Tom Gresham's Thoughts on the "Zumbo Effect"
Tipping Point -- Suicide on the Web
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"......When Tom Diaz, of the Violence Policy Center, was on Gun Talk, I forced him to admit that he would like to ban all guns. What about the police, I asked. Once we get all the other guns, he said, the police won't need their guns, either.
A ban on black guns, or "Saturday Night Specials," or 50-caliber rifles, is a ban on all our guns. There is no such thing as a bad gun or a good gun. We can't throw babies off the back of the sled, thinking it will keep the wolves away from us......."
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Labels: Zumbo
posted by Xavier at 6:16 PM
12 Comments:
"Now, the real question is whether we can generate that kind of response when we need to defeat a gun ban. Can we melt down mail servers of elected representatives the way gun owners hammered the servers at various companies? I don't know."
I have my doubts. Nothing provokes rage and retribution like an apostate. When one of your own turns against you, it's as traumatic as it gets.
While I'd like to think that the same level of reaction can be summoned to resist the usual suspect gun-banners, I have to see it to believe it.
Something else that played a factor here that is not operative when it comes to influencing politicians. The RTKBA crowd had a very big hammer to weild. That hammer was money. Both Outdoor life, Remington and other sponsors, are commercial entities that live and die by profit. take away that profit, and you have your hands around their very throats. Such a handle is non-existant on politicians, they live and die by campaign contributions and votes, but they have a built in buffer in that those who would be angry with them must maintain that anger until the politician comes back up for re-election, and then the opponent must be better than the the bastard already in office. that is a mighty hard thing to achieve.
Tom Gresham says:
. . . I made a comment about our willingness to eat our own. Some of that was based on hearing gunnies say that they won't buy Ruger firearms because of something Bill Ruger said two decades ago. Hey, the man is dead and buried.
Tom, it wasn't just what Bill Ruger said, but what he did as a representative of his company. He pulled a S&W for himself and his company years before the British owned, shadow of it's current self, Smith and Wesson did. The NRA letting itself be bought off by the The William B. Ruger Endowment was almost as bad.
The S&W incident by itself is proof that we're more than willing to forgive when appropriate actions are taken.
The final nail in the coffin was when-- Sunday afternoon -- the Brady Campaign (the leading group working to restrict gun rights) posted Zumbo's comments to several places on the net, saying, in effect, "See, even the top hunting writer says these rifles have no legitimate use."
I've only seen the "Brady" MySpace page publish that, although that information was copied verboten around the net. Still, the "Brady" MySpace page appeared over the same weekend suddenly. There's nothing of note on the official Brady Campaign Against Gun Ownership, if there was, the firestorm would have shifted there too. I'm pretty sure the myspace page is a fake.
Now, the real question is whether we can generate that kind of response when we need to defeat a gun ban. Can we melt down mail servers of elected representatives the way gun owners hammered the servers at various companies? I don't know.
I don't know either. I surely hope something has changed. We are the NRA, but I don't think the NRA has yet to acknowledge the event yet. Seeing as the Second Amendment Foundation has been their surrogate brass balls lately, I'm not sure what to expect. It would be nice to see the NRA stop worrying about any remaining Zumbos in our family and actually go on the offensive and restore a few of our rights again, something they almost completely failed to do when they had the firearms friendly congress that they claimed we had.
Gresham is correct; it's not about our personal approval of a style of firearm, but our unwavering support of the U.S. Constitution, Libertarian-style (a free American can act as he pleases as long as he harms no other).
But Xavier, there certainly is a psychological rift among the subgroups of firearms afficianados. You are cool towards Glocks, as I am, because they are efficient but soul-less. Many, again including myself, have a similar but more intense repulsion for the avalanche of roughbuilt copy SKS's and AK47's that in some ways do threaten the comparatively genteel circle of lovers of history and quality workmanship embodied in a fine old Colt or Parker...to the degree that many traditional gunshow customers now avoid the paramilitary bazaars that many have become.
And yet, when the hurricanes of 2004 raked over our central FL town and anarchy ala New Orleans was a real possibility, what did I take home from my pawn and gun shop for my family's protection? Two Egyptian Maadi AK's with a dozen 30rd. mags and a case of Russian 7.62X39. Thank God they weren't needed, but thank Him even more, and thank the framers, that I was free to prepare to protect my family and my home as I saw fit.
I may not think it's such a hot idea to pump all these die-stamped, high-efficency high-power high-capacity receivers with their stocks whittled from 2X4's into the hands of 18 year old future stars of your Idiots With Guns series, but I DON'T GET TO DECIDE! IT'S NOT ABOUT WHAT I LIKE! IT'S NOT ABOUT THE HARDWARE! AND MOST OF ALL IT'S NOT ABOUT WHAT POLITICIANS OR GUNGRABBERS THINK IS BEST FOR ME OR FOR AMERICA! WHAT THE HELL DO THEY KNOW?
