Not about Zumbo

It’s time for the discussion to turn from Jim Zumbo, the person. Short of excommunicating him from humanity, he’s been brought about as low as possible, and perhaps lower than necessary. Claire Wolfe has an excellent post on this subject, and I suggest you take the time to go read it. Then take some time and think about it.

Zumbo himself said “Maybe in a roundabout way we can bring something good out of this.“It’s time for the gun culture to stop beating Zumbo and start talking–and listening–to each other. Zumbo may have been wrong on ARs and AKs, but he was right about one thing–something good needs to come from this.

You may have noted that last night’s post was far less about Zumbo and what happened to him than it was about a fairly obvious difference in how hunters, as opposed to shooters, understand the history and meaning of the Second Amendment.

We can’t tolerate further Zumbo Affairs. Not just because so many of us see it as a betrayal of a brother in arms, but because in the end, we’re playing right into the hands of the gun grabbers. If we continue fighting among ourselves, we’ll have no energy to fight our real enemy–the people who want to take our guns. And make no mistake, they want them all.

It’s time for the same grassroots activism that has cost Zumbo his career to turn to more constructive pursuits. Start by writing or emailing your Congressional Representative and ask them to work against the pass of HR 1022. Join the NRA, GOA, JFPO or your local Second Amendment group. Write letters to the editor of your local old media rag. Go to the range, buy a gun, and buy ammo. Go shoot. Take your friends and family to shoot.

Do something constructive with all that anger, folks.

(Edit 2/28/2007 1949: edited to remove the phrase “eating our own”. I didn’t realize just how stupid that sounded until I heard it on the 2/18 podcast of Tom Gresham’sGun Talkand he used it. We weren’t eating one of our own–Jim Zumbo was never one of us “gunnies”. He’s a hunter, and the only reason he owned any guns is because he needed them for hunting. The Second Amendment means bupkis to him.

I’m sorry for that poor turn of phrase. Please accept my apology.)