Zumbo is also a lecturer on big game hunting and firearms for organizations like the National Rifle Association and a successful wildlife photographer.
[3] Many firearms industry lobbyists were outraged that Zumbo suggested an outright ban on a type of popular rifle for reasons of "personal bias".
[6] Outdoor Life subsequently dropped him completely, stating on its webpage that Zumbo would no longer be contributing to the publication once the last of his columns already to press had been printed.
Gerber Knives and Mossy Oak severed all of their business dealings with Zumbo as well, as did a majority of his other sponsors.
"[7] The speed with which calls for Zumbo's termination were acted on by his sponsors and employers (initial responses from sponsors occurred within a 36-hour period after he posted the first of two blog entries on the topic) were seen by many participants as evidence of the power of the Internet and of the "new media," including the "blogosphere," to influence and shape sociopolitical events.
The New York Times published an editorial March 3, 2007, criticizing the destruction of Zumbo's career as overkill and avoidance of healthy debate.
Jim was lectured on the sporting uses of AR type rifles by Ted and two Texas outdoor writers.
[9] On March 20, a month after Zumbo's column was published, gun control advocate Senator Carl Levin praised Zumbo for "his forthrightness, his honesty and his courage," calling the response to his comments "swift and callous," in a speech that supported the renewal of the Federal Assault Weapons Ban.