[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 153 (2007), Part 5]
[Senate]
[Page 6848]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                            ASSAULT WEAPONS

  Mr. LEVIN. 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 Web site, has 
appeared with NRA officials in 70 cities across the country. This 
relationship changed drastically when Jim expressed his commonsense 
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 outdoorsmen. 
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.

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