It doesn’t appear that the shooting sports community is feeling much compassion for Guns & Ammo magazine or technical editor Dick Metcalf at this point.

Metcalf recently penned an op-ed that suggests that he never understood the Second Amendment, or if he once did, he has changed his mind on its meaning towards a collective view that only exists as an aberration, in clear conflict with the individual rights view that permeates the Bill of Rights.

Perhaps if Metcalf or G&A had offered up a sincere apology for the column, or claimed he misspoke, then the pressure might have lessened.

Instead, it appears that calls to terminate Metcalf and cancel subscriptions to G&A have been met by both the editor and the magazine with a wall of silence that is only making things worse.

In the print world, no one writes in a vacuum – especially at a monthly magazine. There are layers of editors and sub-editors who copy-edit each piece, lay it out for print, write headlines and sub-headlines, add photos and design graphics. Surely someone could have voiced some concern.

‘Dick, is this really what you want to say?’ would have been a good question to ask.  The story could also have been prefaced with an editor’s note, clarifying that the opinions were Metcalf’s, not G&A’s.

So far, neither Metcalf nor the magazine has stepped up and addressed the growing scandal. Sad that.

The publisher needs to take action immediately: make the call on Metcalf’s tenure at the magazine, issue a retraction, make an apology and promise it won’t happen again.

As someone who creates scandal for a living, I can assure you it’s probably already too late.

Dick Metcalf is entitled to his opinion, no matter how strongly we disagree with it. Sadly, it appears that he’s quite willing to sink Guns & Ammo with that opinion, with all hands.

It’s a shame.