There was a recent thread on Jeff Cooper’s Four Rules of Firearms Safety. The thread was apparently intended to be about rules of firearm safety and not Jeff Cooper, but when his version of the rules were examined critically and alternatives including the NRA’s rules were compared, some people were offended and the thread was locked. I am not attempting to discuss firearm rules any further, but I think Jeff Cooper should be discussed instead.
I make an effort to discuss Jeff Cooper at the peril of this thread being deleted or locked also because Administrator Robert has written that Jeff, “tired to make our sport, our rights, safer…” and suggests that he was, “internationally recognized as one of the foremost experts on all things firearms related.” Therefore I am confident that the subject of Jeff Cooper is relevant to The High Road. Being The High Road, I am also hopeful there is a willingness to consider the content of a man’s character before holding them in high regard and promoting them to a position of stature within the gun culture in the US and abroad. I will use Jeff’s own words and allow the reader to form their own opinion as to whether he should be held in high regard, promoted as a hero, or revered for his contributions to gun culture.
Cooper made his contempt for the black people of South Africa clear in several of his comments. In the February 1995 issue of Cooper’s Commentaries, he writes, “The decay of the late, great country of South Africa is beginning to become apparent. The name of the Transvaal has been officially changed to ” Gauteng." (One of our friends has suggested that in view of this its inhabitants in the future should be referred to as Oranggautengs.)" In the September 1996 edition, he wrote, “For those who are proud of their lifetime shooting record, we learn of an old geezer, aged 96, who at the end of his life in the Transvaal boasted that he had taken 341 elephants, 187 lions, 40 kaffirs and two Englishmen. It will take some doing to top that.” In South Africa kaffir is a derogatory slur equivalent to the n-word.
“Colonialism has a bad reputation in the modern context, but Colonial Africa was a far better place for both black and white before the colonists gave up.” November 2000
Cooper’s contempt for black people was not limited to some political sphere exclusive to South Africa. Not only did he apply his hatred and bigotry to Americans in the United States, but he went as far as promoting their caging and slavery.
“It is interesting to infer that Bill Clinton invented slavery − for which he is being called upon to apologize. If we antedate Bill somewhat, we discover that the only thing the United States government ever did about slavery was to abolish it. Perhaps that was a mistake, but I do not feel inclined to apologize for it. As Aristotle tells us, slavery is the normal condition of much of mankind, and has been a feature of all civilizations from the Bronze Age downward. Perhaps, while we are at it, we should apologize for gravity. That certainly causes a lot of trouble.” June 1997
“We reflect, in this period of racist agitation, that slavery has been the normal condition of mankind for most of history. What do you do with the losers? You either kill them outright or put them to work. If you pen them up you have to feed them, and you have enough trouble feeding yourself. Despite this a large number of semi−literate types in the States seem to think of slavery as a unique invention of the southern states of the US over a period of a few generations.” July 2000
Cooper didn’t focus his bitter contempt for other Americans exclusively on black people. He wrote, “Mr. Jefferson is quoted around the inside of his monument at Washington as standing foursquare and forever against every form of tyranny over the mind of man. As he declaimed, and as I hope we all agree, the State may justifiably control our actions − but never our thoughts. Sorry, Mr. Jefferson, but all men are not created equal. ('All ya gotta do is look.')” October 2002
“Equality is biologically impossible, and liberty is only obtainable in homogeneous populations very thinly spread.” December 1999
“We see these people complaining when they are 'profiled' while making every effort to make such profiling obvious. If a raghead does not wish to be identified as a raghead, there would seem to be no reason for him to speak like a raghead, act like a raghead, and dress like a raghead. The best way for him to avoid being identified as a raghead would be to stay back where he came from.” October 2002
In 1991, he wrote in Guns & Ammo magazine that, "no more than five to ten people in a hundred who die by gunfire in Los Angeles are any loss to society. These people fight small wars amongst themselves. It would seem a valid social service to keep them well-supplied with ammunition."
Anyone hoping to promote Jeff Cooper to a fellow human being has got to be expecting them to be ignorant of these things, and hoping that they remain ignorant of them and join ignorantly in their hero worship of this man and his utter contempt for many of us. Jeff Cooper should not have any part of the gun culture promoted by Americans. He was successful in promoting his brand of ideology, his version of firearm safety rules, his version of “modern technique,” and the Gunsite academy he started. Those things were discussed in the other thread, but the result made it obvious that the only premise by which discussion of them would be tolerated was one where Jeff Cooper was revered. I will not revere this man.
