AMERICAN GUN SNOBBERY AND THE PASSING OF THE SATURDAY NIGHT SPECIAL

The Saturday Night Special (SNS) is dead and buried. But regardless of their reputation, I don’t believe any SNS manufacturer ever set out to make a crappy gun that wouldn’t function and that’d break after 6 months of use, I think they were constrained by budget, availiable technology and the desire of many citizens for cheap protection. It's a fact that any gun can fail at any time, how the gunmaker handles your request for repairs is the new benchmark for quality and from what I can see all the budget guns today come with a lifetime repair warranty. Having said that, I don’t think there’s any such thing as a bad gun - it’s true not all guns were made equal in the past (stamped parts, inferior metals, poor fit and finish of molded parts), but guns are just wonderful feats of engineering regardless of cost or durability (personal opinion). Nowadays with the ubiquitousness of good steel, glass filled polymers, the ease of adopting CNC (and the risk of crippling litigation) it’s only a matter of time (if we’re not there already) before every gun from every gunmaker pops out with all it’s finger and toes. I’m seeing this now from makers who were formerly considered questionable: thanks to the boom in our industry those same budget gunmakers are upgrading production processes because costs to do so have lowered, and can now provide a better gun for those of us who don’t earn much money.

I’m a staunch conservative but I've watched socialism growing like a cancer in this country. I remember the Reagan years where people made money and everyone celebrated that, now I see people make money and immediately get elaborate home security systems and armories to protect themselves. America has changed. It’s sad to see we now have a terrible habit in this country of resenting the wealthy (a very socialist practice that historically leads to revolution), and yet we love to look down on folks who are less fortunate and this snobbery is beautifully exemplified in the gun world. Social media is strangely void of enthusiastic espousals from the people who buy the cheap guns and yet the manufacturers of those cheap guns are selling them like hot donuts so it’s not like they aren’t numerous! The shortage of coverage on cheap guns is because buyers are made to feel ashamed for choices governed by their finances. Remember, not everyone who buys a gun is an enthusiast, and they probably can’t afford range dues, or three boxes of ammo every weekend, and costly accessories, in fact those budget pistols may never fire a single round but they provide critical peace of mind and they’ll go bang if and when they need to.

So let’s not knock the gunmaker for meeting a need or the buyer for their purchase, having options is what makes America free and great. Gun snobbery is cruel, and very un-American, let’s curb the inclination and get back to a more tolerant firearms community where your neighbor with his Cobra 380 is as American as you with your custom Glock 42: a 380 round from anyones barrel will do the same job in the end no matter how fancy your apparatus. ED

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