Zumbo, Petzal, etc

Zumbo, at this point, seems to have either "gotten it" or been driven to a reasonable simulcra thereof out of simple professional self-preservation. Short of going to the Brady Campaign headquarters and immolating himself while shrieking "what a fool I was, what a fool I was" there is not terribly much more he can do in terms of penance beyond a sincere attempt to go forth and sin no more.

The man has lost his credibility as a writer, his job, his major sponsors, and the goodwill of the firearms community - he's in a mighty deep hole from which to dig himself out.

He will never again have the stature he once had, and will be doing darned well to redeem himself even somewhat over several years time...and the sincerity of his apologies at this point can only be judged by his future actions. Let's not celebrate his error, or even play nice with those who might - but I think the point has been made with sufficient vigor that the constant public excoriation (no matter HOW fun it is to have a justifiable target for pent-up bile) is no
longer necessary and begins however slowly to reflect badly on us at least as much as it does our opposition.

As regards Petzal's comments - his contempt for the community for which he writes, is regrettable. He obviously fails to understand that the First Amendment is a restraint upon government, not it's citizens - and that part of the package of being a public figure is that every word, thought, and deed public or private may very well be that very word, thought, or deed that will reap the whirlwind. None of us are beyond reproach, and once one has stepped into the spotlight as a prominent representative of this group or that, it only becomes more dramatically truthful.

I am saddened by the lack of vigor in Petzal's response logs in Field & Stream, and the lack of historical and factual knowledge thereof. The claim that by a hunter that a semi-auto action somehow made a firearm unsporting or capable of burst fire...seems particularly demonstrative
of the ignorance of the Zumbo-supportive response.

Hopefully this recent trend of Zumbo and now Petzal is not catching.