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JEFF COOPER'S COMMENTARIES - Vol. 8, No. 9
Previously Gunsite Gossip
DOG DAYS
Here at Gunsite the weather is fine. We have had plenty of rain, the
fields are green, the tomatoes are ripe, and the cat is busy catching mice.
On the other hand, the social scene is more than a bit sour. It is okay
to shoot an unarmed woman in the face at 200 yards as long as you are told to
do it by somebody in authority. It is okay to cut your wife's throat as long
as you are rich, famous-and black. It is okay for a special counsel of the
federal government to decide that the feds did not fire into the Mount Carmel
compound-even though we all saw the pictures of them doing so. It is okay to
lie under oath if you are the chief executive officer of the United States.
Patrick Henry said that "These are the times that try men's souls," but he
never suspected how trying the times might become.
""""
We hoped it would not happen, but it has. Steyr Mannlicher is
manufacturing and Gun South is distributing the Poodle Scout. This is a
scout-type rifle taking the 223 cartridge. One would ask what possible use
there might be for that piece. An answer, of course, is "to sell!" I
suppose people will buy it, but if anyone shows up here at the Ranch with
one, he will be viewed with scorn. "If you can bear to hear the truth you've
spoken twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools, or watch the things you
gave your life to, broken, and stoop and build 'em up again with worn-out
tools...." There is a certain parallel here.
""""
The Gunsite "birthday pistol" is now in use and it shoots very well. Its
primary feature, as you may know, is that it is slim-lined. The line forms
on the right.
""""
"An Iranian moderate is one who has run out of ammunition."
-Kissinger
""""
Our great good friend Tony Weeks of Salisbury reports to us now that
Rhodesia is totally lost and that he is considering leaving the country of
his birth permanently. It was a beautiful land, and I have many delightful
memories of it. Comrade Mugabe has run totally amok and is doing his best to
wreck the place. The farmers have been robbed of their farms and there is no
one now left to grow the food. For our part we can revere the past, but we
must mourn the future.
""""
Defensive pistolcraft does not always result in shooting. Our new
grandson-in-law is only 26, but he has already had two confrontations which
were neatly solved by the possession, not the discharge, of his pistol.
""""
The good people at Swift Bullets tell us that they expect to have a
270-grain 375 caliber partition bullet available for sale by hunting season.
This is just what we need for the 376 Steyr cartridge. I have used the Swift
250-grain 36 caliber bullet extensively, with unvarying success. The Swift
bullet for the 376 looks to be just what we need.
On the same subject, I have been in touch with a manufacturer in South
Africa who is interested in producing a semi-flat-point, monolithic solid for
the 376. This is especially designed for those who intend to take the
Dragoon after buffalo. I do not recommend this practice, but the 375 Holland
has harvested a lot of buffalo in Africa over the decades and the Dragoon is
a great deal more user-friendly than any 375 I have seen.
""""
We were up in the Colorado Rockies a short while back and discovered that
the white goat (Oreamnos americanus) is proliferating successfully. A
problem arises in that the goat seems to have a strong taste for peanut
butter sandwiches, and hikers may have to tussle with him if he discovers
their backpacks untended. This can be quite a tussle, for the Rocky Mountain
goat is a strong, active and well-armed antagonist.
""""
This character Schultz who is causing the trouble as CEO of Smith &
Wesson gets worse all the time. He has already termed us shooters "a vulgar
and radical minority." Now he has decided that the badge of those really bad
guys who venerate the Bill of Rights are identifiable by gun racks in the
back window of their pickups. We knew things were pretty bad up there in New
England, but we did not realize that hoplophobia had become quite so rampant
in those benighted parts.
""""
We now note the appearance of what may be called the "giant trail gun."
This is a great, huge eight-shot revolver taking the 22 Hornet cartridge.
Evidently this piece is designed for hikers who have servants along to carry
the loads.
""""
We are informed by our friends at Vizier magazine in Germany that the
word Mauser has pretty much lost its original connotation. Today it has no
traditional implication. It is simply used as an advertising technique. We
noticed the unfortunate quality control visible on the last "Mauser" we
handled at the SHOT Show. This is a great shame, but we guess it does not
come as a surprise.
""""
Recently the governor of Texas treated us to a campaign presentation here
in Prescott. It was a delight to us rednecks to note that a good many of the
spectators were openly and legally armed-and that the Secret Service realized
that here in Arizona this sort of thing is the way to go. We were charmed
when the candidate announced loudly and clearly in regard to the forthcoming
election that "Help is on the way."
""""
On a further political note, we were startled to see the term
"Jewish-American" in the popular press. To this level we have sunk!