I make an effort to discuss Jeff Cooper at the peril of this thread being deleted or locked also because Administrator Robert has written that Jeff, “tired to make our sport, our rights, safer…” and suggests that he was, “internationally recognized as one of the foremost experts on all things firearms related.” Therefore I am confident that the subject of Jeff Cooper is relevant to The High Road. Being The High Road, I am also hopeful there is a willingness to consider the content of a man’s character before holding them in high regard and promoting them to a position of stature within the gun culture in the US and abroad. I will use Jeff’s own words and allow the reader to form their own opinion as to whether he should be held in high regard, promoted as a hero, or revered for his contributions to gun culture.
Cooper made his contempt for the black people of South Africa clear in several of his comments. In the February 1995 issue of Cooper’s Commentaries, he writes, “The decay of the late, great country of South Africa is beginning to become apparent. The name of the Transvaal has been officially changed to ” Gauteng." (One of our friends has suggested that in view of this its inhabitants in the future should be referred to as Oranggautengs.)" In the September 1996 edition, he wrote, “For those who are proud of their lifetime shooting record, we learn of an old geezer, aged 96, who at the end of his life in the Transvaal boasted that he had taken 341 elephants, 187 lions, 40 kaffirs and two Englishmen. It will take some doing to top that.” In South Africa kaffir is a derogatory slur equivalent to the n-word.
“Colonialism has a bad reputation in the modern context, but Colonial Africa was a far better place for both black and white before the colonists gave up.” November 2000
Cooper’s contempt for black people was not limited to some political sphere exclusive to South Africa. Not only did he apply his hatred and bigotry to Americans in the United States, but he went as far as promoting their caging and slavery.
“It is interesting to infer that Bill Clinton invented slavery − for which he is being called upon to apologize. If we antedate Bill somewhat, we discover that the only thing the United States government ever did about slavery was to abolish it. Perhaps that was a mistake, but I do not feel inclined to apologize for it. As Aristotle tells us, slavery is the normal condition of much of mankind, and has been a feature of all civilizations from the Bronze Age downward. Perhaps, while we are at it, we should apologize for gravity. That certainly causes a lot of trouble.” June 1997
“We reflect, in this period of racist agitation, that slavery has been the normal condition of mankind for most of history. What do you do with the losers? You either kill them outright or put them to work. If you pen them up you have to feed them, and you have enough trouble feeding yourself. Despite this a large number of semi−literate types in the States seem to think of slavery as a unique invention of the southern states of the US over a period of a few generations.” July 2000
Cooper didn’t focus his bitter contempt for other Americans exclusively on black people. He wrote, “Mr. Jefferson is quoted around the inside of his monument at Washington as standing foursquare and forever against every form of tyranny over the mind of man. As he declaimed, and as I hope we all agree, the State may justifiably control our actions − but never our thoughts. Sorry, Mr. Jefferson, but all men are not created equal. ('All ya gotta do is look.')” October 2002
“Equality is biologically impossible, and liberty is only obtainable in homogeneous populations very thinly spread.” December 1999
“We see these people complaining when they are 'profiled' while making every effort to make such profiling obvious. If a raghead does not wish to be identified as a raghead, there would seem to be no reason for him to speak like a raghead, act like a raghead, and dress like a raghead. The best way for him to avoid being identified as a raghead would be to stay back where he came from.” October 2002
In 1991, he wrote in Guns & Ammo magazine that, "no more than five to ten people in a hundred who die by gunfire in Los Angeles are any loss to society. These people fight small wars amongst themselves. It would seem a valid social service to keep them well-supplied with ammunition."
Anyone hoping to promote Jeff Cooper to a fellow human being has got to be expecting them to be ignorant of these things, and hoping that they remain ignorant of them and join ignorantly in their hero worship of this man and his utter contempt for many of us. Jeff Cooper should not have any part of the gun culture promoted by Americans. He was successful in promoting his brand of ideology, his version of firearm safety rules, his version of “modern technique,” and the Gunsite academy he started. Those things were discussed in the other thread, but the result made it obvious that the only premise by which discussion of them would be tolerated was one where Jeff Cooper was revered. I will not revere this man.
