Hunting With Jim Zumbo

Hey - wanna see what happens when you piss off gun owners? Click on the link above and see.

The back story is that Jim Zumbo went off on a personal rant about how scary-looking rifles like AR-15s and AK-47s don't belong in hunting venues, and should be banned from public hunting lands.

This ignorant tirade in an otherwise pro-gun publication, sponsored by a firearms manufacturer was what we in the corporate world call a CLM: Career-Limiting Move.

Since Outdoor Life has closed Mr. Zumbo's blog, I'll present you with the text below. I can't say what Jim Zumbo was thinking when he wrote this silliness, but I'm sure he thought the Second Amendment only applied to hunting, and not the right to keep and bear arms. I bet he knows better now.

Assault Rifles For Hunters?
As I write this, I'm hunting coyotes in southeastern Wyoming with Eddie Stevenson, PR Manager for Remington Arms, Greg Dennison, who is senior research engineer for Remington, and several writers. We're testing Remington's brand new .17 cal Spitfire bullet on coyotes.

I must be living in a vacuum. The guides on our hunt tell me that the use of AR and AK rifles have a rapidly growing following among hunters, especially prairie dog hunters. I had no clue. Only once in my life have I ever seen anyone using one of these firearms.

I call them "assault" rifles, which may upset some people. Excuse me, maybe I'm a traditionalist, but I see no place for these weapons among our hunting fraternity. I'll go so far as to call them "terrorist" rifles. They tell me that some companies are producing assault rifles that are "tackdrivers."

Sorry, folks, in my humble opinion, these things have no place in hunting. 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."

This really has me concerned. As hunters, we don't need the image of walking around the woods carrying one of these weapons. To most of the public, an assault rifle is a terrifying thing. Let's divorce ourselves from them. I say game departments should ban them from the praries [sic] and woods.

Seriously, have you ever seen anything as ignorant from an allegedly pro-gun writer? Adios, Zumbo...we hardly knew ye.