunately, I can see this as a dividing line between the hunters who have their sport and the shooters. This is the time when we all have to be aware of the attacks that our way of life is coming under. Hunters are loosing lands that they can hunt on while shooters are having a hard time finding ranges due to closures. Why is this continuing to be an issue? Mr. Zumbo has apologized. Time to move on. Mr. Zumbo should take another chance and make himself heard again and his prior sponsors should give him the opportunity to do so.
Maybe the fact that a firearm is a firearm regardless of its shape will become the lesson of the moment. We can hope.
If it operates as a semi automatic, it is a semi automatic. Shape is irrelevant to the issues of privately owned firearms.
Holding a grudge against Mr. Zumbo only drives a wedge between hunters and shooters that we can ill afford.
So, with that in mind I would like all shooters to forgive and rally around Mr. Zumbo and remind hunters; that shooters issues ARE hunters issues. Don’t kid yourselves on that point. We are a community. We need to act like one and show a relatively united front or everything can be lost.
Voolfie
Voolfie
L'affaire Zumbo - as it has been called by some - represents, I believe, a teaching moment for our side. It represents an opportunity to understand just how many in the gun-owning family actually believe that some guns are 'bad' and that because theirs are 'good' their ox won't get gored eventually. Thus, it offers the chance to get together with our hunting/target shooting brethren and explain to them the true nature of the 'common sense gun control' crowd. For those who feel as Zumbo does (did?), there must (I hope) be some questions raised regarding the depth of feeling evinced by Mr. Zumbo's seemingly (to them) innocuous statements. We must reach out to those who, as I once did, believe that the NRA is "extremist". Remember, the average person reading the average newspaper or watching the average TV news show is getting bombarded with anti-gun and anti-NRA messages on a daily basis. These people simply don't have the facts. It's not their fault. To this day, I know a dozen or more people who will shoot a round of skeet with a Remington 1100 and then tell me that assault weapons should be banned - not realizing that those who'll do the banning have their eyes on THAT VERY SKEET GUN. The number of these people is huge. If we can educate even a quarter of them, we'll have dramatically increased our numbers.
You're Right
I'd also like to point out that an AR-type weapon would be an excellent choice for hunting due to its light weight and durability. :-)