I expect few, if any, gunbloggers own a Cooper, lusted after a Cooper, or even knew what a Cooper was until the recent flap over CEO Dan Cooper’s public support for Obama. (Note: Coopers are ultra-accurate, semi-custom rifles costing several thousand dollars each.) Well, I wanted one. I wanted more than one. And now I’m gonna take my business elsewhere.

Here’s a slightly edited version of an email I just sent to Dan Cooper:

RE: Canceling my Cooper Dreams

Hello,

I’m a corporate attorney in California who only became involved in rifle-shooting over the last four years. I’ve become a long-range shooting aficionado, attending Boomershoot and various long-range rifle and pistol events every year. I quickly became aware of Cooper’s reputation for accuracy and workmanship, and have been lusting over the various Coopers highlighted in the back issues of the Varmint Hunter and Small Caliber News magazines. As a southpaw, I was especially pleased to see that Cooper would build rifles with left-hand actions, and so I had planned to begin 2009 purchasing what would have been the first of several Cooper rifles in each of my favorite calibers, as well as working with your shop to craft one or more custom long-range specialty pistols for my use in annual competitions. After learning of your CEO’s public statement in favor of Senator Obama, I have canceled those plans with regret.

As a Californian, an NRA Life Member and an honorary board member of [redacted,] a California gun-rights group supporting the Nordyke 2^nd-amendment case that will likely result in application of the Heller Supreme Court decision to the various States, I am perhaps more aware than most of the risk posed by Senator Obama to our fundamental civil rights. I am appalled that your CEO would make the public pronouncement he did at this critical time for gun owners. Cooper Firearms has lost my business for good. I intend to use what influence I have in the affluent California shooting community to help others make that decision as well.

David [Redacted]
General Counsel for [Redacted]