Hyphenated Americans are just as disgusting today as they were when Theodore
Roosevelt pointed them out a hundred years ago. One is either an American or
he is not, and hyphenated prefixes simply indicate that the bearer of the
title is not really an American. To be a Jewish-American would involve
bearing dual citizenship in both the United States and Israel. Many of our
best friends and role models are definitely Jewish, but they are not
hyphenated. If this keeps up, I will have to describe myself as
English-Dutch-French-German- Swiss-American. We need hyphenated Americans
the way we need typhoid fever.
""""
One of the family reports from the Arctic that the cartridge of choice
amongst Eskimos is the 243. This is a nice little cartridge, but we have
never thought of it as a bear gun. Apparently the Inuit are congenitally
recoil shy, but that may not be a problem if the shooter is always extremely
careful to place his bullet in exactly the right spot.
""""
Buy ammunition! Remember that a man cannot have too many books, too many
wines, or too much ammunition. Our adversaries on the other side are
reaching for the excuse of lead poisoning. If they can push that idea
through, you may wind up still owning your guns but without anything to shoot
in them.
In several countries in Europe the possession of more than a limited
amount of ammunition is considered to be subversive. When laws are passed
about it, it becomes necessary for "the authorities" to institute house
searches. Things are not that bad yet in the United States, but much will
depend upon the outcome of the next election. The beltway buzzards are out
to disarm you, and if they win in November they will proceed accordingly.
Buy ammunition!
""""
As the lights continue to go out in South Africa, talk is now given to
the changing of the names of the major cities. Some weird suggestions have
been offered for Pretoria and Durban, and I hate to think what sort of a
designation these racists will come up with for "The Fairest Cape."
""""
We mentioned Mel Gibson's The Patriot in a previous issue, but not to the
extent that it deserves. The issue is the obligation of a movie producer to
history. Historical fiction is a legitimate artistic enterprise, but only if
the fiction is confined within the boundaries of historical fact. In this
movie the producers sought to avoid criticism by renaming the two
protagonists. They changed Tarleton to Tavington, and they changed the Swamp
Fox to the Ghost, even though anyone who has even a cursory knowledge of the
American Revolution could not fail to recognize the characters immediately.
The sticking point was the attribution of Tarleton/Tavington to the burning
of a church with the congregation inside. Tarleton/Tavington was a brutal
counter-insurrectionist and did many bad things, but neither he nor any other
Britisher ever burned a church with the congregation inside. That sort of
thing had to wait for the feds at Waco.
""""
"Democracy has many definitions, but 'what's in it for me' is not an element
of any of them."
-The Guru
""""
As the taxonomists insist upon redefining various forms of wildlife,
they confuse the issue of bears even further. When I was a lad the park
ranger said that in order to tell whether a particular bear was a black or a
grizzly you were to kick him in the behind. If he ran up a tree, that was a
black bear. If you ran up a tree, that was a grizzly. We all know, of
course, that while black bears are usually black, this is not always the
case, as they come in various shades of brown and amber. We were informed by
our daughter Parry, who lives up in the Rockies, that the proper name for
what used to be called a black bear (Euarctos americanus) may now be
accurately designated as a "trash bear." These are the bears who keep
getting into trash and demanding relocation. Ordinarily the grizzly bear
(Ursus arctos and close relations) has always been regarded as ferocious,
while the trash bear is considered to be mainly inoffensive. The human
population explosion, however, has put so many more people into contact with
trash bears that various unpleasant incidents have resulted. Trash bears
frequently eat people. Grizzlies seldom do.
Bears of all kinds are a great ornament to the wilderness, but you do not
want them in your lap. We frequently print up the five Gunsite bear rules.
If you observe them, bears will be no trouble.
""""
We learn that on one occasion on Guadalcanal when things were pretty
rough, a subordinate commander reported to Chesty Puller that all of his
officers were either dead or incapacitated, and as a result all command
positions were held by sergeants. Chesty called back for the officer not to
worry. "There is nothing better than a Marine sergeant." Here was the
legendary "Marine's Marine."
""""
Florence King, who is an amusing and outrageous commentator for National
Review, recently came up with another jewel. When one candidate was asking
that his opponent "look deep into the heart," Florence suggested that he
whistle up an Aztec priest.
""""
Is the so-called killer instinct a necessary and essential attribute of
military command? I have been addressing this question for some time now,
not professionally but rather for amusement. The first thing, as Socrates
put it, is to define our terms. What is a "killer instinct," if it exists at
all? I think the principal manifestation of the killer instinct is simply
the enjoyment of killing. This is not an attractive idea for most people,
and a great majority, if asked directly, will maintain that they do not enjoy
killing either animals or people. And this may, of course, be true. Not
always, however. In picking through history we run across all sorts of
evidence suggesting that the enjoyment of killing is not as rare a phenomenon
as most people would like to believe. If we go back to the earliest records
we find there is very little to help us here, because prior to the
popularization of printed matter any sort of psychological or emotional
analysis was very difficult, and suffered decidedly from the attitude and
prejudices of the historian. If we say that Attila, for example, enjoyed
killing, we are taking our truths from the statements of people he pounded.
