Jim Zumbo

Jim Zumbo is a formerly prominent firearms and hunting commentator and writer. Until February 2007, he was the Hunting Editor for "Outdoor Life" magazine and host of the television program "Jim Zumbo Outdoors" on The Outdoor Channel. He was removed from both positions after he condemned the use of non-traditional looking, semi-automatic rifles such as the AR-15 and AK-47 for hunting in his blog.

Career and interests

Zumbo holds degrees in forestry and wildlife biology. Before becoming a writer, he worked as a forester and wildlife biologist for 15 years. He wrote his first article for "Outdoor Life" in 1962, and became a full-time employee of the magazine in 1978. His main focus is on big game hunting. He has written 23 books and approximately 1,500 articles for outdoor magazines. Zumbo is also a lecturer on big game hunting and firearms for organizations like the National Rifle Association and a successful wildlife photographer. [" [http://www.jimzumbo.com/biography.html Jim Zumbo's biography] ," www.jimzumbo.com.]

"'Terrorist' rifles" blog entry

On February 16, 2007, Zumbo published an entry on his blog which read, in part:

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. [" [http://razoreye.net/mirror/zumbo/zumbo_assault_rifles.html Assault Rifles for Hunters?] " "Hunting with Zumbo" blog.]

Many members of the firearms community were outraged that Zumbo was publicly demanding an outright ban on a type of popular sporting rifle for reasons of personal bias. [" [http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/02/23/AR2007022301709.html 'Terrorist' Remark Puts Outdoorsman's Career in Jeopardy] ", by Blaine Harden. "The Washington Post", February 24, 2007, p. A03.] In response to the flood of threatened boycotts, Remington Arms' CEO Tommy Millner fired Zumbo as a spokesman on February 19, [http://www.remington.com/library/press/2007/2007-1.asp Remington] 2007.] The Outdoor Channel announced that Zumbo programming would be on a temporary hiatus, but did not sever their affiliations with Zumbo. His online blog was discontinued "for the time being" by "Outdoor Life" on February 19. [http://outdoorlife.blogs.com/zumbo/2007/02/ Zumbo] , Outdoor Life 2007-02.] "Outdoor Life" subsequently dropped him completely, stating on its webpage that Zumbo would no longer be contributing to the publication once the last of his columns already to press had been printed. Gerber Knives and Mossy Oak severed all of their business dealings with Zumbo as well, as did a majority of his other sponsors.

Aftermath

The speed with which calls for Zumbo's termination were acted on by his sponsors and employers (initial responses from sponsors occurred within a 36-hour period after he posted the first of two blog entries on the topic) were seen by many participants as evidence of the power of the Internet and of the "new media," including the "blogosphere," to influence and shape sociopolitical events. "The New York Times" published an editorial March 3rd 2007 criticizing the destruction of Zumbo's career as overkill and avoidance of healthy debate. [ " [http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/03/opinion/03sat2.html Overkill] ." "The New York Times", March 3, 2007 ] Two weeks after the blog appeared Mr. Zumbo was invited by NRA board member Ted Nugent to an "education" session at Nugent's Texas 'ranch.' [http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2007/06/03/business/600-rifle-01.jpg(Picture)] Jim was lectured on the sporting uses of AR type rifles by Ted and two Texas outdoor writers. [Junction Eagle, Outdoors Outback, by Kendall Hemphill, March 7, 07, see discussion page for partial transcript. ]

On March 20th, a month after Zumbo's column was published,anti gun Senator Carl Levin joined in those commenting on the events, praising Zumbo for "his forthrightness, his honesty and his courage" and calling the response "swift and callous," in a speech that supported the renewal of the Assault Weapons Ban. [ [http://www.senate.gov/~levin/newsroom/release.cfm?id=270988 03-20-2007 - A Bit of Truth about Assault Weapons : Senator Carl Levin: News Release ] ] Zumbo in turn published "An Open Letter to the United States Senate", saying his statements had been misrepresented and attacking Levin for his support of gun control legislation as an infringement on the Second Amendment. [ [http://www.nraila.org/News/Read/InTheNews.aspx?ID=9177 Jim Zumbo Letter to the U.S. Senate Opposing a Ban on "Assault Weapons"] ]

References

External links

* [http://www.jimzumbo.com Jim Zumbo (site)]
* [http://outdoorlife.blogs.com/zumbo/2007/02/ Hunting With Jim Zumbo (blog)]
* [http://www.nytimes.com/2007/06/03/business/yourmoney/03rifle.html?ei=5088&en=dc9405d01a71927e&ex=1338523200&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss&pagewanted=all A Hot Selling Weapon, An Inviting Target]