Cheap, Cheap Guns

I came across the crappiest pistol ever. For legal purposes I will withhold the name since I am about to blast everything about it.

This handgun was the most hideous, clunky thing I have ever seen. It was an absolute disgrace to handgun design with oversized everything that looked slapped together from mismatched parts.

This handgun was so badly constructed that a brand-new, never been used one rattles when it is shaken. Not the magazine rattles, although it does, the insides of the pistol itself rattle as though a single shot could separate them.

This handgun is cheap. How cheap? How does around $140 in a market where guns cost 30-50% above the national average sound? It’s so cheap that I just had to ask about it, and soon regretted doing so.

There is only one reason I can think of why such a piece of crap would be made and sold. The company must be targeting thugs and criminals as its customer base. Who else would want a cheap throw-away gun that couldn’t possibly last through years of proper use? A thug planning a small-time job can go to the gun shop, buy this POS, use it in the crime, then destroy it or throw it away without really losing anything.

I have evidence that this is true! There is a guy locally who buys three or four of these things every year. Now if he’s not reselling them to felons and desperate men or using them in crimes I will eat my hat. Nobody who can afford to spend $400 a year on the same POS pistol would buy this thing for himself. He would buy something nice that will last and perform well.

I love guns, but that doesn’t mean there should be a company making guns specifically for the criminal element. Make nice guns. Slap a slightly higher price tag on them so that at least if some crook buys it and uses it in a crime he’ll think twice before throwing his investment away.