Nothing of the sort. Nothing even close. He might have felt that way deep in his darkest of hearts: but he never said it and he never wrote it.
You are missing the point of the comment though, and the damage it could do.
The argument all along, and what got the first AWB through was that ARs and other "evil" looking weapons had no sporting purpose.
We argued that was not the case, that indeed the black rifle had a sporting purpose and in fact was used by many hunters.
In Jim Z's blog he states that even the guide he was hunting with told him he had many customers using the black rifles.
For the #1 hunting writer in the country to say that yes, the anti's are right and EBRs indeed have no sporting purpose and in fact should be BANNED from use in hunting does call for an outright ban either in fact or in spirit.
The very argument that since they were not good for hunting so they should go altogether is EXACTLY what we've been fighting for ever.
You cannot say that Jim's words did not call for a flat out ban, that was the end result of the comments he made and the argument that would be made, and has been made, by the grabbers.
That said, it is clear he has realized the error of his ways and I think we should all take a few steps back and see what he does next.
There's no rush, nothing is on the immediate horizon that a Zumbo could either help or hurt, so let's see if this conversion is genuine and enthusiastic.
The last thing we need, however, is for people to misquote him or to try to change what was said. He said what he said, the meaning was clear. He's now realized his mistake and we should give him a while to clear it up.
That doesn't mean I'm going to get back on the Jim or Ted fan wagon for a while, but I'm certainly going to give them both a chance.
