Old Topic...Lesson Learned?

[wlewisiii]

All I know is that in the woods where I hunt, if you hear one shot, then someone got a deer. If you hear a second shot, then there is, perhaps, a 25-50% chance someone got a deer. If you hear a third shot, the deer is in the next county laughing at the fool behind the trigger.

Personally I don't like AR's. I carried one in the Army and never want to touch one of the [censored] things again. But get one in a real caliber and knock yourself out. I'll be happy to keep carrying my .30-30 lever and bringing home a deer per shot.

 

[Chemistry Guy]

When a bad incident occurs, sometimes it is difficult to objectively place blame. At the skeet range I go to the only people that "misbehave" tend to be the under-thirty crowd with short barreled pump shotguns. After a while you tend to associate the individual's behavior with the firearm used, and for some people I can tell that some of the animosity carries over to the type of firearm. While most people would call BS, I know that there are some at the club that would support a ban on pump shotguns under 20". If they really thought about it they might change their mind, but often you are not thinking real clearly when angry.

I don't hunt with a rifle, so I don't know from first hand experience, but I would guess that something similar has been going on with hunting rifles. If, on average, more bad hunters use one particular style of rifle, then some will associate their ill will towards those practices with the tool being used.

 

[TCB in TN]

I think this explanation is better than what I could do. An old man got pissed off about ARs in hunting, cooled off and realized what he had just said. It happens, I just don't think he needed to be fired over it. What he said in the blog post was wrong, but I cant think of anything else he could have done to apologize to gun owners. If he had just said "o ya, about that, my bad" then of course there would be an issue. But he has done everything humanly possible to recant his statement and apologize to gun owners and in my eyes its recanted.

It is amazing how people "change" after the chickens come home to roost. I don't know Zumbo and he truly may have had a change of heart, but freedom of speech isn't freedom from consequences. When you derive your living from the public then you have to be aware of how the public really feels. Zumbo was wrong and he has paid for it.

I accepted his apology when it happened, but accepting his apology didn't mean I was ever going to support him again.

BTW I am not a black rifle guy. Honestly I don't currently even own a semi-auto rifle bigger than a .22lr. Further more I don't do much hunting anymore, but I support the right of anyone out there who can safely hunt, to use the tool of their choice (as long as it is a caliber sufficient to get the job done).

 

[trex1310]

As a lifelong hunter, I don't see a problem with it as long as it
meets the laws of your state as a hunting weapon. It's really
no different than a BAR.

 

[d2wing]

Thank you Sam1911 for posting. We should not have gun bigotry. Zumbo said what a lot
of people wrongly think. It's too bad that many hunters and gun owners want to impair the rights of others. I have my dislikes and opinions but I don't want to impose them on anyone and vice versa. It's called freedom. Zumbo had the right to expose himself as a gun bigot and paid for it. I'm glad he learned and now supports the rights of a broader range of gun owners. I hope we all learn something from this.

 

[ralphie98]

I had it out with one of the oldtimers at deer camp about this issue a couple years ago. Not only does he think you shouldn't be allowed to hunt with them but he doesn't even think we should own them. His one argument is the old "you don't need something like that" kinda argument. He hunts with a semi auto too but he doesn't get that an ar15 is the same thing that just looks different. Neither him or my dad are interested in even trying my AR15. I believe they are just uncomfortable around them but I couldn't tell yu why. Between the old mans stubborness and his bad hearing I have just given up on arguing with him.

 

[d2wing]

A liberal friend asked why I think we should have guns. I answered because the government does. If you get that, I don't know what to tell you. Parity I guess.

 

[ShawnC]

I don't hunt with a rifle, so I don't know from first hand experience, but I would guess that something similar has been going on with hunting rifles. If, on average, more bad hunters use one particular style of rifle, then some will associate their ill will towards those practices with the tool being used.

This type of bigotry doesn't end with rifle hunters. I know when I began hunting there was a huge anti crossbow crowd. Never did get that. There wasn't a "only crossbow during rifle season feeling", archers in a big way HATED crossbow users. Crossbows are only now just getting accepted as a hunting tool. Never made any sense to me.
It would be like spear hunters bemoaning the invention of the atl atl.

 

[Sam1911]

It would be like spear hunters bemoaning the invention of the atl atl.

When we look back at history in the middle-distance, say the last half of the 19th century, we tend to look at the introduction of the cartridge and repeating rifle as something that, surely, every shooter, hunter, and soldier must have just been ecstatic over.

I've come to the conclusion that if we wound back the clock we'd see some of the same attitudes voiced then about weapons we now consider to be the height of traditionalism, and even antiquated.

 

[goon]

Yes, there still are lots of people who'd make an issue of this. Semi-auto rifles are illegal for hunting in my state even though a good AR is entirely accurate enough and I've personally shot open sight 100 yard groups under an inch with a good semi-auto FAL. They wet their pants worrying about semi-auto rifles filling the air with lead as their owners haplessly spray rounds at bambi... but are perfectly OK with idiots who haplessly spray rounds out of their Remington 760's.