So that's why Mr. Zumbo is now for all intents and purposes, unemployed. Harsh? Maybe, and I do feel empathy for him; he is emblematic of much of what is worth fighting for in the guerrila war of gun control. His brand of gentleman's club hunting and shooting is an integral component among collectors and afficionados. But it's only one of many levels of firearms appreciation and every one of them must be protected with everything we have, because every part is critical to the whole; any cracks or denigration from within can rapidly spread and decay the rights of all who fervently believe in and protect the Second Amendment. You, Xavier, nurse, gunnie, poet, Renaissance man, understand that central truth.
For a professional writer, a lifelong proponent, protector, and promoter of one segment of gunning to not understand that cohesion, not division, is critical to his continued enjoyment of his chosen interests, is inexcusable, unexplainable, unacceptable, and ultimately fatal to his position of helping shape Americans views of firearms, their use, and their place in America's past, present, and future. Good bye, Sir; good riddance, and good luck in your retirement. jtc
Here is an email I sent to Mr. Gresham:
In “Suicide on the Web (http://www.guntalk.com/site.php?pageID=15&newsID=12),” you wrote that “We must find a way to ‘Zumbo’ our attackers in Congress, in the state houses, and wherever they assault our rights.”
We HAVE a found a way.
It is called “In Search of the Second Amendment” (http://www.secondamendmentdocumentary.com/).
I have shown this documentary to numerous “fence sitters” in the camps of pro- and anti-gun ideology.
They (including women) have unanimously concluded aloud:
“Wow.”
“I want to buy a gun.”
“The Second Amendment recognizes a PRE-EXISTING NATURAL RIGHT to armed self-defense.”
“The Second Amendment says we can have ‘assault rifles’.”
“The Founding Fathers wrote the Second Amendment with the specific intention of keeping us armed against the government.”
“The Second Amendment really means that WE are the militia.”
“The Militia is NOT the ‘National Guard’.”
“The Militia is NOT our ‘professional standing army’.”
“Even the ‘Liberal’ legal scholars agree that the Second Amendment says that all law-abiding persons of sound mind may have a gun.”
“The Second Amendment is not about duck hunting.”
“The Second Amendment is not about owning guns for ‘sporting purposes’.”
“The government has no legal power to regulate any firearms uses by lawful and law-abiding firearms owners.”
I am buying this dvd by the gross and distributing them to everyone I know.
If you have not seen it, watch it.
If you care about the Second Amendment, tell others to do the same.
Standard Mischief:
The Myspace Brady site is real.
http://www.bradycampaign.org/bradyreport/2007/february/mobilizing/index.php
"The RTKBA crowd had a very big hammer to weild. That hammer was money. Both Outdoor life, Remington and other sponsors, are commercial entities that live and die by profit. take away that profit, and you have your hands around their very throats. Such a handle is non-existant on politicians, they live and die by campaign contributions and votes..."
An EXCELLENT point. Politicians don't really have to worry about mundane little niceties like where their next buck is coming from, and the electorate has proven time and again its long-term memory problem, so the situation is not really analogous. The BIG difference between private entities and pols is the immediacy factor.
That's where the 'Net and blogs can really help by keeping issues of political betrayal alive and uppermost in voters' minds.
DAL357
I like how Tam put it best:
On Friday evening, a gunwriter who was apparently tired of his 42-year career put his word processor in his mouth and pulled the trigger.
http://booksbikesboomsticks.blogspot.com/2007/02/army-of-davids-illustrated.html
the NRA was a tad slow off the mark but now they are jumping on the bandwagon too:
http://www.nraila.org/News/Read/InTheNews.aspx?ID=8952
Everyone's favorite rocker, Ted Nugent, has given Jim Zumbo a chance to do an apologia this morning over at
http://nugeboard.tednugent.com/ubb/Forum1/HTML/
286904.html
His comments look sincere, and are possibly worthy of consideration. After all, if we are buying from Smith and Colt again, and if "The Nuge" can teach Zumbo how to field strip an AR-15 blindfolded, then perhaps a prolific hunting writer is not yet gone from the scene.
Yuri Orlov said...
The Myspace Brady site is real. http://www.bradycampaign.org/bradyreport/2007/february/mobilizing/index.php
Yuri, Thanks. I don't mind being corrected but I went to the URL you linked to and didn't see anything. It's possible that the page was changed. What did you see?
Update: I just looked at the myspace bradycampaign page again. I'm still sure that when it appeared it had nothing to do with bradycampaign.org. I still believe that is the case.
However, it appears that now it's in the brady bunch's control. at least one graphic is being pulled off the bradycampaign.org server (which works great as a "hit counter", BTW)
http://www.bradycampaign.org/xshare/myspace/images/stoptheNRAcom.jpg
As of this moment (22feb07), there is no mention of the Zumbo incident on the brady myspace page.
So what seems to have happened is that a lone nut threw the page up initially, yet now somehow the brady bunch have asserted control.
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