Outdoor Life magazine has fired him. The Outdoor Channel has suspended his “Jim Zumbo Outdoors” TV show. Remington Arms and other companies have withdrawn their sponsorship. The National Rifle Association has denounced him. A career built over four decades apparently ended in the time it took to click the “Send” button on a computer - almost as quickly as a speeding bullet flies.
The Blog post that led to this:
“I must be living in a vacuum,” he wrote. “The guides on our hunt tell me that the use of AR (-15) and AK (-47) 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. 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 prairies and woods.”
Really that’s absolutely stupid. If the hunt is legal with the caliber what’s wrong with hunting with a gun that looks a bit different than what Zumbo chooses. An AK-47 7.62 x 39 is pretty much similar to a 30-30. Is a deer going to suffer because he was shot with a bullet from a gun that Zumbo considers ugly?
There is also plenty of game that is legal to take with a 223. So is someone supposed to forgo the accuracy and user friendliness of the AR-15 just because it doesn’t have a fake wood stock?
There are literally millions of AK-47 and AR-15 owners in this country. Zumbo said they were terrorist weapons. Apparently he thinks I am a terrorist. I might be a poor terrorist but that’s about all you can hang on me.
Apparently Zumbo is terrified of low-powered firearms that he considers ugly. And since he doesn’t like them he thinks they ought to be banned, not for their intrinsic use as a hunting firearm, but because of their appearance.
I hate to see someone fired for speaking their mind. I would have rather that the viewers that object quit watching him. But in this case the guy has painted himself so far in a corner that losing his show was inevitable.