I’ve recently learned that, this past October 26, my old friend Dean Speir passed away. Dean was a gun writer who really pissed off manufacturers of guns that had problems, because he broke the stories. He was one of the few of us in the business who wrote “consumer reports” on firearms, warts and all. He was also a pioneer of gun forums: he created The Gun Zone, which was one of the best such forums ever.

On a personal note, Dean more than anyone else convinced me to go on those forums and put down BS-ers, and I could never thank him enough for that. Troll-hunting became one of my hobbies, thanks to Dean. (You don’t need a license to hunt trolls, and no one feels sorry for the BS-ers you shoot down.)

Dean Speir walked the walk and talked the talk. He shot in major matches including the National Tactical Invitational.  Others have written better obits than I could. You can find them here and here.

I’m glad he made it to 83. He was a good man who did a lot of good for good people.

May he rest in peace, and in well-deserved pride. Gail and I extend our condolences to his lovely wife Jeanne and the rest of his family.

13 COMMENTS

  1. Well said Mas. It is certainly a sad thing that as we age our friends, contemporaries, and even heroes begin to pass from this mortal place to what we believe to be a much better place. Not because of their journey to what is to many of us who are Christians believe is a better place, but because of the loss of them from our lives and the lives of their family and loved ones.
    What we can rejoice in is the memories and the work that they leave behind, and the more we miss them in body and spirit, it is likely that the more of an impact that they have had.

    • Pigpen 51-you left nothing for me to add. What a wonderful reply. Thank you for sharing. I will just say a hearty AMEN!

  3. Seems like not a week goes by and I learn of another friend or someone I
    worked with, has passed. Being the same age as Mas, I can empathize.
    I lost a good friend and fellow retired LEO just a few days past to colon cancer.
    What’s worse, her husband, also a retired LEO died last year of colon
    cancer. Blessed are the Peacemakers.We spend our life taking care of
    problems other people make for themselves or have visited upon them
    by human predators and often neglect our own care. Take care Mas.
    Don’t want to read about your passing anytime in the near future.
    Dano

  4. Never met him in person, we did exchange emails and went back and forth on his various websites. Sorry to see him go, but he had a good run and did much good in the time with us. Gents like him are hard to find.

  5. I would not be who I am today without the influence of Dean Speir.

    His loss is a great one.

    His example encouraged me to be a firearms industry journalist and not just a gunwriter.

  6. Even though I never met him, Dean was very important to my development when I first got into guns. In fact, I would say only you and Jim Jacobe had a greater influence – and I actually trained with the both of you.

    When I first got into guns when I was in my thirties was back in 2005, it was an intimidating thing. I had no idea what I was doing or where to get good advice. Jim said I should consider taking classes with you in addition to the courses he offered, so I did a web search and happened on the old AmBack Forums where you had recently dusted a troll.

    At first I blundered about the forums, saying a few ill-considered things to vent my frustration over the lack of concise information in the gun press and Dean and Charlie Petty (RIP) smacked me down pretty hard. I’m glad I had the humility to take my lumps because I would have missed out on a lot of wisdom if I had let pride speak for me.

    Dean suffered fools only slightly better than Jeff Cooper, but once you understood where he was coming from you discovered he was a fount of knowledge. He demanded critical thinking and despised people who drank any manufacturer’s Kool-Aid – He called Glock fanboys “Tennifer Twinks.” You could disagree with him and have his respect, but if you didn’t have your facts and thoughts lined up in a logical fashion, you’d feel the back of his rhetorical hand.

    I remember when he left the AmBack forums, it suddenly lost its zing. The man added an air of excitement to the place. It still visit it occasionally (it’s the GunHub now) but it isn’t nearly as bust as it was.

    The bit of wisdom he shared that affected me most deeply was in the rules he wrote on the AmBack forums. He said it was forbidden to talk about how one might be getting tired of shooting paper targets, pointing out that there were people on the forums who had actually had to kill – whether it was in the service or self-defense. Airing such sentiments was disrespectful to them since they knew the personal toll of taking a life. Long before I considered the legal liability of spouting off on the internet, that curbed any inclination I might have had in engaging some fantasy of being Mack Bolan. Whenever I see someone today in social media talking about how they want to start shooting political opponents, I remember Dean Speir’s wisdom, and try to correct them gently (or at least more gently than he would have), and invariably they reply by saying that I’m female genitalia. I never take that personally because I know they would have said the same thing to Dean.

  7. I loved his sense of humor, particularly in his ‘borrowing’ his pen name from a classic film noir,’Laura’. I read Gun Zone frequently over the years, in fact I searched out and bought a rare S&W 042 because of the article he wrote on his. There was zero pretense and none of the ‘Hey, I’m a big shot writer, listen to me!’ crap about him; he seemed very authentic.

    I sincerely hope he is resting peacefully.

  10. Truly sorry to hear that Dean Speir has passed. He was one of my inspiring influences; another solid 2A enthusiast in NYS; in Long Island, one of the worst areas of the State to be one in. Dean not only thrived; but established a solid reputation as a credible source of information; The Gun Zone was a solid blog on the internet.

    May he continue to inspire those of us to persevere against the anti-2A forces, increase our knowledge and speak the truth.

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