I know he is a former Marine Lt. Colonel who served in WWII and Korea,
history professor (Ph.D.) and an ongoing student of history, philosopher, adventurer, author, and shottist. Being an English language connoisseur I love that he uses words like shottist. So many people have noted to me that what sets the author apart from so many gun or firearm authors is his no nonsense, common sense approach to teaching about guns and gun uses. And how he teaches that they are tools and not recreational toys. Like the NRA and the Ducks Unlimited gun course I took he teaches that All firearms are loaded, keep your finger off the trigger unless your sights are on the target, never let the firearm point at anything you are not willing to destroy and
be sure of your target and what is behind it. He teaches and writes about the most
effective methods to learn for engaging and hitting human antagonists or game animals with the proper firearm. He is a common sense, no nonsense teacher which I would like to see cloned!

Back in 1975 he founded the American Pistol Institute API which taught rifle and shotgun pistol, usage and then the name was changed to Gunsite (gunsite.com). He is also the founder of the International Practical Shooting Confederation (ipsc.org), a member of the NRA Board of Directors, and Editor-at-large for Guns & Ammo magazine. I belong to the NRA (nra.org)and subscribe to and recommend Guns and Ammo magazine which you can subscribe to via Amazon.com.

Art Of The Rifle and his Principles Of Personal Defense are also excellent books.


I thought it was a How to Shoot Book... It is and It Is Not   February 29, 2004
 53 out of 56 found this review helpful

I get this book to help my shooting skills.

The book did that. But it's not a book on shooting skills.

It's a book on shootting but also on personal defense. But it's ALSO a book on defending your home. But it's ALSO a book that is designed to create real men, not the Hollywood lie but real men who are honest, who defend honor, and who know how to protect their families and themselves.

The book is a pro-active defense book meaning that it teaches you how to KEEP from becoming a victim. But it also shows you how to change your mindset to be a better man.

This book reads like a book of short stories. That's what it really is, although some of the "stories" are detailed instrictions on what it means to protect one's family and exactly how to do so.

I didn't shoot until I had read this and then I shot a lot. As you may have read in my Disabling America (ISBN: 0785262253) I have many problems with my hands. As you'll also read there, I overcome them and Jeff Cooper and his training and the people around him have (and will) continue to help me learn how to use what I have to defende what is right to defend.

I strongly encourage you to read this if you are a man... or if you want to become a real man.


A must after 9/11   June 18, 2002
 16 out of 26 found this review helpful

Recommended reading after 9/11. This is not a another shooting manual, more like the philosophy of self defense, why you must fight back against crime. If more people had read this book back in the 90's probably 9/11 wouldn't have happened. THANKS GURU!