About the "Weaver Stance" Poster
by Alan Weaver (Jack Weaver's son)

The original moment of inspiration for this poster arrived while I was listening to my favorite talk radio personality discussing "gun control." I remember muttering to myself that my idea of proper gun control is the Weaver Stance. In other words, hit the target and, if necessary, hit it again. Proper gun control certainly does not mean restricting the rights of law abiding Americans to own firearms, and the vast majority of law enforcement officials agree.

My father, Jack Weaver, was an L.A. County Deputy, so I grew up around cops and handguns and have a great respect for both. I was taught that gun safety and responsibility are just plain facts of life, and you never point a gun at something you aren't willing to shoot. Obviously guns are deadly serious objects, but they are only that. A Pistol could lay on the sidewalk, untouched, for a thousand years and never harm anyone. Properly handled, a gun will save lives, protect property, bring home the bacon, and provide excitement and satisfaction as you perfect your shooting skills.

I remember a "pistol shoot" sometime around 1960 at Big Bear, California. As a boy of six, I was an old hand at shooting competitions having witnessed many shootouts where the targets were balloons wedged into old tires. I was hanging around backstage and overheard two gunslingers talking about how "someone should break Weaver's left arm." Holy cow!! I ran straight to my trusted sidekick, my mother, and revealed the details of the plot I had just discovered. She explained to me that these men were most likely not serious about breaking dad's arm, but were upset because they couldn't shoot straight one-handed and dad was wiping them all out using his two-hand technique.

For myself, from that day forward, the Weaver Stance has meant using both hands. But forget me, here is what my father wrote describing his method in the article entitled "Jack Weaver Speaks" from Handguns magazine, February 1994. "Number one, there are people who for some reason or other like to take something that is very simple and make something complicated out of it. The important thing is the hand position on the gun (no wrist grabbing or palm-under-the-hand stuff). I put my left thumb over my right and squeeze tighter with my left (weak) hand than the right. The rest is up to the individual. Unless you are a Jack Weaver clone, you can't be expected to do everything exactly like I do." For an in-depth analysis of this stance and good information on handgunning, read the book "Shooting Handguns" by Mike Mangiaracina (see link on home page).

So there it is folks. An explanation of how and why this poster came to be. Have I mentioned the photograph? It truly is worth a thousand words, capturing one of those moments where everything lined up perfectly. Pictured just below Jack's infamous left arm is the late Colonel Jeff Cooper himself, who did more to promote handgunning than any man since Colonel Colt. Pictured in the crowd are, among others, my grandfather John Weaver and my father's best friend, Howard Morgan.

-- Alan Weaver

 

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