Welcoming the new and improved....

Jim Zumbo.

Yes, that's "Jim Zumbo", as in the Zumbo Affair.

Geek With A .45 is reporting that Jim has written an open letter to the US Senate in which he absolutely rebukes Sen. Carl Levin for using his now infamous "ARs are terrorist weapons" blog post to support his gun grabbing agenda.

Mr. Zumbo, welcome to the gun culture. It's good to have you with us. Stop by the house and we'll take Mr. M1 and Mr. SAR-8 out to the range and introduce you to some seriously evil not-black rifles.

The curious case of Derek J. Hale

(Via War Rifles)

The family of a former Marine who was given multiple electric shocks and then shot to death by police sued Friday, claiming the officers used excessive force and violated the man's constitutional rights.

The "former Marine" in question was Derek J. Hale, a retired Marine Sergeant with two tours in Iraq, and who was decorated before being medical discharged for combat-related wounds in January 2006.

Hale had joined the Pagans motorcycle club some months before, and fell under suspicion because of that membership. By all reports Hale wasn't a typical member, but it's perfectly possible he wasn't a choirboy, either.

Nonetheless...

He died in a puddle of his own vomit, shot 3 times in the chest after being Tasered 3 times by the Wilmington, DE SWAT team. All non-police witnesses claim that Hale never threatened the police, and was trying as best he could to comply with their orders. Of course, after being Tasered 3 times in succession, doing anything that requires a level of physical dexterity above that necessary to wet yourself is going to be a bit difficult.

Seems a bit hard to justify, if you ask me.

That hand you feel in your pocket

"No man’s life, liberty or property are safe while the Legislature is in session." This saying is attributed to Gideon J. Tucker, and has been used by countless individuals since its initial 1866 use.

In North Carolina, it's becoming something of a gallows humor catchphrase this year. It can be applied to a number of new or increased taxes being proposed throughout the state. Many of them will apply to your home, and especially the sale of your home. The NC Association of Realtors has the scoop on those.

Of course, those with the power to destroy don't really care about the impact of their actions on the citizens they are supposed to represent. If they did, they'd work to find ways to make government less expensive, rather than ways to throw more money into its maw.

Better and better

North Carolina, already famous as one of the states where it's easiest for an illegal alien to get a driver's license, has now set its sights on becoming the voter fraud capital of the nation.

Someone once said that we get the government we deserve. Well, it seems that we're getting it good and hard on this one.

Here's a proposal I can get behind

As a Tar Heel (but not a UNC fan, I need to note), I'd like to urge my fellow North Carolinians to write/email/call/fax their state Representatives and urge them to co-sponsor or otherwise get behind HR 831. This bill is a first step toward eliminating some of the oddball restrictions we concealed carry permittees face in our state--we'll be allowed to carry in restaurants that serve alcohol if this passes.

I love the smell of freedom being restored, even in a small way.

A World Without Oil, anyone?

Many training exercises are based on scenarios. "You arrive home, open the door and are confronted by an intruder. What do you do?" "You're stopped at a red light, and a man with a gun orders you out of your car. What do you do?"

How about this one..."There is a massive oil shock. For some reason, the United States is unable to import any more oil. All we have is what we produce domestically. What do you do?"

CNET News has this on a game, funded by PBS, about just this occurrence. While the details aren't available yet, World Without Oil will go live on April 30. CNET reports "...the game will essentially encourage people to envision--through characters who are blogging and writing stories--a world in which the United States has been cut off from oil imports. Then, visitors will be urged to participate in the game by writing their own stories, creating videos or even by conjuring so-called flash mobs in U.S. cities."

It's an interesting premise. Could it happen? Maybe--I lived through the original oil shock, and it was an interesting time. If nothing else, we can view it like the TV show Jericho. While it isn't realistic, it may serve to help awaken the sleepers.

Failing memory

I can't remember if I've linked the M1 Carbine Notes pdf from ODCMP or not. If I haven't, here it is, if I have, well, it's worth doing again. If you have an M1 Carbine, you need this file.

We knew it was a matter of time

(Via War Rifles)

As I and many others noted during the Zumbo Affair, it was only a matter of time before the gun grabbers used his words against us. I'm honestly surprised it took so long--this from Sen. Carl Levin, Moonbat-MI and uber-gun grabber:

Mr. President, the National Rifle Association leadership has stated repeatedly that a ban on assault weapons is ineffective and unnecessary. They assert that guns labeled as assault weapons are rarely used in violent crimes and that most people use them for hunting. However, despite these repeated assertions, the list of people speaking out against assault weapons continues to grow.

Jim Zumbo, an outdoors entrepreneur who lives in a log cabin near Yellowstone National Park, has spent much of his life writing for prominent outdoor magazines, delivering lectures across the country and who starred in a highly rated TV show about big-game hunting. Jim has been an NRA member for 40 years, and, according to his website, has appeared with NRA officials in 70 cities across the country. This relationship changed drastically when Jim expressed his common sense opinion on assault weapons.

Last month, after learning that some hunters were using assault weapons to hunt prairie dogs, Jim expressed his thoughts in his personal blog on the Outdoor Life magazine website. He wrote “Maybe I’m a traditionalist, but I see no place for these weapons among our hunting fraternity. I’ll go so far as to call them ‘terrorist rifles.’” He continued by stating that in his “humble opinion, these things have no place in hunting. We don’t need to be lumped into the group of people who terrorize the world with them, which is an obvious concern. I’ve always been comfortable with the statement that hunters don’t use assault rifles. We’ve always been proud of our ‘sporting firearms.’”

The reaction from NRA officials was swift and callous. They immediately severed all ties with Mr. Zumbo. His TV program on the Outdoor Channel was canceled, and his longtime career with Outdoor Life magazine ended. In addition many of his corporate ties to the biggest names in gun making, such as Remington Arms Co., were terminated.

Jim Zumbo has worked for years to improve the image of outdoorsman. As he put it, “As hunters, we don’t need the image of walking around the woods carrying one of these weapons. 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.”

We all owe Jim Zumbo a debt of gratitude for his forthrightness, his honesty and his courage. We must put the safety of our communities first by taking up and passing sensible gun legislation that includes renewing the assault weapons ban.

(I've taken the liberty of quoting the entire piece, since it doesn't lend itself to excerpt.)

I love how it was the NRA that did Zumbo in. I guess Levin is just trying for a cheap twofer. As I recall, it was the power of the Internet, embodied in a number of firearms discussion forums and various gun bloggers who went after Zumbo first and hardest. It was emails to his sponsors that had them taking action in less than 24 hours. It was 3-4 days before the NRA got on this, and by then Zumbo already had a fork in him--he was done. (Just like a moonbat to not allow the truth to get in the way of a good story.)

You know, Ted Nugent, Tom Gresham and some others are all telling us how sorry Zumbo is, and Ted especially will tell you how Zumbo has apologized for his ill-considered words, how he is a born-again Second Amendment Absolutist and how he deserves our forgiveness. Maybe, maybe not.

If he wants me to forgive him, he needs to track down Senator Levin and every other gun grabber that uses his words against us, get in their faces and tell them what a born again sort of gun guy he is. If I find out he's doing that, then he'll get my words of forgiveness--right here, in the same space where I've damned him.

Got something to say, Jim?