The National Rifle Association is apparently so focused on the 2nd Amendment that they forgot about the 1st. Jim Zumbo, television personality, author and gun-rights champion for over 40 years, has seen his career destroyed in less then a week after expressing his opinion about hunters using assault weapons, "especially those gunning for prairie dogs."
This is the quote that destroyed Zumbo:
"Excuse me, maybe I'm a traditionalist, but I see no place for these weapons among our hunting fraternity," Zumbo wrote in his blog on the Outdoor Life Web site. The Feb. 16 posting has since been taken down. "As hunters, we don't need to be lumped into the group of people who terrorize the world with them. . . . I'll go so far as to call them 'terrorist' rifles."
Zumbo had one of the highest-rated shows on the Outdoor Channel, has written for Outdoor Life magazine since 1962, has been the darling of gun manufacturers (and was in fact on a Remington-sponsored hunt when he committed gun-blasphemy on his blog), and a champion of gun-owner's rights. Yet, after making one statement that ran counter to NRA doctrine, his career, as Blaine Harden's MSNBC article concludes, "appears to be over."
His show is no longer on the air. He has "resigned" as editor of Outdoor Life, and sponsors have dropped him like he's hot, even making public statements that throw Zumbo under the proverbial bus because they fear a boycott.
The rabid, frenzied assault on Zumbo has been touted by the NRA as a warning to the new congress, and to anyone who dares to challenge them. Regardless of your opinion about gun ownership, destroying a person's career and livelihood because they express their opinion in public is flat-out fascism. We can only hope that this opens the eyes of moderate NRA members to the nature of the NRA.