The editor of the gun-friendly title Guns & Ammo magazine has apologised to readers and resigned after he published a column endorsing gun control.
Readers revolted over an article by contributing editor Dick Metcalf which ran in the magazine's latest issue.
"Way too many gun owners still believe that any regulation of the right to keep and bear arms is an infringement," Metcalf wrote. "The fact is that all Constitutional rights are regulated, always have been, and need to be."
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Outraged readers quickly retaliated and called for Metcalf's immediate resignation.
"Guns and ammo for gun control? Unsubscribed!!!!! Fire Mr. Metcalf," one wrote on the site's Facebook page.
Bequette told readers he had made a huge mistake, fired Metcalf and revealed he would be resigning right away.
The column in the December issue "aroused unprecedented controversy" among readers who began "questioning 'Guns & Ammo's commitment to the Second Amendment," Bequette wrote in his apology.
He said he had wanted to "generate a healthy exchange of ideas on gun rights" when he published the commentary.
But following the uproar from his readership, Bequette said his magazine has an "unwavering" commitment to the Second Amendment.
"In publishing Metcalf's column, I was untrue to that tradition, and for that I apologize," Bequette wrote in a column dated Wednesday.
"I made a mistake by publishing the column. I miscalculated, pure and simple. I was wrong, and I ask your forgiveness," he wrote.