Gordon Hutchinson Bio (Short version) A 1969 graduate of LSU, he enlisted in the United States Army, and graduated from Officers Candidate School in June, 1970. Shortly after that he completed airborne training at Fort Benning, Georgia, and was then assigned as an Airborne Infantry Lieutenant with the famed 82nd Airborne Division at Fort Bragg, North Carolina. He made numerous parachute jumps during this time both with his Weapons Platoon, and later as an Information Officer for the Division. Upon leaving the service, Gordon embarked upon a career in newspaper advertising, finally returning to settle in his hometown of Baton Rouge, Louisiana, employed with the daily newspaper. Gordon is the senior instructor certified by the Louisiana State Police to teach the Concealed Carry Permit Course, having continuously taught the class since there was an approved training regimen, beginning in 1996. Gordon estimates he has instructed well over 4000 people in self-defense and firearms safety and proficiency since he began instructing in 1992. Gordon started his business, Gunsafe Firearms Instruction, in 1992 and has operated it continuously since then. He has been chief instructor for Baker Range since 1999. Gordon teaches concealed carry courses at least once monthly at Baker Range. He also contributes a monthly column on shooting and firearms politics entitled “The Shootist” for Louisiana Sportsman Magazine. The column has run for twelve years, and Gordon has been writing professionally for the magazine on outdoor subjects for twenty years. Visit the tab below for Gordon's full bio. About the Books THE QUEST AND THE QUARRY
.jpg) Gordon is the author of a successful novel, “The Quest and the Quarry,” (www.thequestandthequarry.com) which was published in Fall, 2005 by Louisiana Publishing Company, Inc. The book depicts the lives of a line of trophy bucks, and the descending generations of farm kids that hunt them, schooled in the ethics of life and the hunt by their elders. It was chosen as one of the top three outdoor books of 2006 by the Southeastern Outdoor Press Association (SEOPA)—a professional organization of outdoor writers and communicators from fourteen southeastern states. The book is available online, through AMAZON, at Barnes & Noble, and at the Baker Range. "This is a must-read for anyone who has taken to the woods, rifle in hand and hope in heart, eyes scanning for spectral movements from the white-tailed ghosts of the forest. " At $19.95, it makes the perfect gift for the hunter in your life. Gordon shared this about his books:
"I have had two books published. The first was my novel—an “outdoor” novel—I was trying for the type of story and novels that were popular in the ’50’s and ’60’s when I was growing up but have disappeared from the scene. Also, I saw an entire generation of kids that were urban-raised and would never have the wonderful experiences us “baby-boomers” learned from the family farms that were so common then. After all, our we were only one generation removed from those farms, our parents having come from them. We still had the opportunity to spend time with our grandparents and learn what it was like to follow a mule or horse behind a plow, milk a cow, pick corn or strawberries, and most importantly, learn the skillsets our grandfathers and grandmothers taught us about life lived close to the soil and nature. But I saw (and see) some hope here in the camps—the fishing and hunting camps, where the old ways are still being passed down from father to son and daughter, saving at least the best parts of our rural heritage. It is in these camps that young folks still learn to make fires, dress game, retain some of the closeness with nature that has been eroded with our move to a less rural society. And, I wanted to capture and write about the essence of the farm families, as displayed by my cousins in southeastern Mississippi, and how they raise their kids, teaching them values and transforming them into young adults through example and hard work. It’s a coming-of-age novel wrapped around a young boy’s quest to kill a monster buck no one has ever been able to harvest—and he is taught the ways of the woods and how to hunt the deer by his grandfather, a wise old woodsman that took a nearly destroyed young boy who had lost his father, and raised him in the ways of the camp and the farm, and the woods, and in the end gave the boy much more than hunting skills. It is a multi-generational story, and the young boy grows up to pass on the wise ways of his grandfather to his equally bereft younger sister, who goes on to have her own hunt for her trophy in her time." The novel is called “The Quest and The Quarry” and it can be found on Amazon. His second book is entitled: THE GREAT NEW ORLEANS GUN GRAB  The expose’ was more of being in the right place at the right time. Todd Masson was my editor at Louisiana Sportsman magazine and sent me, In April of 2006, to cover an NRA meeting in New Orleans. That meeting was the catalyst for the book—the meeting was held in a downtown hotel, and I estimated over 300 people at the meeting, quite a turnout considering none of the media would give them any coverage, and the promotions were all email and word-of-mouth.
I never heard such raw hatred by a citizenry for their police force in my life, and having served for over 30 years as a reserve deputy and then police officer, it took me completely by surprise. But the stories related at the microphones of the beatings, intimidation, and unvarnished confiscation of legally-owned firearms from law-abiding citizens that refused to evacuate New Orleans in the face of Hurricane Katrina were legion, and shocking. It was all I could do to tear myself away from the current person at the microphone ripping NOPD to shreds, run out in the hall, collar the person that had just talked, scribble down their phone and email address, and rush back into the room to listen to even more tales of abuse from the hands of the very authorities charged with maintaining order and protecting the citizens. The result was “The Great New Orleans Gun Grab,” and it created quite a bit of stir when it came out in 2007. It was reviewed in a number of national gun magazines, and people finally found out what really happened down there when civil rights were thrown right into that stew of poisoned, still water that did not leave for six weeks. The egregiousness of the violations caused national laws to be enacted to ensure that no authorities would ever again use the excuse of a disaster to arbitrarily confiscate guns from the embattled citizenry, leaving them defenseless in the face of the looters, thugs, and leeches that the police and military were supposed to be pursuing in the first place… But instead, the authorities turned their sights on the citizens that did not leave, and attempted to force their evacuation by removing their means of defending themselves. |
Gordon and I at his Advocate retirement party in 2012.
