What Jim said was ill-considered. He’s entitled to his beliefs, but when a writer of his stature comes out against black guns, it sure as hell does not help our cause. [More]Kind of like what you did back in 1994, Mr. Petzal, just a few months before the federal semiauto ban was passed and signed into law?
"Gun owners -- all gun owners -- pay a heavy price for having to defend the availability of these weapons," writes Petzal. "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" Petzal concludes by advocating compromise, something that Knox and other members of his regime say they will never accept.
Here's something else I don't get, Mr. Petzal, when you go on to say:
If Sarah Brady is smart—and she is very smart—she will comb through the same blogs and chatrooms I’ve been reading, excerpt some of the most vicious and foul-mouthed entries, print them up, and distribute them to Congress.
So you think it will hurt us worse than your anti-gun advocacy, or this bit of information publicized by your magazine and used by the gun grabbers to justify the '94 ban?
In 2003, Field & Stream magazine conducted a survey of its readers and found that 67% do not consider assault weapons to be legitimate hunting guns.
I wasn't ready to post this yet, because I sent away for the copy of F&S where you wrote your screed against "hard core military arms," Mr. Petzal, and wanted to post the actual page. But I see others on your blog are calling you on it and I don't want to be late to the party, especially when I've been holding off for several days now.
Back when you penned your column, I actually organized a boycott against your magazine at one of our NRA Members Council meetings (I was an officer with the club) and got probably a dozen others to send in protest letters to the magazine. Of course, that was back in the days before we were on the internet, so the rest of the world never got the message. But when this whole Zumbo fiasco broke out, I remembered that effort and dug through my files. I found the "talking points" sheet I put together to give suggestions to members on how to write their own letters to both NRA and F&S. Here it is:
I think you, sir, have some explaining to do.