Cecil Brooks, 93; Gun Maker Known for Percussion Rifles

Cecil Brooks, 93, a gun maker whose rifles have been presented to keynote speakers at the National Rifle Assn.’s annual meeting since 1955, died Sunday of heart failure at a hospital in Marietta, Ohio.

Brooks was known for creating flintlock and percussion rifles, according to the NRA. He showed his talent for engraving, carving and barrel making even in his 90s.

Actor Charlton Heston was known to tell NRA convention-goers that the only way he would give up his Cecil Brooks Presentation Rifle was “from my cold, dead hands.”

Brooks grew up in Belpre, Ohio, and worked as a blacksmith, taxidermist and sign painter before he began repairing firearms in the 1920s, according to the NRA. He built his first percussion long rifle in the mid-1930s.