Gun owners shoot their own...and eat them.

I am not a fan of hunting. It seems mean, pointless, and more about a blood lust then anything. I tried fishing as a kid, but you end up with a fish with a hook in it, and either have to rip it out and throw it back or keep and eat it, and I don't like fish all that much.

But, at least, when people have a love for the sport, the hunt, and/or intend to eat their catch...eh. There is something very off when it is all about some beer, buck shot, and getting to kill.

So, we have a story of one of those sort, the ones who have a love of the land, and living off it. A hero of sorts, to hunters.

Jim Zumbo. A mustachioed, barrel-chested outdoors entrepreneur who lives in a log cabin near Yellowstone National Park, he has spent much of his life writing for prominent outdoors magazines, delivering lectures across the country and starring in cable TV shows about big-game hunting in the West.

He was beloved. He was admired. Notice the word "was".

"Excuse me, maybe I'm a traditionalist, but I see no place for these weapons among our hunting fraternity," Zumbo wrote in his blog on the Outdoor Life Web site. The Feb. 16 posting has since been taken down. "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."

A honest comment. An offered opinion about assault rifles, about their need in the general public's hands. What a great way to open a debate many are loathed to have start. Brought from within the community. Well...

The reaction -- from tens of thousands of owners of assault rifles across the country, from media and manufacturers rooted in the gun business, and from the National Rifle Association -- has been swift, severe and unforgiving. Despite a profuse public apology and a vow to go hunting soon with an assault weapon, Zumbo's career appears to be over.

His top-rated weekly TV program on the Outdoor Channel, his longtime career with Outdoor Life magazine and his corporate ties to the biggest names in gunmaking, including Remington Arms Co., have been terminated or are on the ropes.

The NRA on Thursday pointed to the collapse of Zumbo's career as an example of what can happen to anyone, including a "fellow gun owner," who challenges the right of Americans to own or hunt with assault-style firearms.

From his home near Cody, Wyo., Zumbo declined repeated telephone requests for comment. He is a 40-year NRA member and has appeared with NRA officials in 70 cities, according to his Web site.

Question the NRA in even the slightest...you may as well be dead.

In announcing that it was suspending its professional ties with Zumbo, the NRA -- a well-financed gun lobby that for decades has fought attempts to regulate assault weapons -- noted that the new Congress should pay careful attention to the outdoors writer's fate.

"Our folks fully understand that their rights are at stake," the NRA statement said. It warned that the "grassroots" passion that brought down Zumbo shows that millions of people would "resist with an immense singular political will any attempts to create a new ban on semi-automatic firearms."

Some outdoors writers drew a different lesson from Zumbo's horrible week.

"This shows the zealousness of gun owners to the point of actual foolishness," said Pat Wray, a freelance outdoors writer in Corvallis, Ore., and author of "A Chukar Hunter's Companion."

Wray said that what happened to Zumbo is a case study in how the NRA has trained members to attack their perceived enemies without mercy.

Let us keep our guns or...

Nothing creepy there. It's not even about regular guns. It is the military class weapons. The average American needs a stinger set up, like the chicken in the pot.

Zumbo's fall highlights a fundamental concern of the NRA and many champions of military-style firearms, according to people who follow the organization closely. They do not want American gun owners to make a distinction between assault weapons and traditional hunting guns such as shotguns and rifles. If they did, a rift could emerge between hunters, who tend to have the most money for political contributions to gun rights causes, and assault-weapon owners, who tend to have lots of passion but less cash.

The NRA appeared to be saying as much in its statement Thursday, when it emphasized that the Zumbo affair shows there is "no chance" that a "divide and conquer propaganda strategy" could ever succeed.

Well, yeah. There is obviously no difference between a shotgun and an assault rifle. Obviously. I mean, why even bring it up. Man! The NRA tell us which weapons are bad. That should be good enough for anyone.

"Jim is a good guy, and I feel bad about this unfortunate situation," Smith said. "We are living in very delicate times. For someone to call these firearms 'terrorist' rifles, that is a flash-point word. You are painting a bunch of enthusiasts with the word. They don't like being called terrorists."

It's hard to feel sympathy for them. They want equipment meant for one reason, killing human beings, in large numbers. Yeah, they will be so hurt if they can't have these tools. It might actually take months to kill all the life in a given forest without these precious gifts from God.

Is Heston afraid the apes will get him if he doesn't have an assault rifle?