Zumbo Letter to CCRKBA (Promises to become gun banners' worst nightmare)

Mr. Alan Gottlieb, Chairman
Citizens Committee for the
Right to Keep and Bear Arms
12500 N.E. Tenth Place
Bellevue, WA 98005

Dear Alan:

They say that hindsight is always 20-20. In my case, hindsight has been a hard teacher, like the father teaching the son a lesson about life in the wood shed.

I was wrong when I recently suggested that wildlife agencies should ban semiautomatic firearms I erroneously called “assault rifles” for hunting. I insulted legions of my fellow gun owners in the process by calling them “terrorist rifles.” I can never apologize enough for having worn blinders when I should have been wearing bifocals.

But unlike those who would destroy the Second Amendment right to own a firearm – any firearm – I have learned from my embarrassing mistake. My error should not be used, as it has been in recent days by our common enemies, in an effort to dangerously erode our right to keep and bear arms.

I would hope instead to use this spotlight to address my hunting fraternity, many of whom shared my erroneous position. I am a hunter and like many others I had the wrong picture in mind. I associated these firearms with military action, and saw not hunting as I have known it, not the killing of a varmint, but the elimination of the entire colony. Nothing could be further from the truth, but I know from whence it comes. This ridiculous image, formed in the blink of an eye, exerts and unconscious effect on all decisions that follow. In seeking to protect our hunting rights by guarding how we are seen in the public eye, I lost sight of the larger picture; missed the forest for the trees.

My own lack of experience was no excuse for ignoring the fact that millions of Americans – people who would share a campfire or the shelter of their tent, and who have hurt nobody – own, hunt with and competitively shoot or collect the kinds of firearms I so easily dismissed.

I recently took a “crash course” on these firearms with Ted Nugent, to learn more about them and to educate myself. In the process, I learned about the very real threat that faces all American gun owners.

I’ve studied up on legislation now in Congress that would renew and dangerously expand a ban on many types of firearms. The bill, HR 1022 sponsored by New York Rep. Carolyn McCarthy, is written so broadly that it would outlaw numerous firearms and accessories, including a folding stock for a Ruger rifle. I understand that some of the language could ultimately take away my timeworn and cherished hunting rifles and shotguns as well as those of all American hunters.

The extremist supporters of HR 1022 don’t want to stop criminals. They want to invent new ones out of people like you and me with the simple stroke of a pen. They will do anything they can to make it impossible for more and more American citizens to legally own any firearm.

Realizing that what I wrote catered to this insidious attack on fellow gun owners has, one might say, “awakened a sleeping giant within me, and filled him with a terrible resolve.”

I made a mistake. But those who would use my remarks to further their despicable political agenda have made a bigger one. I hope to become their worst nightmare. I admit I was wrong. They insist they are right.

Enclosed, you will find a check that is intended to be used to fight and defeat HR 1022. I also hope it inspires other gun owners to “do as I do, not as I say.”

I’m putting my money where my mouth should have been, and where my heart and soul have always been. I know the Second Amendment isn’t about hunting and never has been. My blunder was in thinking that by working to protect precious hunting rights I was doing enough. I promise it will never happen again.

I don’t know what lies over the horizon for me. I am not ready for the rocking chair.

I’m going to devote every ounce of my energy to this battle. I will remind my fellow hunters that we are first, gun owners. Whether we like it or not, our former apathy and prejudices may place that which we love, hunting, in jeopardy. I will educate fellow outdoorsmen who mistakenly think like I talked, even if I have to visit every hunting camp and climb into every duck blind and deer stand in this country to get it done. I was wrong, and I’m going to make it right.

Sincerely,

I am betting on a genuine conversion. The actual reasons for the 2nd Amnd. may never have occurred to him. His thing is hunting. After his faux pas he got educated by a deluge of material in amongst the profanity etc. I would definitely give him a pass here. He is a good writer but he lived has heretofore in a very narrow valley and didn't get out much until it all got piled up right in front of him.

