In the end, Norwood and Soldier of Fortune magazine settled his lawsuit out of court. The Court said, "reasonable jurors could find that the advertisement posed a substantial risk of harm" and that "gun for hire" ads were not the type of speech intended for protection under the First Amendment.
#Soldier of fortune free#
The US District Court denied the magazine's motion for summary judgment based upon the Constitutional right of free speech under the First Amendment. In 1987, Norman Norwood, of Arkansas, sued SOF magazine, because of injuries he suffered during a murder attempt by two men hired via a "Gun for Hire" advertisement in the magazine. "Gun for Hire" lawsuits Grievous injury ĭuring the late 1980s, Soldier of Fortune was sued in civil court several times for having published classified advertisements of services by private mercenaries. The April 2016 issue of Soldier of Fortune was the final print edition further editions have only been distributed online. At the height of its circulation in the early 1980s the magazine had 190,000 subscribers. SOF has been published by the Omega Group Ltd., in Boulder, Colorado. During the late 1970s and the 1980s, the success and popularity of a military magazine such as SOF led to the proliferation of like magazines such as Survive, Gung Ho!, New Breed, Eagle, Combat Illustrated, Special Weapons and Tactics, and Combat Ready. Significant to the early development of SOF was its unprecedented, successful recruitment of foreign nationals to serve in the Rhodesian Security Forces, during the Rhodesian Bush War (1964–79). After five years, he left in 1975 to start SOF magazine.
The company published non-fiction books and videos covering a wide range of specialty topics, including personal and financial freedom, survivalism and preparedness, firearms and shooting, various martial arts and self-defense, military and police tactics, investigation techniques, spying, lockpicking, sabotage, revenge, knives and knife fighting, explosives, and other "action topics". In 1970, Brown co-founded Paladin Press in conjunction with Peder Lund. Brown's small circular soon evolved into a glossy, large-format, full-color magazine. After retiring from active duty, Brown began publishing a “circular”, magazine-type publication with few pages which contained information on mercenary employment in Oman, where the Sultan Qaboos had recently deposed his father and was battling a communist insurgency. Brown, a Green Beret who served with Special Forces in Vietnam. Brown has referred to as “hard-core participatory journalism.” Stories were written by a roving group of contributors, many of whom were mercenaries themselves, carrying guns along with their notebooks.Soldier of Fortune magazine was founded in 1975, by Lieutenant Colonel, U.S. In the mid-1980s, the magazine became embroiled in several lawsuits brought by the families of people killed by gunmen who had been hired through its pages.Įditorially, the magazine focused on what Col.
#Soldier of fortune manuals#
The magazine gained notoriety in the late 1970s for its classified ads, which featured listings for guns for hire as well as a variety of military gear, training manuals and weaponry. Page is frequently updated and has nearly a million followers. Its website has limited traffic, attracting 430,000 unique visitors in January, according to Brown declined to disclose its circulation. The magazine is no longer publicly audited and Col.
In its heyday in the early 1980s, the magazine averaged sales of around 150,000 copies a month and employed a staff of around 50 people. “After we went to press with the last issue, it was like a humongous rock lifted off my back that I had been unaware of until it was removed,” he said.