Wisdom

"Most people have opinions about just everything there is, but the value of those opinions is directly proportional to whatever experience and knowledge they have of the subject in question. If we are talking about brain surgery you don’t want to do anything based on my opinions, because clearly I’m not a surgeon."---
Jeff Cooper

Defensive Pistol Handling

Originally produced in 1986, Jeff Cooper's Defensive Pistolcraft Tape Series offers a unique look at the core concepts that are the foundation of the Modern Technique of Pistolcraft.

Jeff Cooper on Crime

November 1993--"Fight back! Whenever you are offered violence, fight back! The aggressor does not fear the law, so he must be taught to fear you. Whatever the risk, and at whatever the cost, fight back!"

Jeff Cooper on the M1911

January 1968--"Pistols do not win wars, but they save the lives of the men who do. The noble 1911 is a mechanical marvel, whose ruggedness, dependability and ferocious power have comforted four issues of GIs, and which, unlike any other instrument you can name, is as much superior to its rivals as it was in 1917."

The Jeff Cooper Commemorative

The day before yesterday, I picked up the recent Guns and Ammo rag publication "The Complete Book of the 1911" to read between glasses of egg nog and Christmas rum. It seems ol' Patrick Sweeney has been shooting a commemorative firearm.......

When Colonel Cooper passed away over a year ago, it was inevitable that a Jeff Cooper 1911 Commemorative would hit the market bearing his signature, legitimate or not. I am pleased to see that Ed Brown has attempted to do it right, producing a true commemorative in a pistol that the old gent himself might have carried. It looks suspiciously like the Ed Brown Special Forces pistol with different grips and rollmarks, but no matter....

Unlike usual commemorative pistols, the finish is not nickel and gold. There is no likeness of the old man kneeling beside his largest caribou kill engraved and gold plated on the slide. Instead Brown produced a black pistol with serrations on only one end of the slide. It has Cooper's signature on one side, and DVC (Diligentia, Vis, Celeritas) on the reverse. A single sided thumb safety makes it appropriate for carry. A leather bound volume of Jeff Cooper's "Principles of Personal Defense" is included with the gun. I think I would take off that magazine extension or smack in a Wilson 47D with a low profile base pad though.

Alas, I must be out of the loop. Ed mailed off a pistol to Pat to shoot, but my mailbox has been empty. If I had $2,295 worth of spare pocket jingle, I might buy one instead of waiting. Alas though, I believe the Cooper Commemorative is destined to just be placed photographically in my Custom 1911 screensaver file instead of my safe. Maybe if I ebayed off all the ugly ties black socks and drugstore cologne I got for Christmas........

Jeff Cooper on Home Defense

February 1990--"Of course the California gun ban is wrong in principle and should be repealed at the first opportunity, but if house defense is your primary purpose, do not overlook the Lupara--a short-barreled double 12-gauge shotgun with exposed hammers. If your object is to defend your hearth and home, you can almost certainly do it better with that than with an Uzi or an M16."

Timely Wisdom From Col. Cooper

"Weapons are the tools of power. In the hands of the state, they can be the tools of decency or the tools of oppression, depending on the righteousness that state. In the hands of criminals, they are the tools of evil. In the hands of the free and decent citizen, they should be the tools of liberty. Weapons compound man's power to achieve whatever purpose he may have. They amplify the capabilities of both the good man and the bad, and to exactly the same degree., having no will of their own. Thus, we must regard them as servants, not masters--and good servants of good men. Without them, man is diminished, and his opportunities to fulfill his destiny are lessened. An unarmed man can only flee from evil, and evil is not overcome by fleeing from it."

Jeff Cooper on Speed

April 1961--"All good combat shots are fast. Some are very fast indeed. But there is no point in asking whether they are faster or slower than a 'fast-draw' specialist. More pertinent is what the latter can hit, and with what, and how often."

Jeff Cooper on Liberty

"We are annoyed by the assumption on the part of certain public figures that the citizen should be able to prove the need for the citizen to acquire a means of protecting himself. The citizen's personal needs are no business of the state. Liberty, when in place, grants the right of the citizen to do what he chooses, as long as he does not stamp on the rights of others. Nobody needs caviar, or a pleasure boat or opera tickets. Whether he wants these things is no business of the state."
Jeff Cooper

Jeff Cooper on Glocks

"The continued sales triumph of Glock pistols demonstrates the virtues of skillful marketing. The Glock is okay. It is generally reliable, it is comparatively inexpensive, and it is available in respectable calibers. Above all, its aftermarket service is superior. The great part of its sales comes from police departments, where maintenance and quick service are of primary importance. It may not be the best choice for the expert pistolero, but such people are not in the majority."

Jeff Cooper on Snake Pistols

September 1965--"Actually, the idea of a 'snake pistol' eludes me. If you see a dangerous snake first, stay out of his reach. If you don't, what good is your pistol?"

Jeff Cooper on Weapons

"Weapons are the tools of power. In the hands of the state, they can be the tools of decency or the tools of oppression, depending on the righteousness that state. In the hands of criminals, they are the tools of evil. In the hands of the free and decent citizen, they should be the tools of liberty. Weapons compound man's power to achieve whatever purpose he may have. They amplify the capabilities of both the good man and the bad, and to exactly the same degree., having no will of their own. Thus, we must regard them as servants, not masters--and good servants of good men. Without them, man is diminished, and his opportunities to fulfill his destiny are lessened. An unarmed man can only flee from evil, and evil is not overcome by fleeing from it."

