John Taffin has been a handgun writer for the past 50+ years and a staff writer for the American Handgunner and Guns for the past 36+ years assigned to do feature articles as well as regular columns, Taffin Tests, The Sixgunner, Handloading, and Campfire Tales. He has also contributed regular columns and features to Shoot!Magazine, The Freedom Arms Collectors Journal, and Handgun Hunters International as well as the Digest Annuals from Krause Publications. His main interests are big bore sixguns, lever action rifles, and single-shot rifles and pistols, and he has hunted extensively with handguns in America and Africa. Taffin is also the founder, 1986, and first chairman of The Shootists and past chairman of the Outstanding American Handgunner Awards Foundation. He has also served on the board of the Handgun Hunters Chapter of SCI, and is a NRA Life Member. He considers only five things in this life to be important, namely, Faith, Family, Friends, Firearms, and most assuredly Freedom. Author of eight books and more than 2,000 articles, Taffin and his wife Dot have three children and 14 grandchildren and reside in Idaho. The kids are all grown-up and on their own, however, Taffin's constant companions during his writing chores are Chloe, a Pomeranian, and Molly, a Shih Tzu, who also serve as doorbells and watchdogs. He still misses his two Malamutes, Red and Wolf.