Please be civil in your emails to the editor,but please let him know this writer needs to be unemployed,the editors email is [email protected] This is a small town newspaper in a very gun-friendly area,but the editor needs to know what we,the gun owners of this country,think about this type of journalism...The following article appeared in today's paper,4/1/07.This is NOT an April Fools joke...The writers email is [email protected]
Jim Zumbo recently took a brave stand in hunting and shooting circles.
It cost the longtime outdoors advocate and enthusiast his livelihood.
His stand: Writing that there is “no place for these weapons (assault) among our hunting fraternity.” He wrote that opinion in his personal blog on the Outdoor Life magazine Web site back in February in response to hearing that some hunters used assault weapons to hunt prairie dogs.
“I’ll go so far as to call them ‘terrorist rifles,’” he wrote. “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.’”
His opinions went over like a plugged rifle. It blew up Zumbo’s reputation and respect with many. National Rifle Association officials cut all ties with the writer who was a 40-year member of the organization. His TV program on the Outdoor Channel was canceled, his long career as hunting editor with Outdoor Life magazine was severed and he lost sponsors.
He wasn’t forgiven despite his public apology. Thousands of gun owners, businesses and manufacturers slammed him and his statement.
Assault weapons have been an issue for years in hunting and shooting circles. Even though most hunters don’t own assault weapons and may have only their .30-06 rifle for hunting deer and elk and their 12 gauge shotgun for hunting birds, many believe one ban will lead to another.
Hard to know if that will actually happen. Banning smoking from restaurants certainly hasn’t led to banning drinking in restaurants.
I am a hunter and the owner of a .300 Magnum that I use for elk hunting. I’ve also hunted with a 7mm and I grew up with .22s, dad’s .30-06, mom’s .30-30 and shotguns in the backporch closet.
Obviously, it’s not a popular stand, but I agree that fully automatic assault weapons don’t belong in hunting. Now if a person wants to collect them or shoot them at a range, OK.
Assault rifles are usually identified with light machine guns and submachine guns that are standard small arms for most modern armies and law enforcement departments. Examples of fully automatic assault rifles include the M16 rifle and the AK-47.
It’s already against Oregon law to use fully automatic firearms while hunting game animals. These weapons fire multiple shots with one pull of the trigger and continue as long as the trigger is depressed. It’s understandable that Zumbo was upset if the report he got about somebody using one of these against prairie dogs was true. Semi-automatics can be used to hunt in Oregon as long as the magazine capacity is no more than five cartridges and the trigger has to be pulled for each firing.
I don’t think these are popular with Oregon hunters anyway. I’ve spent about a week in the woods hunting for each of about 30 years and I can’t remember seeing a hunter with any weapon other than what I would call a hunting rifle. I’ve seen plenty of rifles in pickup gun racks in Douglas County over the years and all of them have been hunting, not assault, rifles.
Daniel Boone did fine with a single shot long rifle. I think we can too with standard hunting rifles.
Hunters, and maybe that’s not the right word, don’t need to be spraying the woods or the prairies with non-stop bullets.
I applaud Zumbo for writing about the controversial subject. He’s spent much of his life as a writer and speaker promoting the outdoors and hunting so he’s given a lot more to those special interest groups than he could take away in one blog.
His writing should have created more discussion, not a “firing.”
I’m still a believer in the right to bear arms. I want to own my rifle and I want to hunt elk each fall if I so desire. But I don’t need to hunt with a cannon or machine gun.
Jim Zumbo recently took a brave stand in hunting and shooting circles.
It cost the longtime outdoors advocate and enthusiast his livelihood.
His stand: Writing that there is “no place for these weapons (assault) among our hunting fraternity.” He wrote that opinion in his personal blog on the Outdoor Life magazine Web site back in February in response to hearing that some hunters used assault weapons to hunt prairie dogs.
“I’ll go so far as to call them ‘terrorist rifles,’” he wrote. “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.’”
His opinions went over like a plugged rifle. It blew up Zumbo’s reputation and respect with many. National Rifle Association officials cut all ties with the writer who was a 40-year member of the organization. His TV program on the Outdoor Channel was canceled, his long career as hunting editor with Outdoor Life magazine was severed and he lost sponsors.
He wasn’t forgiven despite his public apology. Thousands of gun owners, businesses and manufacturers slammed him and his statement.
Assault weapons have been an issue for years in hunting and shooting circles. Even though most hunters don’t own assault weapons and may have only their .30-06 rifle for hunting deer and elk and their 12 gauge shotgun for hunting birds, many believe one ban will lead to another.
Hard to know if that will actually happen. Banning smoking from restaurants certainly hasn’t led to banning drinking in restaurants.
I am a hunter and the owner of a .300 Magnum that I use for elk hunting. I’ve also hunted with a 7mm and I grew up with .22s, dad’s .30-06, mom’s .30-30 and shotguns in the backporch closet.
Obviously, it’s not a popular stand, but I agree that fully automatic assault weapons don’t belong in hunting. Now if a person wants to collect them or shoot them at a range, OK.
Assault rifles are usually identified with light machine guns and submachine guns that are standard small arms for most modern armies and law enforcement departments. Examples of fully automatic assault rifles include the M16 rifle and the AK-47.
It’s already against Oregon law to use fully automatic firearms while hunting game animals. These weapons fire multiple shots with one pull of the trigger and continue as long as the trigger is depressed. It’s understandable that Zumbo was upset if the report he got about somebody using one of these against prairie dogs was true. Semi-automatics can be used to hunt in Oregon as long as the magazine capacity is no more than five cartridges and the trigger has to be pulled for each firing.
I don’t think these are popular with Oregon hunters anyway. I’ve spent about a week in the woods hunting for each of about 30 years and I can’t remember seeing a hunter with any weapon other than what I would call a hunting rifle. I’ve seen plenty of rifles in pickup gun racks in Douglas County over the years and all of them have been hunting, not assault, rifles.
Daniel Boone did fine with a single shot long rifle. I think we can too with standard hunting rifles.
Hunters, and maybe that’s not the right word, don’t need to be spraying the woods or the prairies with non-stop bullets.
I applaud Zumbo for writing about the controversial subject. He’s spent much of his life as a writer and speaker promoting the outdoors and hunting so he’s given a lot more to those special interest groups than he could take away in one blog.
His writing should have created more discussion, not a “firing.”
I’m still a believer in the right to bear arms. I want to own my rifle and I want to hunt elk each fall if I so desire. But I don’t need to hunt with a cannon or machine gun.