Losers customarily abhor winners. But if we come up to reasonably modern
times we can get much better depictions of the personalities of prominent
military leaders who are professionally engaged in homicide.
I do not trust the historian too far in this matter because I doubt his
objectivity, but I have some experiences of my own upon which I feel I can
rely. I have on one occasion become reasonably close to a prominent Marine
general who told me in confidence that the thing he enjoyed most in life was
killing Japs. This may come as a shock to some people, but it did not shock
me. We were fighting the same war at the same time, and our objective was
the destruction of Japan, materially and biologically. This exchange was not
confined to the general and me. I remember various bull sessions in the
Pacific wherein the central topic was the mechanical problem of disposing of
80 million Japanese. This was what we were going to have to do, since we had
discovered first hand that the Japanese would not surrender.
For purposes of this discussion, killing is not necessarily confined to
homicide. A lot of us are hunters, and while we feel no enmity towards those
beasts we kill, we cannot deny the visceral thrill that comes from a
well-placed shot and an instant stop.
This is a very deep and very ancient attribute of the predatory carnivore
which is man. While I always try to eat whatever I shoot, I do not hunt for
food. Nor do I hunt primarily for trophies. I prefer the taste of wild
venison to that of domestic stock, and I prize a prime trophy well taken, but
that is not the whole story.
Western Europeans tend to be shy about this subject, but the Bantu are
not so. In Africa today when the hunter places a clean hit and hears the
Kugelschlag, the locals in his company customarily grunt out the shout,
"Shakazulu!"
The bambiists and the bunny huggers naturally view all this with horror,
and they are entitled to that attitude as their choice. They are wrong,
however, in assuming that most people are horrified at the notion of taking
life. Some are and some are not, but the notion that because A does not
share the emotions of B he is automatically "illegal, immoral, and fattening"
is unsound. Both hunters and soldiers kill normally and frequently. I think
it may be suggested that they do it better if they enjoy doing it.
The killer instinct undoubtedly helps the fighting soldier. Whether it
is an attribute of a senior commander is another matter. We know a lot more
about our own recent wars than we do about others, and so we Americans have
much insight into the personalities of our national heroes. I certainly do
not wish to damage anyone's reputation when I say that I am convinced that
Stonewall Jackson was a killer. Douglas Freeman insisted that Robert E. Lee
was even more so. William T. Sherman almost certainly was, whereas Grant
almost equally was not. Probably Patton was a killer, but I do not think
MacArthur was. Most think of George Custer and Bedford Forrest as
enthusiastic killers, and at sea we have John Paul "Jones" who was a notably
fierce little man. Stepping across the line we note that one of Rommel's
best known works is called "Krieg ohne Hasse" (war without hatred), and the
majority of senior German commanders were conspicuously restrained in their
commentaries, if not always in their actions.
The Japanese are more difficult to analyze, since their records were
largely destroyed and such letters as exist are equivocal. Certainly they
did their share of personal killing, and they took pictures to send home as
souvenirs.
About all that I can gather from all this is that the killer instinct is
not essential to senior command, though it may be desirable in lower ranks.
It is neither shameful nor prideful - it is just there.
""""
As we continue on into the year it appears that thought control has
become the tune of the time. "Thoughts are free" was the great battle cry of
the left during the upheavals of the 19th century, but apparently not any
longer. Here in the U.S. it is now considered that crime X deserves one
punishment, but becomes crime Y when the perpetrator was thinking the wrong
thoughts at the time.
"Die Gedanken sind frei, aber heute nicht in die Vereiningten Staaten."
""""
SAFETY
The following missive, by Lawrence A. Bullis of Phoenix to the "Arizona
Republic," was reprinted in Harper's:
"Everyday some new do-gooder is trying to save us from ourselves. We
have so many laws and safety commissions to ensure our safety that it seems
nearly impossible to have an accident. The problem is that we need
accidents, and lots of them.
"Danger is nature's way of eliminating stupid people. Without safety,
stupid people die in accidents...
"With safety, however well-intentioned it may be, we are devolving into
half-witted mutants, because idiots, who by all rights should be dead, are
spared from their rightful early graves and are free to breed even more
imbeciles.
"Let's do away with safety and improve our species. Take up smoking.
Jaywalk. Play with blasting caps. Swim right after a big meal. Stick
something small in your ear. Take your choice of dangerous activity and do
it with gusto. Future generations will thank you."
""""
Notice recently observed on a private pool: "Please do not walk on the
water. It is politically incorrect."
Please Note: These "Commentaries" are for personal use only. Not for
publication.
Kenneth Pantling
Nock's Grim Truth - In proportion as you give the State power to do things
for you, you give it power to do things to you; and the State invariably
makes as little as it can of the one power and as much as it can of the
other.
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