SHEPHERD PROMOTES ACTIVISM IN NAT’L TOUR
In early May, veteran outdoor writer and media professional Jim Shepherd launched a “road trip” tour to promote what he calls the “My Time to Stand” campaign, aimed at building activism and involvement at the grassroots level.
Shepherd, editor and publisher of The Outdoor Wire Digital Network and partner in 357 Media – the company that produces Guns & Gear, the television show hosted by Tom and Ryan Gresham – is not simply a proponent of the Second Amendment, he is a devotee. When Point Blank contacted him recently, he was at the Bianchi Cup as a participant; the all-too-rare media professional who “walks the walk” as well as “talks the talk.” When this guy talks about guns, you know he’s handled them, shot them and owned a few.
He joked about his poor performance at Bianchi, but then noted that others were having the same experience, which suggests that his gun hand is a little sharper than he lets on, and that he doesn’t take it too seriously when he is enjoying an activity without winning.
Shepherd’s “MyTime2Stand.com” effort is going to travel all over the country between now and the second week of November, when he will end up at the Smith & Wesson Academy for the first-ever “back-up gun championships.” In the meantime, he will be at the Gun Rights Policy Conference in Houston, which is co-hosted by the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms and the Second Amendment Foundation. He will also be showing up at gun-related events in Washington, Oregon, Arkansas, Kentucky, Iowa, Indiana “and a couple of others I don’t remember right now.”
A Kentucky native, he has worked for CNN, was the executive producer of the PBS Nightly Business Report and went to New York as the news director of the Financial News Network before moving to Birmingham, Ala., in 1990. He worked for the Golf Radio Network, and he has also owned two television production companies and studios in Atlanta, Dallas, Colorado Springs, Stamford and Los Angeles.
But this guy’s heart has never been far from the outdoors, nor any distance at all from the Second Amendment, and he recognizes now that gun rights is part of the American fabric even when it is disguised as hunting, competition or recreational shooting.
Shepherd’s road trip effort will be high-profile, with a specially-painted Jeep and small trailer bearing the red, white and blue stars and stripes of the American flag. With him, it’s a very personal endeavor, as he believes that more people need to be involved in the system, they need to stand for what is right and now is the time to do that.
Married for 34 years to his wife, Leigh, they have two daughters, Lauren and Erica.
Shepherd not only operates the weekday-published Outdoor Wire, he also has the Fishing Wire, Tactical Wire, and Birding, Shooting, Archery and Dealer wires.
“We have nearly 500,000 individual subscribers across the services, and deliver more than 3,000,000 copies per week,” he says.
This summer-long odyssey that will stretch into mid-autumn, touching several states and hopefully tens of thousands of people is already getting attention. That Jeep and trailer are pretty hard to ignore as they cruise along the highways and city streets.
He will not be constantly on the road, of course, but the schedule will put him in front of a lot of people, and perhaps earn some media attention.
A true “gentleman of the old school,” Shepherd’s pro-gun digital news services are considered daily “must” reading by sportsmen and activists all over the map. For his contribution to public awareness and the promotion of responsible firearms ownership, sportsmanship and safe shooting, he earns recognition as the Defender of the Month.