Jeff Cooper was perhaps the nation's foremost authority on defensive weaponcraft. He was renowned not only for his practical instruction on firearms marksmanship, mechanics and safety but also for his groundbreaking ideas on proper defensive mental conditioning.
This final edition of Cooper's classic Principles of Personal Defense with a fitting tribute by firearms expert Louis Awerbuck and all-new drawings by renowned illustrator Paul Kirchner presents his timeless theory of individual defensive behavior clearly, concisely and practically.
All free people who aspire to stay that way should read, study and share the wisdom found within these pages. Considered by many to be one of the greatest books on combat mindset and proper defensive mental conditioning ever written, it deserves a place of honor in every library.
Jeff Cooper was one of the true pioneers of weaponcraft in the United States. His numerous accomplishments include founder of Gunsite Ranch, editor at large of Guns & Ammo magazine, winner of the Outstanding American Handgunner award in 1995, Rangemaster Emeritus of the U.S. Practical Shooting Association and long-time member of the board of directors of the National Rifle Association.
Jeff Cooper was born in Los Angeles, California, in 1920. He was educated at Stanford University and took his advanced degree from the University of California. He was commissioned in the Marine Corps in 1941 and served throughout World War II in the Pacific, achieving the rank of Major. Recalled to active duty for the Korean War, he moved up one rank to Lieutenant Colonel before leaving the service.
Cooper became a shottist at the age of eleven. In 1958 he originated the sport of practical pistol competition. From this activity he formulated the Modern Technique of the Pistol, now generally observed throughout the world. For the next thirty years he was active in teaching the new method throughout the Western World.
In 1976 Jeff Cooper founded the International Practical Shooting Confederation. In 1977 he founded the American Pistol Institute at Gunsite in Arizona, where he lived until his death in 2006.
He served as editor-at-large of Guns and Ammo magazine, for which he wrote a monthly column. After having served many years as a director of the National Rifle Association of America, he was elected to the Executive Council.
Jeff Cooper spent a long and active life reading, shooting, hunting, fighting and teaching. Internationally respected as the "Gunner's Guru," Jeff Cooper is a philosopher, moralist, and political commentator -- a true modern Renaissance man. It is to the benefit of his many readers that he developed the passion at an early age to write it all down.