His apologies and his probable future writings are a net plus on the side of the RKBA, a big plus if that one faux pas article is the sum total of the "damage" done. It's not like he had spent a career trashing RKBA and then did a turnaround. He voiced an assumption of a purist who was sour on the thought of people using improper tools for the craft he loves and as a purist he didn't see any other use for those tools. It was like the thought of someone using a fine skeet gun as an entrenching tool. His problem article brought a ton of education down on him and he did not reject it. He took it in and opened his eyes. That is not to deny that the impending loss of livelihood may have triggered his successful re-education. Paraphrased -the prospect of being hung in the morning concentrates the mind wonderfully from a quote whose author I do not recall.

That would be "the Great Cham" - lexicographer and writer Dr. Samuel Johnson.

He used to earn a little extra money by ghost writing for various people. IIRC, a minister named Dodd got himself convicted of a capital offense (theft?) and was sentenced to be hanged despite all efforts to obtain a pardon.

In due course his "last goodnight" was published, and somebody noticed that his style had improved a great deal from his previously published sermons. Some of Dr. Sam's acquaintance taxed him with having "ghosted" the good reverend's final speech (which of course he had), and he responded, "When a man knows he is to be hanged in a fortnight, it concentrates his mind wonderfully."

. . . just happen to know this because I am re-reading Mr. Boswell's outstanding biography of Dr. Johnson, and the Dodd episode went by a couple of chapters ago.

If you have not read this book, do. It's a landmark in biographies, one of the first of the genre, and it's very well written and entertaining. What's more, you don't need to read it in great gulps, you can dip into it anywhere and enjoy yourself (I keep it by my bedside for that reason.)

Bill Clinton said, all you have to do is apologize.

I'm skeptical that he has changed his core attitude toward rifles based on the M16 and the AK47. I'll believe it when he lives it. It sounds to me he is making nice to get his job and money and prestige back.

I call this a good start on an apology. when I see him in the field reviewing a Colt or Bushmaster, then I'll believe this apology.

Zumbo did not make a mistake. It is not possible to make a mistake with your core beliefs. I would not write an article promoting abortion and later say, "oops, I meant it's murder". I would not write an article saying raping women is OK, and later say "oops, I meant it is evil". Or write homosexuality is wonderful, and later "oops, I meant it was a sin".

It is not possible to mistake your core beliefs. When he wrote that military-style rifles are terrorist weapons that should be banned, he meant it. No mistake was possible.

This apology is an abject lie. Anybody who believes he is sincere is being severely duped. However, AFTER he spends the rest of his lifetime hiding his true belief that these guns should be banned and AFTER he spends the rest of his lifetime fighting against the banning and restriction of every single type of firearm and cartridge, then and ONLY then will I accept his apology and forgive him, posthumously.

Until then, I hope he puts his money where his "apology" is. I will judge him by his actions, not his words, and not just his action this month. He has a long, long, long way to go before I accept his apology.

I was wrong when I recently suggested that men should have sex with 4 year old boys...

I was wrong when I recently suggested that abortion is fine...

I was wrong when I recently suggested that Communism is the best form of government...

I was wrong when I recently suggested that you should give your children LSD...

I was wrong when I recently suggested homosexuals make the best parents...

I was wrong when I recently suggested that terrorist rifles like the AR15 should be banned...

Do you all see now how hollow Zumbo's apology sounds when you put it in context. You don't make mistakes about your core beliefs. It flat isn't possible. And you don't change them easily, certainly not without a lot of thought and time and perhaps a bit of trauma.

To suggest that Zumbo suddenly "gets it" that military guns should not be banned is as absurd as the head of NARAL waking up the next day apologizing for her stance for abortion or the head of NAMBLA waking up the next day apologizing for his stance on sex with little boys. If the comparison seems extreme, I believe Zumbo's gun-banning beliefs are well within the scope of the two examples I just listed.

His apology is a lie. It becomes pretty apparent after you consider the context as I outlined above. You just don't just go for a life-time believing children need both a mother and a father, and then wake up one morning saying, "I was wrong when I recently suggested that kids need a mom and dad. Kids should be raised without a father. Gee, that is sooo much better."

You NEVER mistake your core beliefs. Never.

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