So much for Outdoor Life

By way of the lovely Tamara, who got it from The Unforgiving Minute, we discover this little gem from somebody whose writing I once thoroughly admired.

Seems he’s got a case of the hips regarding AK47’s and AR15’s, and finds it amazing that people actually use these rifles for hunting or target purposes.

He then goes so far as to call the AR-15 — and the AK-47 — “terrorist rifles”.

Goodness. I wonder what that makes the M16? And if the AR-15 is a “terrorist rifle”, then what of the young men and women in our Armed Forces — now currently fielding the AR-15/M16 series?

Terrorists, huh?

He goes on to further announce that “hunters” should distance themselves, to “divorce” themselves from Ak-47’s and AR-15’s.

Obviously not a student of political history.

“Divide and conquer” is the name of the game. The undefeatable mass of citizens known as “Gun Owners” must be divided before they can be conquered.

Once our enemies have divided us into little elements — “Hunters”, “Target Shooters”, “Shotgunners”, “Cowboy Shooters”, “Handgunners”, then each smaller unit can be attacked and defeated one at a time.

I’d like to thank Jim Zumbo for helping the enemies of the Second Amendment accomplish this very goal.

It is a sad, bitter day that I have discovered that a man whose writings I have admired over the years is actively engaged in aiding the gun grabbers in assaulting MY right to Keep and Bear Arms.

A pox on him and his house.

LawDog

UPDATE:

Jim Zumbo has issued an apology.

Nothing like slamming that ol’ barn door as you listen to the fading thunder of horses hooves, but what the hell — someone else might fall for the apology.

I don’t think I shall accept. Jim Zumbo’s true feelings were revealed in his initial post on the subject, and I seriously doubt those feelings were changed in under 12 hours.

LawDog

Road trip
Fantasies

45 thoughts on “So much for Outdoor Life

  1. I concur wholeheartedly.

    Betrayal of this level isn’t wiped away with a “Whoops!” and a donning of the Victim t-shirt.

    I question his patriotism, and his sincerity.

  2. As a blogger myself, I think long and hard about what to say, and how to say it. The apology means little to me, as I am sure he meant everything he said in the original post.

    The fact that he admits to know nothing about those rifles and then equate them with terrorist’s shows he is an elitist and willing to speak on subjects he is unqualified to.

    I once read his writing and thought highly of him. Now, I can only think that he looks down on people like me.

    Divide and concur is what it will take to have gun owners loose. And that is exactly what he did.

    I second the pox!

    Mr Fixit

  3. Mr. Zumbo appears to think highly of H.R. 1022
    Rather ironic number for the bill since the Ruger 10-22 is such a popular gun…..

  4. This “terrorist” AR15 owner believes Zumby should park his favorite bolt gun up his hindparts and pull the trigger.

  5. hahaha I guess age has nothing whatsoever to do with wisdom after all..

  6. Oh. I was tired. I’m sorry I spoke my mind.

    I hope his sponsors wise up.

  7. Well, now the Brady Campaign is useing his words.

    I have a link to the Brady myspace in my last blog entry. If you can stand to read their stuff.

    We need to pass the word on this.

    Mr Fixit

  8. I’ve never seen such a high volume of response. Hundreds of comments per hour.

    I suspect Zumbo is going to be sentenced to a year of training with Evil Black Rifles, a trip to Camp Perry, and some broad exposure to AR hunting for coyotes and prairie dogs.

    I suspect that if Zumbo ever crawls out of this hole, it will be after many articles heaping praise on his new favorite target and hunting platform.

  9. Naah, I think you can stick a fork in him. He’s done.

    From what I hear, Remington and Outdoor Life are going to dump him tomorrow morning.

    Ole Jim has indeed taken a dump in his messkit.

  10. Zumbo said what he thought and what was truly in his heart. He layed it all out there and told everyone what he thought of certain parts of the shooting community and did so with great certitude and conviction. I vehemently disagreed with him and he deserved all the repercussions of him making his views known.

