[Jeff Higgins]

The shooting world, hell the whole world for that matter, lost a great man the other day. Colonel Jeff Cooper has passed away. The father of the modern technique of the pistol, a champion of freedom, personal responsibility, and accountability, Colonel Cooper had a way of cutting through the b.s. and getting to the heart of just about any matter put before him. He will be sorely missed in a world that seems to get crazier and crazier by the day. Some of my favorite quotes, from The Art of the Rifle:

"Personal weapons are what raised mankind out of the mud, and the rifle is the queen of personal weapons."

"The rifle is a weapon. Let there be no mistake about that. It is a tool of power, and thus dependent completely upon the moral stature of its user. It is equally useful in securing meat for the table, destroying group enemies on the battlefield, and resisting tyranny. In fact, it is the only means of resisting tyranny, since a citizenry armed with rifles simply cannot be tyrannized."

"The rifle itself has no moral stature, since it has no will of its own. Naturally, it may be used by evil men for evil purposes, but there are more good men than evil, and while the latter cannot be persuaded to the path of righteousness by propaganda, they can certainly be corrected by good men with rifles."