Most gun magazines are the pretty much the same, a 1911 or AR-15 on the cover every month with nothing but glowing reviews. Then along came RECOIL Magazine, a fresh new take on gun mags. If you were a fan of the now defunct Sport Compact Car you might notice the new RECOIL Magazine had the same style and approach. This is of no surprise, the parent company is Source Interlink, who bought out Primedia the parent company of Sport Compact Car, Motor Trend and a plethora of other magazines. Much like Sport Compact Car (can you tell I miss that magazine?), RECOIL focused on interesting content other magazines didn’t have as well as the newest and hottest products on the market.
Back on topic, so what’s all the hoopla about the new gun mag on the block and their recent blunder? RECOIL did the thing that no gun magazine or anyone claiming to be pro-guns should do, question the second amendment. More specifically editor Jerry Tsai wrote that he agreed with H&K that the H&K MP1A1 should never be sold to civilians because the gun had no “sporting application”. Isn’t that the same argument the gun grabbers are saying about AR-15s, AK-47 variants and handguns? Below is an excerpt from the RECOIL Magazine article in question.
“Like we mentioned before, the MP7A1 is unavailable to civilians and for good reason. We all know that’s technology no civvies should ever get to lay their hands on. This is a purpose-built weapon with no sporting applications to speak of. It is made to put down scumbags, and that’s it. Mike Cabrera of Heckler & Koch Law Enforcement Sales and veteran law enforcement officer with SWAT unit experience points out that this is a gun that you do not want in the wrong, slimy hands. It comes with semi-automatic and full-auto firing modes only. Its overall size places it between a handgun and submachine gun. Its assault rifle capabilities and small size make this a serious weapon that should not be taken lightly.”
Well it looks like the backlash is hitting RECOIL hard, Tsai made the following statement in response to all the flak they’ve been getting over at the RECOIL website.
I’d like to address the comments regarding what I wrote in the MP7A1 article in RECOIL issue 4. First and foremost, I’d like to apologize for any offense that I have caused with the article. With the benefit of hindsight, I now understand the outrage, and I am greatly saddened that it was initiated by my words. Especially since, I am an unwavering supporter of 2nd Amendment Rights. I’ve chosen to spend a significant part of both my personnel and professional life immersed in this enthusiasm, so to have my support of individuals’ rights called into doubt is extremely unfortunate. With that said, I retract what I wrote in the offending paragraph within this article. It should have had been presented with more clarity.
In the article, I stated some information that was passed on to me about why the gun is not available for civilian purchase. By no means did I intend to imply that civilians are not responsible, nor do we lack the judgment to own such weapons, if I believed anything approaching this, clearly I would lead a much different life. I also mentioned in the article that the gun had no sporting purpose. This again, was information passed on to me and reported in the article without the necessary additional context. I believe everything published in RECOIL up to this point (other than this story), demonstrates we clearly understand and completely agree that guns do not need to have a sporting purpose in order for them to be rightfully available to civilians. In retrospect, I should have presented this information in a clearer manner. Although I can understand the manufacturer’s stance on the subject, it doesn’t mean that I agree with it.
Again, I acknowledge the mistakes I made and for them I am truly sorry.
Sincerely,
Jerry Tsai
Editor
RECOIL
It looks like his statement is too little too late as advertisers have started to dump RECOIL. Magpul recently posted the following statement regarding their dropped support of RECOIL.
Recently, the editor of RECOIL magazine wrote comments regarding who should and should not have access to certain firearms, as well as comments meant to clarify his initial statements. We at Magpul were severely disappointed in the apparent position of the author and by the comments themselves. We have been asked to provide a response to these comments and a statement regarding our intent to continue or discontinue advertising in RECOIL.
At Magpul we consider ourselves proponents of a culture of personal responsibility, where individual liberties are the true roots of our passion. Firearms are tools that can be an expression of those liberties, and more importantly, the guardians of them. When we were presented with the opportunity to support a new publication, called “RECOIL”, that had a different look and feel, we were on board. We had hopes that the broad appeal and fresh look of a publication of this type could be a big help in getting more people involved and interested in firearms and firearm freedoms issues. We welcome all who enjoy or appreciate firearms for any lawful purpose, as greater numbers strengthen our cause. We also want to partner with those who share our appreciation of the true struggle we are in regarding our Second Amendment freedoms.
Due to concerns about content and true motivation, we allowed our support for RECOIL to expire, with the current issue being our last, until we could determine if we were truly speaking the same language. The recent comments and subsequent clarification made by the editor of RECOIL are completely counter to our position here at Magpul. These statements proved that there is an apparent gap between our values and those of RECOIL. As such, we have chosen not to continue or renew any advertising support for RECOIL magazine unless and until we are convinced at some future point that this publication truly shares our values and has the best interests of Magpul and our customers in mind.
We sincerely hope that the outpouring of Second Amendment support as a result of these comments can continue with as much strength towards educating existing and potential new shooters about the importance of firearms rights and in contacting elected officials to preserve those rights. We look forward to future efforts to reach a broader audience through individual effort, and perhaps through an appropriately focused publication, to continue growth in the number of Americans who enjoy celebrating our Second Amendment heritage.
It doesn’t stop there, Silencer Co posted a statement as well.
