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<DIV class=timestamp>March 3, 2007</DIV>
<DIV class=kicker><NYT_KICKER>Editorial</NYT_KICKER></DIV>
<H1><NYT_HEADLINE type=" " version="1.0">Overkill
</NYT_HEADLINE></H1><NYT_BYLINE type=" "
version="1.0"></NYT_BYLINE><NYT_TEXT></NYT_TEXT>
<DIV id=articleBody>
<P>A famous hunter and outdoorsman recently voiced misgivings about people who
use assault rifles to kill prairie dogs. </P>
<P>Everyone knows what a prairie dog is: a chubby North American rodent that
lives in a communal burrow and grows to be about a foot long. “Assault rifle” is
a much touchier term. It is generally understood to be the kind of gun that
soldiers use in wars and terrorists use on the evening news. But the gun lobby
despises “assault rifle,” considering it a false, scary label tacked onto
perfectly legitimate weapons by people who want to take away others’ rights.
</P>
<P>That is a debate for another day. The question for now is whether the hunter,
Jim Zumbo, deserved what he got after he wrote on his blog that hunters should
shun what he called assault rifles — semiautomatics like the AR-15, a cousin of
the M-16, and civilian knockoffs of the AK-47. “Excuse me, maybe I’m a
traditionalist,” he wrote, “but I see no place for these weapons among our
hunting fraternity.” He added: “To most of the public, an assault rifle is a
terrifying thing. Let’s divorce ourselves from them. I say game departments
should ban them from the prairies and woods.”</P>
<P>Until he wrote that, Mr. Zumbo was one of the most admired hunters in
America, a widely read magazine writer with his own cable TV program and lots of
lecture appearances and corporate sponsorships. He of all people should have
known that “ban” is the mother of all fighting words to gun zealots. His
250-word posting caused a huge eruption on gun blogs, and Mr. Zumbo instantly
became their second-most-hated man, after the gun-control advocate James Brady.
Even though Mr. Zumbo quickly disavowed his words and apologized, he lost his
blog, was dumped by Outdoor Life magazine and was disowned by the National Rifle
Association, after 40 years of membership. His corporate sponsors, including the
gunmaker Remington, ditched him. His cable show was canceled. The N.R.A. issued
a chilling statement warning Congress to take heed of Mr. Zumbo’s fate. By the
time Blaine Harden told his story in The Washington Post, Mr. Zumbo was
professionally dead.</P>
<P>The paranoia and gloating that Mr. Zumbo’s name has evoked on gun discussion
boards like <A href="http://ar15.com/" target=_>ar15.com</A> and <A
href="http://freerepublic.com/" target=_>freerepublic.com</A> speak for
themselves. You will find only a handful of postings suggesting cautiously that
the overnight destruction of a man’s career might not be the proudest moment for
the advocates of gun rights. One or two say that instead of cementing their
reputations for reflexively enshrining gun ownership above everything, they
might have asked Mr. Zumbo what he was talking about. They might even have had a
healthy debate. But they shot first.</P></DIV></DIV></BODY></HTML>