Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters So...how bout Charles Askins, Jr.?

Askins shooting an illegal in the back while wading back across the Rio Grande, or shooting a baby in Rhodesia are irrelevant to my feelings about him. I was around him a couple of times and was overwhelmed by what an ass he was. No "liberal ideas" involved.

Details??

I had not heard nor read before about his love of killing.

However, I recall reading him as a lad and not much liking his style/personality at that time. Came across as an egotistical sort.

JWP if you asking about the mexican he shot in the back he talks about it in his book. I think he fell on ground and the mexican almost took his pistol from him. It pissed him off and as the mexican was running across he river he shot him in the back. Askins stated they found the body a couple days later but he did not own up to doing the shooting.

Dink

This statement in red is what I was asking details about. The guy that he shot in the back was after he attempted to take Charlies gun. I read about that

Another story about Askins : he gave a talk one winter at a quail plantation near Tallahassee and was bragging about the number of men he had killed - I think he claimed 32 or so - and then said their was still one more to go. He bragged that he planned on ending his own life when the time came.
I never cared much for his writing either.

Did he?

Go back to page 5 and read the second from bottom entry.
Greg

I only see 4 pages on my screen

This post went to the first post on page 5 on my screen

Repeated:
It was at either the first or second Bianchi Cup, Askins attended as a VIP. Ray Chapman and John Bianchi were courting the NRA (or perhaps the NRA was courting them) to sanction the match and start a "practical shooting event" (the name changed in 83 to "action shooting" at Jeff Cooper's insistance). Anyway, Askins was seated at the head table during the awards dinner, wearing a cowboy hat and looking flamboyant and bored. IIRC, Bill McMillan (ex Olympic pistol shooter, Marine Officer and San Diego Deputy) was giving a short talk. Right in the middle of the talk, Askin stands up, looks out over the crowd and then just walks out, totally disrupting the presentation. He never came back, nor did Ray invite him back IIRC. He also wrote a critical piece for the American Rifleman after the 1978 US IPSC championsip that was egregious enough that the champion, Ross Seyfried wrote a response---this was years before Ross had ever penned an article---maybe in a way, Askin is responsible for Ross' writing career.

I have to say folks that this is disgusting, and this kind of thread is a disservice to legitimate gun owners everywhere because it just serves to reinforce a stereotype. Heck I love guns and it makes me sick.

Liking guns and or like Charles are not intertwined

What makes you sick?

The unpleasant facts?

The fact that the unpleasant facts are coming to light again?

I'm too stupid, I guess, to see how revealing complexity can possibly be considered to be "reinforc[ing] a stereotype."

I enjoy reading about the personal lives of the older gunwriters. All most of us know, the ones of us who did not actualy know them or live close to them, is what they wrote about.

I wonder what many of them were like day to day.

I have always wondered how some of them could afford to make trips to Africa year after year, when it seems they did nothing but write. I don't think writing for magazines pays that well.

Askins was an Army officer, and I am pretty sure a Cols. retirement pay would not let him afford to go year after year to Africa.

I said what I did because I see that everyday there are anti gun folks and non-shooters that think of or portray gun owners as just a bunch of crazy dangerous lunatics. So as gun owners we have to fight this stereotype by putting up a PR fight to show that we are no different than sportsmen that like to fish , golf,etc. So when it turns out that a stone cold killer was able to rise to a level of celebrity and some seeming acceptance in the shooting fraternity as this guy did then I see it as a chance for them to go see I told you they were all just a bunch of cruel killers.

I just finished reading Col. Askins Swan Song letter in the August, 1987 American Rifleman. All I can say is, Wow! You fellas are right about this dude, he was absolutely unrepentent.

Howell thanks for posting in this thread.Facts are facts and thanks for sharing them.

I agree with Bauer;I have been keeping an eye on this thread, and found it very interesting. Sometimes the truth is ugly, but it is what it is. Saying this thread is "a disservice to legitimate gun owners everywhere" is absurd. Burying your head in the sand because something is unpalatable to you wont make it go away.

I would like to thank the posters who actually had some first hand experiences with Col. Askins for giving their side of the story. Good stuff

How does it promote gun ownership by ignoring the man's autobiography? And someone said to "shoot, shovel, and shut up" while Askins did only the first. He was vociferous in promoting his cold bloodedness, in fact.

To take up for the man in the face of overwhelming evidence that he was unrepentant is plain dumb. It's like asking the public to not believe their eyes.

Gene L, the post you quoted is anti Askins. Not pro