The statements made by the editorial staff and others interviewed for the article were so poorly stated, factually inaccurate and so misrepresentative of the core values and beliefs of our company and our mission, that we have written the editor of Recoil magazine and asked him to discontinue all scheduled advertising for both Silencerco and SWR products.
We sincerely hope that the owners of Recoil will get a strong message from the shooting public and all reputable manufacturers that our people will not tolerate the mindset behind those statements. We urge you to make your opinion known to recoil and their advertisers.
Oh and it doesn’t stop there, firearms training video makers Panteao Productions and popular AR-15 maker Bravo Company USA have also stated that they will no longer sponsor RECOIL Magazine. Gun magazines as well as gun blog sites, survive on sponsors. With so many big companies stopping their support of RECOIL Magazine does this spell the end of the new gun mag? Can they survive the fire storm their editor started?
The firearm community, thankfully, is pulling in people left and right, from all walks of life as of late and I hope that trend continues. However, as we saw with Ruger, and S&W in the early 90s, it only takes one idiot in the gun crowd to bend and you end up with the Clinton assault weapons ban. We suffered that for ten years, because of snobs in the gun community, thinking they knew better, and we have been fighting an uphill battle since it twilighted. Jerry Tsai is done, and he should be. Go work for the Clinton foundation with the rest of the pedophiles and anti gunners, if your statements match your feelings. I have no sympathy for you, your current situation, and your lack of job prospects in the firearm industry. We gun owners are one, and must remain so, or our liberty will evaporate. There is no room for cliques, snobs, and rarified air in this community, it will do nothing for the cause but help bury it. It should go without saying, but civilians run the show, it’s how America works, everyone in government is an elected, or hired servant to the civilian populace, end of story. Keep your heads out of your asses and put the Kool aid down people, this is a land of free men.
Seriously people, calm down. They made a single enormous mistake, but apologized for it. They didn’t give context, making H&K’s words appear to be their own. Does anyone actually think a gun magazine would ever be anti-gun? That would be absurd and I’m willing to bet everyone here has at some time mistakenly made a statement diametrically opposed to his own beliefs.
inb4 “you’re anti-gun,” get over yourself. I have my grandfather’s Remington .22, my Mosin that I’m currently refinishing, and enjoy shooting them whenever I can.
Actually….I would from sad experince, expect such
a comment from H&K. Remember…”they hate us
(civilian shooters) and we suck.”
The comment mad by The editor was anti second ammendment this I agree whole heartedly. However if he would have mad a different statement other than he did they may have been alright. I personally enjoyed the magazine as it was a shoot off of the normal magazine it had guns,gear,clothing even a vehicle article and came with a target I also enjoyed the fact it had a type of hard cover and great photography I’m just sick of seeing all of the othe firearm magazines with the same ole AR-15 on the cover same lame reviews and well just the same thing very month I won’t give those magazines titles I do hope that another magazine company will run with this concept I enjoyed them
I like the Recoil magazine, was thinking about signing up for a subscription, but not now. I applaud the companies withdrawing their support.
There is a semi -auto only version of the MP7A1, don’t know how widely it is used globally but this is the version that is used by the British MOD Police. As a semi-auto variant exists the part of the argument that it can’t be marketed as a civilian weapon as it is only available in full auto versions is bollocks.
Pic: http://img2.information.dk/files/imagecache/article_image_large/avisbilleder/2009/09/19/20090918-170715-632336_0.jpg
As a D.E.T. instructor for my state or LEO academy senior officials threw out every copy of recoil may. that we had in our building. you don’t support the 2nd well we wont support you
Alrhough a staunch supporter of 2nd amendment rights and truly believe in the rights of the individual to own and properly use firearms of all sorts, I also believe in the right to free speech and although I fully oppose the original statement and not sure I believe in the retraction/modification I do stand behind the editors right to believe in a statement although the place and time wasn’t the best place to state it he none the less has the right to say as he personally believes
Of course he has a right to make the statements he did. He’s not being arrested for making them. He’s not being silenced in any way. He can continue to go ahead and make anti-2nd amendment statements to his heart’s desire. His 1st amendment rights are fully intact.
And it’s the various companies’ right to decide to not advertise in his magazine.
What was that guy thinking? No amount of flips and spins can erase that anti-gun advocacy. Are there no proofreaders or other editors at Recoil? Sad, It was a cool format, what an idiot.
US Palm was thinking about it(sponsering) according to their facebook page. But they aren’t in anymore.
Also Haley Strategic Partners has dropped ads from their publication as well.
Smooth move guys. Sucks because they had potential to be interesting.
I just bought RECOIL #4 on Sunday, but have not read it all yet. My son glanced at the magazine on the way home from church. He was intrigued by the MP7A1 and pointed out that it was not available outside military and law enforcement communities. He did not read the editor’s opinion out loud though. I told him that you need a special license to own automatic weapons. For a good portion of the ride home, I lectured both of my boys on the backdoor tactics of the gun control crowd. To outlaw any specific type of firearm is merely a step in ending private ownership of guns. We supporters of the 2ND Amendment need to spread the word, as many uneducated folks agree that assault rifles should not be available to civilians. I argue against that opinion frequently. I encourage anyone that wants to take away my Mini-14 to watch the videos of the 1992 riots in Los Angeles, then explain how their going to protect their family with a revolver.