Will the real David Petzal please step forward? Another Zumbo writing buddy trying to defend him (Zumbo) and having his past come back to bite him. This guy writes for Field and Stream and apparently thinks people don't remember his past BS. Perhaps this is just Petzal's definition of what the meaning of "is" is. [:@]
February 22, 2007 ZUMBOMANIA: David E. Petzal"™s take on the Jim Zumbo fiasco In case you just emerged from a coma and have not heard, the shooting world is agog over a blog posted by Jim Zumbo, former contributing editor at Outdoor Life, over the weekend of February 17.
In it, Jim stated that any semiauto rifle with an AR or AK prefix was a terrorist rifle, had no place in hunting, and should be outlawed for that purpose. Then, courtesy of the Internet and all its blogs and chatrooms, the roof fell in.
The speed with which Zumbomania spread, the number of comments it drew, and the rabid nature of same were a revelation. Overnight, this thing became as big as Janet Jackson"™s clothing failure or"”dare I say it?"”Britney Spears"™ shaved head. Jim Zumbo is now as employable as the Unabomber, and Sarah Brady will no doubt adopt his comments to her own gun-control purposes.
For the last several days I"™ve been visiting all manner of blogs and chatrooms, which has reminded me of when I used to deliver used clothing to the local mental hospital. I"™ve tried to make some sense of it all, but because the waters are still full of blood and body parts continue to rain from the sky, I haven"™t come up with any Great Truths. Lacking that, here are some Lesser Truths.......
February 23, 2007 ZUMBOMANIA, PART II: David E. Petzal responds to your comments.
As has been pointed out by those of you with long memories, I wrote a piece 13 years ago about the then-looming assault rifle ban. The story was unpopular with a lot of people, but nowhere in it did I endorse the ban, as some are claiming. I note that none of you have seen fit to haul up the many, many times I"™ve said critical things about Senators Clinton, Schumer, Feinstein, and of course our beloved former President Bubba. But then it seems that most of you who are visiting here don't read this blog, or Field & Stream, or what I've written to defend the Second Amendment over the years.
Here"™s some other relevant information: When I wrote it, black guns were not nearly as important a part of shooting as they are now. We can"™t afford to sacrifice them, just as we can"™t afford to sacrifice .50-caliber rifles (which I wrote about positively a couple of issues ago in a story called "śWay Out There"ť).
In case you"™re wondering, I"™ve been using black rifles since 1965, when I hunted woodchucks with one of the very first AR-15s sold commercially by Colt. I"™ve worked over many a prairie dog town with one AR variant or another, and if Les Baer were to send me one of his rifles (a heavy barrel flattop in .223, please), I would not send it back. I currently own an M1A. I don"™t know if that qualifies or not.
Most important, you shouldn"™t construe any of this as an apology. It isn"™t. But it is the last thing I"™m going to say in this space about the Zumbo matter.
Quote:
"Gun owners -- all gun owners -- pay a heavy price for having to defend the availability of these weapons. "The American public -- and the gun-owning public; especially the gun-owning public -- would be better off without the hardcore military arms, which puts the average sportsman in a real dilemma". An Uzi or an AKM or an AK-47 should be no more generally available than a Claymore mine or a block of C4 explosive."
David E. Petzal 1994"
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Yep, Petzal wrote that pap. Remember it very well.i wrote the editors of "Field and Stream" averystrong letter. Seems like i remember the big wheels at the magazine backing Petzal. Several of my friends cancelled their subscriptions to the magazine.
Petzal'sletter surely changed the outcome of the "assault weapons" vote in the US House. The vote was very close 216-214. Petzal is one of the first "gunwriters" to subscribe to the notion that "hunters" are different form thoseof us who legally own large capacity semi-automatic rifles.
Now just listen to Petzal back pedal when is cushy jobcould be in jeopardy:
"In case you"™re wondering, I"™ve been using black rifles since 1965, when I hunted woodchucks with one of the very first AR-15s sold commercially by Colt. I"™ve worked over many a prairie dog town with one AR variant or another, and if Les Baer were to send me one of his rifles (a heavy barrel flattop in .223, please), I would not send it back. I currently own an M1A. I don"™t know if that qualifies or not."
An Uzi or an AKM or an AK-47 should be no more generally available than a Claymore mine or a block of C4 explosive.
That isn't calling for a ban?
It should surprise no one that these quacks are working for the likes of Outdoor Life and Field & Stream. Those magazines fell out of touch with the average sportsman years ago. Deer & Deer Hunting, Turkey & Turkey Hunting, North American Whitetail, Petersen's, et cetera, those are the magazines that define what hunting is about these days.
It's a shame, too, because a copy of Field & Stream lying by the fire place conjures up powerful nostalgia. The days of Ed Zern and Gene Hill are, unfortunately, gone. I cancelled my subscription several years ago (around '98 or so) because of comments on their letters page. They would print letters of readers who were being a little critical of their columns, or correcting a point or two that was made in the columns, etc. And they were printing rebuttals from their columnists that were so arrogant and rude that it was almost unbelieveable. Things like "When you've been shooting as long as I have . . ." Field & Stream has become a magazine of writers who feel that they're elite and above reproach, and a lot of it has to do because they have an editor (White) who feels he is above reproach.
Anyway, I'm not sure how I got off on a rant about the shortcomings of those magazines. Suffice it to say, though, that I don't read what Zumbo or Petzal have to say except what turns up online. I've never been a big fan of Zumbo, but I'd read his stuff sitting in the dentist's waiting room. Petzal, I've never had a lot of use for. I've read that he is supposedly among today's outdoors legends. Ha! He's hardly worthy to sit at Gene Hill's typewriter. "Legendary" status is best saved for those who work to preserve the hunting privilege, not those who work to tear it down by supporting ludicrous federal legislation.
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David Petzal--Another Anti-Gun Gunwriter