    In a way while I disagreed with him I respected him. It took some guts to come out with such a flagrantly vile rant directed at a large segment of his audience as he had to know there would be consequences to it. What sickened me was the gutless, spineless groveling retraction he printed just a hours later. When he wouldn’t stand up for his convictions that respect evaporated. When the sponsorship for his cash cow easy ride money making enterprise was threatened his heartfelt convictions were so much horseshit. When Remington yanked it’s sponsorship old Zumbo went a blubbering and whining about how sleepy fatigued he was. You have to look out for people like Zumbo. They’re useless and dangerous. They stick they’re fingers in the wind and only hold their convictions when they’re convenient and safe and they’re the first to run when the trouble starts and are also the ones who will stab you in the back when all appears lost and they see an advantage to switch sides.

    Hopefully this pusillanimous prick Zumbo has only started to feel the effects of this shitstorm.

    By the way. The fact that Remington immediately yanked it’s sponsorship from Zumbo has moved me to go out and buy a Remington Rifle. I e-mailed Remington and told them so.

  11. I’m sorry. Being pro-2A just isn’t that hard.

    Repeat after me…

    “I believe that any citizen or legal, permanent resident of these United States should be allowed to own their desired quantity of ANY firearm that they choose, until such time that they are judged guilty of a violent felony or mentally incompetent by a jury of their peers.”

    It’s that simple. We as gun owners should NEVER engage in any discussion of limiting firearm ownership, particularly when it applies to specific categories of firearm.

    Contact his sponsors. He has forefieted his position as one of ‘our’ spokesmen. We’ve heard enough. Let’s send him home.

  12. Statement from Outdoor Life

    Due to the controversy surrounding Jim Zumbo’s recent postings, Outdoor Life has decided to discontinue the “Hunting With Zumbo” blog for the time being. Outdoor Life has always been, and will always be, a steadfast supporter of our Second Amendment rights, which do not make distinctions based on the looks of the firearms we choose to own, shoot and take hunting. Please direct any comments you have to OLletters@time4.com.

    http://outdoorlife.blogs.com:80/zumbo/2007/02/assault_rifles_.html

  13. There is Definitely a firestorm over this…from both sides.
    Zumbro is now a Non-entity on Outdoor Life..Remington has Dropped him and issued a public statement affirming their belief in the second amendment.
    The brady bunch has posted his article sans apology…with the usual leftist tirades and remarks.
    *sigh*
    I support the second amendment.
    thats all I’m gonna say.

  14. I have no doubt that Zumbo’s blog post will eventually be quoted by the gun-banners. However, the Brady Myspace page appears to be a fake to me. There’s nothing else up there besides Zumbo’s post, not very many friends, no link to the Brady Campaign’s actual website, and no link from the actual website to the Myspace page. Methinks its one of our side trying to prove a point.

  15. If the Second Amendment was only about hunting or gun collecting, we’d probably all have been disarmed long ago. A militia consisting of the entire adult male (and females are welcome too) population was the intent, to deter foreign aggression and to keep our own government cognizant of th sovereignty of the people. Zumbo go home. A rifle is a rifle, automatic or bolt, wood or plastic, and it’s a tool to do whatever needs to be done.

    Doug in Colorado

  16. I have been of the opinion that the 2nd amendment was to insure that those who came knocking knew that they faced weaponry at least equal to what they were carrying.
    It is Not about hunting. It is not about trap, skeet or sporting clays, benchrest or any of the other shooting disciplines. It is about my first sentence.
    My responce to each of his sponsors has been an e-mail as follows.
    “Dear Sirs,
    As a lifelong hunter and firearm owner, Mr. Zumbo’s recent blog entry is causing me to re-evaluate doing business with his sponsors.
    It would serve us well to remember that the second amendment is NOT about sporting arms, this fact has been upheld by the SCOTUS.
    Respectfully Yours,
    Bob *****

  17. Tired? Or stupid? Maybe he just wanted to quit and figured he’d get more from getting fired.
    OldeForce

  18. The response counter was around 2400 in the afternoon, but gone by dinner. The page was still up at midnite, but gone when I checked at lunch today.

