“The society of late twentieth century America is perhaps the first in human history where most grown men do not routinely bear arms on their persons and boys are not regularly raised from childhood to learn skill in the use of some kind of weapon, either for community or personal defense – club or spear, broadsword or long bow, rifle or Bowie knife. It also happens to be one of the rudest and crudest societies in history, having jubilantly swept most of the etiquette of speech, table, dress, hospitality, fairness, deference to authority and the relations of male and female and child and elder under the fraying and filthy carpet of politically convenient illusions. With little fear of physical reprisal Americans can be as loud, gross, disrespectful, pushy, and negligent as they please. If more people carried rapiers at their belts, or revolvers on their hips, It is a fair bet you would be able to go to a movie and enjoy he dialogue from the screen without having to endure the small talk, family gossip and assorted bodily noises that many theater audiences these days regularly emit. Today, discourtesy is commonplace precisely because there is no price to pay for it.”

Samuel Francis

As Heinlein put it,

“An armed society is a polite society.”

Jeff Cooper’s Commentaries Vol.1, No.1  June 1993

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Tom Foley, Speaker of the House….urged his colleagues to support Bill Clinton’s money package and wound up declaiming, “It is now time to stand and deliver!” What neither Foley nor any member of the House (or of the press apart from [Mike] Royko) caught was that this command “Stand and Deliver” was the notorious order of English highwaymen who wished to initiate an armed robbery. “Stand and Deliver” means essentially “Your money or your life,” and this is what Tom Foley has handed out to the American people. Most appropriate, don’t you think? We have always known that the tax-and-spend people in Washington were out to rob us, and now we hear it from their own leadership.

Jeff Cooper’s Commentaries  Vol.1, No.4  July 1993

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Shooting Master and family member John Gannaway now has the dies as well as the components for the 376 Steyr cartridge, and will be building properly designed loads in time for our forthcoming African adventure. This does not include “solids,” which will be necessary in due course. I do not believe that the 376 cartridge, or any medium, is properly used on elephant, rhino and hippo. It should be as good as the 375 Holland & Holland on buffalo, but I, for one, am not going to put that to a test. For buffalo you need 500 grains of bullet. You can do the job with less, but that does not make it a good idea.

Jeff Cooper’s Commentaries Vol. 8, No.3  March 2000

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If you wish to become a really good shot you will learn to live with your gun. It should always be within reach, and you should handle it freely. Not every household is the same, but if you maintain your rifle within reach at your breakfast table you will get in the amount of dry practice necessary to become totally one with your weapon. With the pistol you should try five dry snaps before you put it on in the morning and five more before you take it off in the evening. This way you will eventually blend with the piece, and your skill will be something unconscious and undirected. Note that you cannot shoot “instinctively.” The shooting stroke is a programmed reflex, and you program it only by familiarity. You cannot go to the range enough to program those reflexes, but you can instill them at home, and the master marksman does just that.

Jeff Cooper’s Commentaries Vol.8, No.3  March 2000

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In the recent rifle class a question was posed as to at what age should you introduce your son to his rifle. The Countess came up with the perfect answer (as she usually does), which was, “when his voice changes.” The next question was, what do you mean by introduce? As I see it, the young man should be given his weapon, thoroughly instructed in it, and then made responsible for it. By choice he should keep it in his room and maintain it spotlessly clean and ready for inspection at all times. It should become his “Linus blanket” to provide him with moral support when skies are dark. This program, of course, implies properly raised children, which seems to be confusingly rare today. Joe Foss, the authentic hero, tells a tale upon himself. When he was given his first rifle he was allowed to take it out and use it by himself, though not in company. Tempted beyond resistance, he let go and fractured a ceramic insulator on a power line. For this sin he was grounded for a year – a truly awesome penalty. At age 14 a year is forever, and Joe had full time to ponder upon his precious rifle locked away in his father’s closet. It is not necessary to use tranquilizers to “train up the child in the way he should go.”

Jeff Cooper’s Commentaries Vol.8, No.3. March 2000

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