Jeff Cooper on The Nanny State

January 2005 - "We happen upon two somewhat different conclusions from our friends down there in Iraq. On the one hand, our selected riflemen are scoring very well, sometimes at long range but mainly at inner-city distances. On the other, we are bedeviled by reports that the people we send over there are basically unfamiliar with rifle shooting. This may be so, and if so, it may be attributed to the increasing urbanization of our culture, in which there are large numbers of young men who have never touched a weapon of any kind (possibly excepting a baseball bat) prior to putting on a soldier suit.

This may be a reflection of the 'nanny state,' in which a large proportion of young men have no fathers at home. Even if there is a man around the house, he is usually not a father figure. If he does not know anything about firearms, he is unlikely to have anything useful to hand on to his sons. This need not always be the case, of course, since my own father, who was expert in many things from viticulture to epic poetry, never owned a gun of his own and had to be educated by his sons."

Jeff Cooper on Heroism

May 2006 - "We talk a lot about heroes and heroism today. In doing so we denigrate the term. Heroism, properly speaking, is rare. Everybody I knew in World War II fought because he wanted to, but, of course, combat duty does not necessarily involve death. That it involves the chance of death in the line of duty is perhaps commendable, but it is not heroic. The phrase 'above and beyond the call of duty' is indefinable since anything that you can do is what you should do. Lord Nelson defined the heroic death at Trafalgar. He was convinced--correctly--that his wound was mortal. As he lay there on the deck, his repeated words were, "Thank God I have done my duty!' He fought because it was his duty to fight, and he died doing his duty. This is heroism."

Jeff Cooper on Terrorism

May 2002 - "So it appears that the 'home of the brave' includes citizens who may be intimidated by the presence of a plastic knife! One may only be terrorized if he allows himself to be. 'Terror' is a bad word and should be abandoned. Apparently, we are living in an age when word usage may be dictated by the timid, the cowardly and the dishonorable. Let us turn that around and set up proper English usage to suit people who are worthy of it. Just as you cannot be enslaved against your will, you cannot be terrorized against your will. We inherit a noble tradition. Let us now resolve to live up to it!"

Jeff Cooper is gone

Friends,
At the request of the family it is my sad duty to report the passing of our founder, Jeff Cooper. Jeff died peacefully at home this afternoon while being cared for by his wife Janelle and daughter Lindy.

There will be a private internment at Gunsite by invitation, with a public memorial service at the Whittington Center at a date to be announced.

Our thoughts and prayers are with the family.

DVC,
Ed

Ed Head
Operations Manager
Gunsite Academy, Inc.
2900 W. Gunsite Rd.
Paulden, AZ 86334
928.636.4565
ed@gunsite.com
http://www.gunsite.com

Colonel Cooper

My kindest regards are extended to Col. Jeff Cooper and his family at this time.

"It is an uphill struggle, but I wish that we could distinguish more carefully between freedom and liberty. These conditions are not the same, though they are certainly related. Freedom is the absence of restraint - a physical circumstance. Liberty, on the other hand, is a political situation denoting the lawful capability of the citizen to defend himself and his near and dear without interference from the state." Jeff Cooper

Thank you sir, for your many, many contributions to liberty.

The latest.

Judgement

"So let us be judgmental, for Heaven's sake! That equipment up between your ears, which was provided you by God, is there to make judgments. There are such things as good and evil. Think about them. There are such things as right and wrong. Think about them. If you do not make judgments about such matters, you are a moral blob, fit only for jobs which are better handled by robots." -- Jeff Cooper

Thank you Kathy. Thank you to the others who responded as well. I'm still going to dwell on this a bit.

If I could figure out a way to format a simple Yea or Nay poll with each IWG, that problem would be solved I think. I need a bit of time to carefully consider all the other aspects.

Cooper on Grip Safeties

"We notice that the extrusion at the bottom of the grip safety on the 1911 (the "tang tumor"?) is practically standard with today's custom pistolsmiths. It may work for some people, but it never has worked for me. Apparently my hand is not constructed correctly, so I simply pin the device shut. It is not a safety consideration, as John Browning made clear in his design of the excellent P35 pistol. Safety does not ride between the hands, but rather between the ears."
Col. Jeff Cooper

Pictured: Colt Combat Elite modified by Xavier with grips by Vu Kim Son

Cooper on Mini .45s

"This proliferation of reduced size 45 autos is an interesting development. There are those who insist that increased recoil, which must be an aspect of miniaturization, is a step backwards. I used to think so at one time, but no longer. The essential element of a defensive handgun (apart from reliability) is convenient portability. This is more evident in the case of the private citizen than with the soldier. Of course there are plenty of people in the eastern megalopolis, and in Europe, who feel that a private citizen has no business with any sort of handgun, but we need not talk to them.

Reduced weight increases recoil, and there are plenty of people who feel that the standard 1911, at 39 ounces, kicks too much as it is. Much of this idea is the result of "sea stories" brought back from World War I, and it is largely basura. The miniature 45s do kick more than the GI version, but I hardly think that matters. A defensive pistol situation is normally experienced at arm's length, or a little more. You do not have to shoot target groups if your adversary threatens you across the room, but you do have to hit him hard - hard enough to stop the fight immediately. We cannot expect 100 percent perfection in this regard, but with the 45 ACP cartridge in its military version, we will achieve what we want about nine times out of ten. By messing around with improved loads and better bullet shape, we can increase our probability to about nineteen stops out of twenty tries - provided we place our bullet on the right spot. A man who works at this can achieve what he wants with one of these "pocket punchers" about as well as he can with the full-sized gun. Thus the reduced bulk and weight of the "snubby" may be a definitely good thing, for certain lifestyles. These little pieces do not need sharp sights nor target triggers. They are not "fun guns," but rather strictly business, and should not be put down because we do not win matches with them."
Col. Jeff Cooper

Pictured: Colt Compact customized by Xavier