‘Influencers’ and the Preoccupation With Inconsequential Increments

“Who is Cooper?” asked the gentleman seated next to me at the large breakfast table in a restaurant in rural Tennessee. Another small arms and tactics instructor and I were having a discussion. I can’t remember the specific topic, but I had commented that “Cooper already addressed that,” to which our breakfast companion, a man with a large Youtube following for being a “firearms influencer” asked, who is Cooper?

I suppose the look on my face was incredulous and I replied, “Col. Jeff Cooper.” The look on my breakfast companion’s face indicated that didn’t help, so I continued, “The founder of Gunsite.” That bit of clarification brought no further clarification so I simply said, “If you are going to be a gun influencer, you need to look him up online.” 

The timeframe was around 2015 and I was a part of an industry gathering that included some classic writers mixed with a bunch of online “gun influencers.” I must admit that I was saddened and a bit annoyed that a person who held themselves out as an expert in the firearms space and posted videos about self-defense and tactics, had no idea who Col. Jeff Cooper was. It put me in mind of the scene from “The Sandlot” when all of the boys are talking about Babe Ruth and Smalls has no idea who that is. I suppose that would be comparable to someone telling you they are of Hebrew descent and never having heard of Moses. 

Why It Matters 

I can say that I grew up in the gun culture reading Jeff Cooper’s articles and “Cooper’s Corner,” the monthly column written for Guns & Ammo magazine which ran for decades. Col. Cooper was a wordsmith and devoted master of the English language, having no tolerance for those who failed to grasp the vernacular of the firearms world or of the nation that supported it. 

Jeff Cooper was one of those writers who left behind a slew of quotes from which to choose as well as thoughtful advice. While not a perfect man — none of us are — Jeff deserves a Rushmore-like place in the American gun culture due to his questioning of the way firearms training, specifically with a handgun, was passed down in the United States. 

While every gun dude with an Instagram account today claims to be a “firearms instructor”, we need to remember that before Cooper and his American Pistol Institute (Gunsite Academy) the only formal firearms education outlets were either the military or law enforcement academies. 

A WWII and Korean War veteran, when Jeff retired from the Marine Corps, he realized that firearms training, particularly with pistols, was antiquated and out of date. Also, if an American citizen truly had the desire to seek self-improvement with a pistol, there was no formal educational outlet for them to access outside of the military or police service. I won’t get into the history of the Big Bear shooting matches and the testing and research that went into creating “the Modern Technique” as that has been documented many times before.    

A Preoccupation with Inconsequential Increments

I recall reading one of Jeff’s pieces in which he discussed rifle accuracy and grouping. While I’m paraphrasing, his advice went something like this. “If you’re looking for a perfect shot group, zero your rifle and then take one perfect, well-aimed shot. Now measure the shot hole from edge to edge and you’ll have your perfect group.” Such a statement jibed with a quote from Cooper where he stated that Americans have a preoccupation with inconsequential increments. 

If you were to go to your favorite search engine and ask it; What did Jeff Cooper mean by preoccupation with inconsequential increments? You would likely get an answer such as this . . .

Lt. Col. Jeff Cooper coined the phrase “Preoccupation with Inconsequential Increments” (PII) to describe the human tendency to obsess over tiny, measurable differences in equipment or performance that have no meaningful impact on real-world results. He defined an “inconsequential increment” as a difference that has no significant relationship to the purpose of the exercise. 

By Jeff Cooper’s way of thinking, claiming that one rifle shot a 0.7-inch group at one hundred yards while another one only shot a 0.8-inch group is the definition of PII. Claiming to shave two hundredths of a second off your drawstroke was equivalent to a great big bag of nothing. 

Here is a direct quote from the man himself . . .

Years ago we coined the appellation, ‘Preoccupation with Inconsequential Increments,’ or PII. This peculiarity lies in attributing importance to measurable deviations so small as to be meaningless. You see it in the people who shoot test groups in rifles, awarding a prize to a group which is only thousandths of an inch smaller than those unrewarded. One sees it in speed records awarded in one-thousandths of one mile-per-hour. One sees it in basketball scores which, nearing the century mark, are separated by less than three points. In all such cases Score A is ‘better’ than Score B, but who cares?

An increment may be termed inconsequential when it has no significant relationship to the purpose of the exercise. Of course, if the purpose of the exercise is in itself inconsequential, some may not think this to be foolish. A very distinguished general at Quantico once caused the sign to be placed over the exit door of every office asking, in brilliant scarlet and gold, ‘What are you trying to do?’ There was a man who knew more about human nature than most.

The Purpose of the Exercise

When we are discussing the topic of mortal combat, defending innocent lives with the use of arms, we need to keep certain goals in mind. We need to consider the true purpose of the exercise or what are we trying to do?

We could go back to the fundamental question; Which is more important in a gunfight, not getting shot or shooting the bad guy? The correct answer is not getting shot. As long as you remain unshot, you have options. The moment you become a shot person, you start to run out of options. 

Then we have the hierarchy or the Four Pillars of Fighting; Mindset, Tactics, Skill and Gear, listed from most important to least. Mindset, or proper fighting mindset, is the pillar that makes you actually carry your gun, even when no threat is perceived or anticipated. Mindset is what inspires you to park your ego and participate in genuine training, not shooting practice. 

One of the foundational tactics is this; if the gunfight begins and you’re not behind cover, your feet need to be moving until either the threat is down or you are behind cover. Also, regarding the use of cover, we need to keep in mind that all cover is temporary. Given enough time, your enemy will either defeat the cover (automobile bodies are the perfect example of temporary cover) or circumvent that cover. 

While Col. Cooper has since left us and moved on to his reward, I truly believe we would be better off referring back to his writing and lectures than constantly consuming the short-form, made-for-clicks tripe that’s spewed non-stop on socialist media. 

What we witness and view in the material put out by the endless stream of gun influencers seems to be in direct contradiction to Cooper’s discussion of PII. Moreover, the glut on the internet actually proves that Cooper was one hundred percent correct in his assertion that Americans have a preoccupation with inconsequential increments. How many videos have you come across in the last month where the personality fires their gun on the “beep” and then proudly displays the reading on the shot timer for the camera?

Oh, your Bill Drill was 1.875 seconds? Cool, that is a great big bag of nothing.  

Col. Cooper watched Americans putting all their money into buying gadgets rather than skill. He saw a hyperfocus on inconsequential increments rather than a mastery of the fundamentals of marksmanship and the proper use of tactics.

In the year 2026, the Gunsite Academy is celebrating its 50 year anniversary having been most appropriately founded in 1976, the Bicentennial birthday of this great nation. While a person who claims to be an influencer in the ‘gun space’ might be forgiven for not recognizing the significance of names such as Ken Hackathorn, John Farnam, or Clint Smith, failing to know a man who can aptly be described as the Godfather of American Firearms Training, would seem to be an unforgivable sin.      

 

Paul G. Markel is a combat decorated United States Marine veteran. He is also the founder of Student the Gun University and has been teaching Small Arms & Tactics to military personnel, police officers, and citizens for over three decades.