Jeff Cooper, founder of the Gunsight Training Center, wrote prolifically about guns and self-defense — and the harsh reality of gunfighting:
Remember the first rule of gunfighting: have a gun.
But he also realized that gun nuts enjoyed reading his advice much more than following it:
If you are reading this, and you are not within arm’s reach of a weapon, you have not learned the lessons of Gunsite.
In one of his commentaries, he lamented:
I can sympathize with Simon Bolivar, when on his death bed, he sighed, “I have plowed the sea.”