I’ve found the tendency of publication in the gun world to fire editors and writers after they write any criticism of the uncontrolled spread of guns to be fascinating. My previous diary “If You Think Gun Nuts Were Unfair to Metcalf . . . .” was about the extreme reaction in the case of Jerry Tsai of Recoil magazine. Well, before that incident the was the case of Jim Zumbo who was an extremely famous hunting writer who wrote about assault rifles in his blog in 2007:
As hunters, we don't need to be lumped into the group of people who terrorize the world with them. . . . I'll go so far as to call them 'terrorist' rifles.
He was fired, of course. Fired with extreme prejudice. Fortunately, the gun industry doesn’t define the extreme prejudice the same way as in spy movies and it was at a time when the gun industry didn’t feel the need to be so adamant and unforgiving. His TV show was back on the air after 5 months and he has slowly built back credibility with the industry.
In the last few weeks, there has been a lot of publicity about the firing of Dick Metcalf from Guns & Ammo magazine including an article and an editorial in the New York Times.
It appears the the pressure has had some effect. Jim Zumbo is the recipient of the POMA/NSSF Grits Gresham Shooting Sports Communicator Award. The SHOT Show press release quotes Grits Gresham's son Tom Gresham in making the presentation:
After a lifetime of writing magazine articles and books, hosting Jim Zumbo Outdoors, and lecturing about hunting and hunting guns, Jim almost had his great body of work erased by a single mistake, which, in fact, may have done more to educate hunters than everything else he has done.
So the the gun media and industry are capable of backing off if it meets their needs. They seem to be more calculating than emotion driven. The gun nut public is another matter. If you want to know how they feel, read the comments to a quote from Dick Metcalf in The Truth About Guns.