Jeff Cooper Quotes - Page 3

Your physical safety is up to you, as it really always has been.

It is high time for society to stop worrying about the criminal, and to let the criminal start worrying about society. And by "society" I mean you.

It seems that the concealed carry policy now in effect in 30 states is unfair to goblins. They cannot tell who is armed and who is not, and when their intended victim shoots back it hurts their feelings - along with other things.

Personal weapons are what raised mankind out of the mud, and the rifle is the queen of personal weapons. The possession of a good rifle, as well as the skill to use it well, truly makes a man the monarch of all he surveys. It realizes the ancient dream of the Jovian thunderbolt, and as such it is the embodiment of personal power. For this reason it exercises a curious influence over the minds of most men, and in its best examples it constitutes an object of affection unmatched by any other inanimate object.

If it is ever your misfortune to be attacked, alertness will have given you a little warning, decisiveness will have given you a proper course to pursue, and if that course is to counterattack, carry it out with everything you've got! Be indignant. Be angry. Be aggressive.

We are fully justified in valuing the life and person of an intended victim more highly than the life of a pernicious assailant. The attacker must be stopped. At once and completely.

Let us remind ourselves again that the Second Amendment of the US Constitution should be referred to as the Statute of Liberty.

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.

The best personal defense is an explosive counterattack.

No sensible person ever opens the door of his house without knowing who is knocking.

Don't try to be fancy. Shoot for the center of mass. The world is full of decent people. Criminals we can do without.

Under any sort of attack, keep cool. And if you must shoot, shoot with precision.

The purpose of the pistol is to stop a fight that somebody else has started, almost always at very short range.

I am sometimes perplexed by people who refer to defensive rifles, or defensive rifle shooting. The defensive arm is the pistol, since you have it at hand to meet situations that you do not anticipate. If you have the luxury of anticipating a lethal encounter, you pick up a long arm, either a rifle or a shotgun, but in that case you go on to the attack. Thus rifle shooting is offensive, and pistol shooting is defensive. Of course, life does not always duplicate theory, and there are exceptions to everything, but nevertheless the rifle is not a defensive weapon in concept.

The one who anticipates the action wins. The one who does not, loses.

Anyone who is aware of his environment knows that the peril of physical assault does exist, and that it exists everywhere and at all times.

Anyone who willfully and maliciously attacks another without sufficient cause jeopardize the lives of others.

In all history the only bright rays cutting the gloom of oppression have come from men who would rather get hurt than give in.

Anger, as long as it is controlled anger, is no obstacle to efficiency. Self-control is one thing the sociopath does not usually possess. Use yours to his undoing.

Democracy has many definitions, but what's in it for me is not an element of any of them.

It is long been a principal of ours that one is no more armed because he has possession of a firearm than he is a musician because he owns a piano. There is no point in having a gun if you are not capable of using it skillfully.

There ain't many troubles that a man caint fix With seven hundred dollars and a thirty ought six.

A fine marksman is with a second rate rifle is far more effective than the reverse.

Now how do we cultivate an aggressive response? I think the answer is indignation... Your response, if attacked, must not be fear, it must be anger.

Use your eyes. Do not enter unfamiliar areas that you cannot observe first. Make it a practice to swing wide around corners, use window glass for rearward visibility, and get something solid behind you when you pause.