James Zumbo flushes career down toilet

[Jonathan Randall]

A gun snob, and an ignorant one at that:

http://outdoorlife.blogs.com/zumbo/2007/02/assault_rifles_.html#comment-60817318




Very ignorant of Zumbo, considering that many folks use the AR-15 platform as varmit guns, due to their accuracy, reliability, and versatility. Not only that, but other "evil" guns such as the SKS rifle, are frequently used for medium sized game, such as deer.



He has posted his "apology" here:

http://outdoorlife.blogs.com/zumbo/2007/02/i_was_wrong_big.html


I have mixed feelings on this. One one hand, it takes a big man to admit that he was wrong, but on the other hand, someone of his experience should have had the wisdom to not go shooting his mouth (pardon the pun) in a fit of snobbery. While it's certainly his right to be a gun snob of the worst kind, he does need to realize that it's also everyone else's right to staunchly disagree with him.

Don't be surprised if Remington drops their sponsorship of him.

I used to share his "ignorant" opinion - until I got educated regarding the necessity of the right to bear arms (handgun put in my face during robbery) and met some really responsible folks who have (and do NOT abuse) assault type rifles. OTOH, this guy has no excuse because he's (supposedly) well educated on firearms.

Interesting that he rags on a higher caliber weapon that is also used by folks for varmint hunting - then goes on to say that he's testing the new .17 caliber on coyotes. Excuse me, but such a low caliber, unless someone gets a good shot, is nowhere near as humane in its use as a round from an "assault rifle".

 

[RBaddorf]

As a favor, can you tell me where you saw Remington has shown this guy the door?

Well, given what's above in post #6, he's got one career about 'shot'...... but let's see if he jumps ship and becomes "The Voice of Reasonable and Responsible Gun Owners" over at the Brady organization or some similar place.

Gun control was barely on the radar screen this year, and now its front burner thanks to him. Everyone has dumb thoughts, but whatever happened to just STFU when you do?

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Remington to Sever Sponsorship Ties with Jim Zumbo​

Madison, North Carolina – As a result of comments made by Mr. Jim Zumbo in recent postings on his blog site, Remington Arms Company, Inc., has severed all sponsorship ties with Mr. Zumbo effective immediately. While Mr. Zumbo is entitled to his opinions and has the constitutional right to freely express those opinions, these comments are solely his, and do not reflect the views of Remington.
“Remington has spent tens of millions of dollars defending our Second Amendment rights to privately own and possess firearms and we will continue to vigorously fight to protect these rights,” commented Tommy Millner, Remington’s CEO and President. “As hunters and shooters of all interest levels, we should strive to utilize this unfortunate occurrence to unite as a whole in support of our Second Amendment rights.”
We regret having to terminate our long-standing relationship with Mr. Zumbo, who is a well-respected writer and life-long hunter.

###​

​

 

[Andy Moynihan]

Let his name, his likeness, his every written word be stricken from our annals as one who has never lived.

That is how we remember TRAITORS.

 

[SFC JeffJ]

I'm guessing here... but I think he represents the opinion of most hunters (at least in my area). At our local gun club you have seperate "clicks" of shooters just like how there are clicks in highschool (jocks, nerds, etc). If I show up to shoot clays with my "tactical" pump shotgun I'm frowned upon because its not what they are used to. Doesn't matter if I can bust clays as good as someone with a $4000 double barrel. In short, there is some personal snobbery going on. He doesn't like the AR platform just like the clay shooters don't like the defensive shotgun which is ok...he is entitled to his opinion, when you are a prolific writer in the industry and don't consider what further damage your opinion might cause, well you know the rest! Its almost like he was privately talking among his hunting buddies around a campfire rather than addressing millions of readers, I just don't get it?

This is so true, you can see it at a lot of gun-clubs. Heck, I've seen it even seen handgunners go into different cliques over what stance they shoot from.

Jeff

 

[Brian R. VanCise]

This is so true, you can see it at a lot of gun-clubs. Heck, I've seen it even seen handgunners go into different cliques over what stance they shoot from.

Jeff

Absolutely this is true!

 

[arnisandyz]

This is so true, you can see it at a lot of gun-clubs. Heck, I've seen it even seen handgunners go into different cliques over what stance they shoot from.

Jeff

The more I think of it, I don't think Zumbo intentially meant to present AR type rifles in a bad light to the general public. It sounded to me like he was addressing his "clique" (thanks for the spelling correction Jeff). The same way a Sporting Clays snob would tell his buddies that they should BAN defensive type shotguns from Sporting Clays competition. They are not saying they should Ban them forever, just from thier competition. I'm not saying they are right for doing so, but they are entitled to thier own opinion. The hoopla started because he forgot who whe was talking to and what words he chose to convey his thoughts. "Assault", "Terrorist" and "Banned" in the same paragraph is not the right choice of words. He could have easily got his point across by refering to the AR as a "military type" hi-capacity semiautomatic and further go on to explain why he thinks that type of rifle is not good for hunting. In addition, he could have used words like Stricter hunting regulations (instead of BANNED) applied to these types of weapons.

I don't agree with Zumbo's views, but it just amazes me that he is an experienced writer that doesn't know how to write and that I can come up with a better explanation (appology letter) than he himself can.

 

[K31]

I'm thinking that this guy could show up either in some regular sportswriter gig or as the "convenient idiot" for the Bradys.

I heard that sportswriters are by-and-large a liberal crowd so maybe this is just his way of establishing his bonifides.

Ironically, I was in a paper varmint shoot last spring at our club. Although there were many heavy barreled bolt action rifles with bipods and 20X scopes with huge sunshades, the match was won by an AR-type rifle.