    Remington’s CEO’s first response was an email to someone who posted it. He was complaining about having spent a lot of money supporting the 2A, and people were telling him they were pulling their business. The guy is pretty slow off the mark, which is not good for business these days. People were bitching that Remington’s banners were still up, and he was making no apparent effort to get them removed. When you have businesses that make bulk purchases and retail customers both returning merchandise and telling you to take your company and stuff it, you had better react instantly. Remington’s board should consider replacing him, as he is out of touch with todays internet connected world. Doesn’t matter it was a three day holiday weekend, that’s why they pay the big bucks for his position. Remington will feel the effects for some time, because of this failure to react in a timely fashion.
    Never even saw a response from any of the other sponsors. Wonder how they will fare.

    Will

  19. I notice remington’s banner ad is still on the site along with Zumbo’s name. so obviously they haven’t severed their relationship yet.

  20. FYI the email address listed on the Zumbo website is no longer accepting emails….

  21. Links aren’t working anymore, but this sounds like the typical mentality of one kind of hunter or shooter that disparages all others and doesn’t care if whole classes of firearms are banned as long as his aren’t touched.

  22. “Remington will feel the effects for some time, because of this failure to react in a timely fashion.”

    I don’t know what planet you’re posting from, but here on Earth Remington had a disclaimer announcing the severance of their business ties with Mr. Zumbo up on http://www.remington.com within 24 hours of the start of the whole kerfuffle.

  23. Tam, I was pointing out that it took him about 24hrs to finally decide to toss the idiot. If the CEO had done that with his FIRST email, before the blog was finally pulled, it would have been a lot better. Obviously, someone else in Remington finally got the point across that they were shedding customers at an exponentially increasing rate. Yes, everyone got blindsided by the idiot, but he is paid to make decisions, and he seems to have dragged his feet for far too long. The internet is an unforgiving medium regarding time, and letting it continue for another half day was foolish. I realise that we don’t know what was transpiring, but on the surface, he fumbled it. And, right or wrong, that is how it will be judged, by what can be seen.

    Will

  24. Will,

    That’s not the way it happened at all.

    Here’s the timeline of actual events:

    Friday Night: Jim posts his screwup.
    Saturday Night: The news breaks on ARFCOM.
    Sunday AM: Word hits the blogosphere. Millner posts on Zumbo’s site that Remington is “reconsidering” its relationship with Jim.
    Sunday PM: Instapundit and FreeRepublic pick up the story. Millner posts that they are severing their ties with Zumbo and an official presser will be released tomorrow. No weasel words about “our legal department is looking into contracts” like Gerber finally announced on Monday.
    Monday AM: Remington’s main web page is altered to announce the ash canning of Zumbo.

    That is moving at light speed for corporate America, especially considering that the CEO in question was on the road on the far side of the Atlantic at the time, and the whole sordid affair took place over a holiday weekend.

    The public response seems to be overwhelmingly one of praise for Remington and Millner. Fired? The board will probably give him a raise, given all the positive ink he’s generated over his timely response.

  25. I sent a question to remington’s help desk system concerning the banner ad that was still on Zumbo’s website and this is the response I got:

    Question Reference #070219-000182
    Subject: Zumbo’s idiotic blog post
    Topic: Other
    Conservation & Education
    Submitted: 02/19/2007 09:16 PM
    Last Updated: 02/20/2007 08:42 AM
    Status: Waiting

    Discussion Thread
    Response (Chris) 02/20/2007 08:42 AM
    Dear XXXXXXXX,

    We have and are working to get it removed. We appreciate your support.

