Robert Lesmeister, age 65, the national correspondent for TheGunMag, and for its predecessor The New Gun Week, died in May.
Before free-lancing for Second Amendment Foundation publications, he was managing editor of American Firearms Industry, a Florida-based firearms industry monthly magazine.
Lesmeister was a Chief Warrant Officer with 37 years of service in the 12th Special Forces Group (Airborne), seeing duty in several overseas hot spots during his long military career. He was the devoted husband of the late Wanpen, who died in 2015.
Fellow Special Forces veterans remembered Lesmeister as a “true patriot and a loyal friend,” and “a very funny guy” who attended occasional 12th SFC national reunions. Those who knew him said that he almost never discussed details about his military career, although he was known to also be engaged in military intelligence and traveled with a high priority, similiar to command officers.
A true patriot and firm believer in the right to keep and bear arms, Lesmeister joined the Department of Homeland Security in 2004 as an intelligence officer, later becoming a field investigator in the immigrant fraud and national security section in southern Florida, where he was responsible for identifying numerous organizations involved in immigration fraud and other anti-American activities.
Some of his writing for TheGunMag probably came from his intelligence work since he frequently scooped other gun writers with details of new military and civilian firearms manufactured in foreign countries. He was a frequent attendee at the annual Gun Rights Policy Conferences, the SHOT Show and NRA annual meetings and exhibits.
A son of Donald and the late Marion (nee Reagan), Lesmeister is survived by three brothers and three sisters, nieces and nephews. A fourth brother, Donald, predeceased him.
Funeral services were held May 20 with burial at Bartlett Cemetery in his native Illinois.
