This ought to be interesting! - on a Positive Note

Guns Magazine, July, 2003 by Jim Gardner

It is with great and genuine pleasure we welcome Clint Smith aboard as a regular columnist commencing with this issue. Many of you are already familiar with Clint, and his all too infrequent feature articles always generate a great deal of interest.

With a background that includes two tours in Vietnam as a Marine infantryman and member of a Combined Action Platoon, seven years as a full-time sworn peace officer, and some 30 years of teaching law enforcement, military and civilian students at America's best schools -- most notably his own Thunder Ranch -- you might say Clint has been around the block a time or two.

Clint is a true historian of personal arms, and has experienced and experimented with arms of all types, from flintlocks to belt-fed full auto.

"Clint's observations and teaching methods are based on first person, real world experience," said Roy Huntington, editor of American Handgunner Magazine, and longtime friend. "One thing Clint is not," said Roy, "is a "shooting personality," he's a real shooter, and the most knowledgeable guy on the subject I've ever known."

The only directive Clint has been given for his new column, Ranging Shots, is to write about anything that fires him up, and not to shy away from any topic worth talking about. And if you or I think we can predict what will come next -- we're probably wrong. I don't know about you, but I'm just going to sit back and enjoy the ride.