Apologies to all for being away from the blog for the last week and a half. Work took me to the trial of a police officer in Washington state, arising from an off-duty shooting (he was justly acquitted this past Friday), and thence to a class I taught in Iowa. There was just no writing time. Let me try to make up for that this week. Unfortunately, the first dispatch is sad news indeed.
Hal Swiggett died recently at the age of 87. A popular writer in the firearms and outdoor sports field since 1947, Hal was one of the giants in the game, and one of its finest gentlemen.
It was Hal who had the pleasure and privilege of presenting the late, great Elmer Keith with the very first Outstanding American Handgunner of the Year Award. A decade later, Hal was presented the same award himself. It was an honor he never asked for, but one he had most certainly earned. Hal Swiggett was a man who devoted himself to others.
An ordained Baptist minister, Hal always had two things with him in the front seat of his pickup truck: a Bible, and a .45 caliber Colt semiautomatic pistol. He was among the pioneers of the sport of hunting with a handgun, and was universally respected in that world. The first time I hunted in Texas, Hal was my guide, at the famous Y-O game ranch. It was there that he introduced me to one of my favorite firearms of my whole career, the Colt Python .357 Magnum revolver as splendidly tuned by Jerry Moran. I got home from that trip and ordered a new Python from Colt, and shipped it directly to Moran for the action work. It won state championships for me. Such was the quality of Hal Swiggett’s advice.
Brother Swiggett’s work ethic was as solid as his belief system. Most writers work from home. Hal maintained an office for the purpose in downtown San Antonio. It kept him disciplined, he said, and also kept work from interfering with family…and his family was his first concern.
Hal Swiggett has left us a rich legacy of wise and well-written work on his favorite topics: guns and hunting. You’ll find many of them archived at www.findarticles.com. If you haven’t read his stuff, take the opportunity to do so. I hope you learn as much from that good man as I did. Heck, I grew up reading it his work.
It’s not a cliché to say that Hal Swiggett’s passing diminishes us all. There are too few men with his values and his kind of honor left in this world.
Photo courtesy of Harris Publications
MAS, Brother Swiggett’s passing is indeed sad news, especially when it seems that gun owners are beleaguered from all directions, but perhaps we need to take Brother Swigget’s work ethic and apply it in our attempts to alert our elected officials to let them know just where we stand on these issues and make the necessary phone calls and write the necessary letters and E-mails to our elected officials to let them know where we stand on the issue of protecting our 2nd amendment rights. It appears that a Federal Judge has blocked the “Rule Permitting Concealed Carry” in our National Parks, this was reported in the WASHINGTON POST by reporters Juliet Eilperin and Del Wilber .”U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly issued a preliminary injunction in a lawsuit brought by gun-control advocates and environmental groups. The Justice Department had sought to block the injunction against the controversial rule.
The three groups that brought the suit — the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence, the National Parks Conservation Association and the Coalition of National Park Service Retirees — argued that the Bush action violated several laws.
In her ruling, Kollar-Kotelly agreed that the government’s process had been “astoundingly flawed.”
She noted that the government justified its decision to forgo an environmental analysis on the grounds that the rule does not “authorize” environmental impacts. Calling this a “tautology,” she wrote that officials “abdicated their Congressionally-mandated obligation” to evaluate environmental impacts and “ignored (without sufficient explanation) substantial information in the administrative record concerning environmental impacts” of the rule.
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Interior Department spokeswoman Kendra Barkoff said the department could not comment because of “ongoing litigation.”
The regulation, which took effect Jan. 9, allowed visitors to carry loaded, concealed guns into national parks and wildlife refuges if state laws there allowed it in public places. In most cases, a state permit would be required to carry a concealed weapon into a national park. ” MAS, I feel that this news and all that is sure to come in the rest of this Administration’s Agenda will seek to take away our 2nd AMENDMENT rights, and perhaps a lot more , THIS ASSAULT ON OUR RIGHTS AND FREEDOMS SHOULD NOT PARALYZE US INTO INACTION BUT INSTEAD POLARIZE INTO ACTION TO PRESERVE THE VERY FREEDOMS AND RIGHTS THAT WE HOLD SO DEAR!
Yes, sad news indeed. I’m sure I’ve read many articles by him in the 40+ years I’ve been reading every outdoors magazine I could find to read.
Thanks for the link so I can go and reminice on somethings I’ve read before