    Customer (XXXXXXXX) 02/19/2007 09:16 PM
    After Jim Zumbo made it clear he had far more in common with the Brady’s than the RTKBA crowd, Remington issued a press release stating that they were severing ties with the moron, however Remington’s banner ad is still prominently displayed on the blog home page along with Zumbo’s name. So which is it? Have you severed ties or not?

  26. Remington’s webmaster can’t take down ads on Outdoor Life’s website.

    You’re emailing the wrong person.

  27. “Remington’s webmaster can’t take down ads on Outdoor Life’s website.”

    That’s it in a nutshell. Some of y’all are blaming Remington because of Outdoor Life’s actions.

    Remington is to be commended for their prompt action in this matter.

  28. Tam, as I stated previously I tried emailing Outdoor life and the email bounced. Remington has a lot of clout and has back door communications channels. they also have lawyers that can twist arms quite effectively. I’m not an idiot, I know that Remington can’t alter someone else’s website. But if the ad is coming from remington’s server they could shut off access to it.

  29. A copy of an email I just sent to Remington, with the subject “Dumbo Zumbo”:
    “Not a question, just a comment. I am in the market for a rifle – in support of your dumping Jim Zumbo, that rifle will be a Remington product. Thank you for your support of the Second Amendment and of law abiding American gun owners.”

  30. I’ve posted my thoughts over on The High Road (post #333 of the relevant thread).

    I know what it is to be the guy who nearly kills his comrades, and I know what it is to work for months to regain their trust.

    Jim’s got a lot of road ahead of him if he’s looking for redemption.

    I hope he makes it through. If he educates himself and attains enlightenment on his prejudices, and if he then unreservedly renounces his former position AND reaches out to the hunting community to unify the cause of firearms ownership, THEN he will have succeeded, and so will we all.

    ~~ ArfinGreebly (THR)

  31. I recall somebody saying Zumbo, trying to do damage control, was invoking Ted Nugent. Zumbo’s problem there is Nugent shoots AR-15/M-16 series rifles among plenty of others. I’ll have to check Nugent’s site, but I wouldn’t be surprised if Zumbo didn’t tick him off too.

    mustanger98 on THR

  32. Well, I just poked around some and didn’t find Ted Nugent saying much if anything about this. I don’t know.

    mustanger98 on THR

  33. Within a Day of Zumbo’s remarks hitting cyberspace he’s gone.
    WHAT IF? Each and every one of our Congress Critters got an email as follows;
    Dear Congress creature ————–,
    Thank you for your work on behalf of the District you represent, and in which I reside and vote. It has come to my attention that HR 1022 has the purpose of re-instating the AWB. I feel that this is against the letter, spirit, and the intent of the Second Amendment to the Constitution. Your actions on this matter will not be the deciding factor regarding my actions in the next election, however they will weigh heavily in any decisions I shall make.
    Sincerely yours;

    If they got one-half the response that Zumbo’s sponsors received as a result of his letting his true feeling be known we’d not have to worry about this ill-conceived nonsense.

  34. Millner’s first statement was a quick post in the comments section of Zumbo’s blog. I can’t prove it now, of course, since it’s gone, but I saw it, and it said “he don’t speak for Remington”, or words to that effect. Tam is right; Remington did NOT screw around with this.

  35. I think the best way Remington can nail the lid shut on this issue is to start offering the 870 in a (bayonet included) trench gun configuration 🙂

  36. Everyone’s favorite rocker, Ted Nugent, has given Jim Zumbo a chance to do an apologia this morning over at

    http://nugeboard.tednugent.com/ubb/Forum1/HTML/286904.html

    His comments look sincere, and are possibly worthy of consideration. After all, if we are buying from Smith and Colt again, and if “The Nuge” can teach Zumbo how to field strip an AR-15 blindfolded, then perhaps a prolific hunting writer is not yet gone from the scene.

  37. “I think the best way Remington can nail the lid shut on this issue is to start offering the 870 in a (bayonet included) trench gun configuration :)”

    Good idea. If the price is right, I might consider one.

    mustanger98 on THR

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