C Stories

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 was a shottist since the age of eleven, and 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 still resides. 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 was 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. He passed away in 2006.