Excerpt taken from an article in the ‘Telegraph Sunday Magazine’ London, November 1981 After asserting that a man who preys on society has "signed his own release", the Colonel raised a giggle amoung the students with what Americans like to call typical British understatement. "When a man is trying to shoot you, he gets your attention", he said, adding: "Fortunately, the creeps of this world are generally bad shots". At the mid-morning break the students strolled out to their cars and tents udner the juniper trees. Some started practicing the "compressed surprise break" (the Colonel's … [Read more...]
Guns for the Good Guys…part 2 continued
Continued from... Excerpt taken from an article in the 'Telegraph Sunday Magazine' London, November 1981 After a course with the FBI he became engrossed in what he likes to call "pistolcraft". He was to be seen wherever marksmen gathered - at Bisley and across the world. Over the years Col. Cooper has taught gunhandling in Mexico, Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Germany, Sweden, Southwest Africa, South Africa and Rhodesia. He has published books about guns and has written numerous articles for gun magazines. For someone so obsessed, running a gun school was a natural progression. … [Read more...]
Guns for the Good Guys
Excerpt taken from an article in the 'Telegraph Sunday Magazine' London, November 1981 The boss of Gunsite Ranch, Colonel Jeff Cooper, trains ordinary Americans to shoot to kill. He believes private citizens must defend themselves - preferably with a Colt .45. "Are guns to shoot people? Of course!...The fact is there are people who must be shot in order to stop their dreadful acts. Thank God there is an effective way to stop them". So says a tract issued by the Doctrinal Bible Church of Richardson, Texas. "The U.S. government has neither the wit nor the muscle to carry out … [Read more...]
Developing a Defensive Mindset
In case you aren’t familiar with the late Col. John Dean “Jeff” Cooper—which probably means you’re new to defensive shooting—allow me to introduce you. Born in 1920, Cooper earned a political science degree from Stanford before receiving a commission from the United States Marine Corps, and he fought in the Pacific in World War II and later in Korea before retiring as a lieutenant colonel. Cooper went on to earn his master’s degree and taught high school and college classes before he opened American Pistol Institute (API), now known as Gunsite, one of the nation’s top training destinations for … [Read more...]
The Picture … The Men … The Story
Story by Elden Carl (Second from the left.) There were five pistoleros who are credited with developing the modern technique of the combat pistol. Jeff Cooper, practical pistol shooting’s founder and driving force, arrived first in the mid 1950’s followed closely by Jack Weaver. I arrived on the scene in 1960, with Thell Reed and Ray Chapman joining the fray the following year. By the end of 1961 all of the important techniques of the craft had been developed. At a later time I will discuss the developmental process that led to the modern technique of the pistol, but for now I’d like to … [Read more...]
