Irate Gun Owners Respond

Yesterday I made an admittedly speculative comment, stating that I thought .38 snubnoses were obsolete. I still think that’s true. The .38 is a weak round; even the +P is not great, and it doesn’t work in all .38 Special pistols. And you only get four or five shots, and the tiny barrel makes the gun hard to aim, and high-recoil +P loads would seem to exacerbate the problem. I suggested that the Glock 26 was a better idea. It’s extremely accurate; you can put bullets right on top of each other at 7 yards. It holds eleven rounds safely, if you holster it right. It’s reliable. It’s light. It’s small. And you can get deadly, low-recoil ammunition for it. What’s not to love? Glocks are boring and ugly, but they work.

But that’s not what I want to write about. I want to write about the response I got. I clearly annoyed people! I didn’t say anything about them; I just offered an opinion about firearms. And I still made people mad. The lesson I learned is this: criticizing a gun (or type of gun) a person likes is like saying that person has an ugly baby. They really hate it.

So I guess I’ll have to tread lightly in the future.

I don’t identify with my guns too much. You can insult them all day, and I won’t care. With one exception. When I was 12, my dad bought me a Remington Nylon 66 rifle, which has a SPACE AGE DUPONT ZYTEL™ stock. And my buddy Mike insists on calling it a “plastic gun.” Every time we talk about guns, he says “plastic” like nineteen times. I have to take this, from a guy whose only current gun is missing a frame. That’s right. Mike STILL HASN’T BOUGHT A 1911. He used to have a Dan Wesson .357 with three different barrels, and some crackhead stole the frame, so all he has are barrels. But hey, at least they’re not plastic.

The general rule is, I don’t take it to heart when people make fun of my guns, so I guess I didn’t realize how much I could upset other people by criticizing their pathetic backward underpowered lovely snubnoses.

As a means of sucking up, I’ll point something out. I love revolvers. It was only recently that I became fond of the 1911. When I graduated from law school, I bought myself a present: a sweet Smith & Wesson 686+, not an automatic. That should tell you something. I’m dying to get the 27-2 .357 with a 5″ barrel, which Jim from SOTW recommended, and I think I’d also like a Model 29, just because Dirty Harry used one. And I have dreams of owning a USFA Peacemaker clone. And a Colt King Cobra. And maybe a Python. And a few others.

I could actually see buying a nickel-plated Jack-Ruby-style .38 and putting pearl handles on it, since it’s a pimp gun from the word “go.”

My dad has a Smith & Wesson snubnose; maybe I’ll take it to the range to shut everyone up. I believe he inherited it from my mother. My grandfather had a habit of giving his daughters snubnose revolvers from time to time. When I was a kid, my mother had a rusty Colt. I believe he gave that to her when she got married. Is that foresight or pessimism?

Oh, crap. Marv has released himself on his own recognizance. Hold on while I put him back in custody. I still don’t know how he does that. He only releases himself when he’s sure I’m not looking. And naturally, he clambers over as close to Maynard as he can get, as if he is eager to feed him another toe.

I think I would like to take a chunk of money and sink it into some decent used firearms. Fireable milsurps and lightly used civilian arms. And maybe some new items which are likely to be banned eventually, such as the “Golani” Galil clone Century Arms is making available for $700. I wouldn’t want as-new guns I couldn’t shoot. Collecting those is pathetic. It strikes me as a grotesque waste, putting a gun in a safe and waiting for it to be destroyed by rust or fire instead of shooting it. Seems to me that if I bought wisely, the guns would only appreciate, and they would enrich my life.

In addition to the revolvers, I’m considering picking up a couple of really nice walnut K31s. Also a Colt Woodsman, an M1 carbine, maybe a Lee-Enfield .303, a Finnish Mauser, and a Swedish Mauser. How can you go wrong with K31s? They’re great guns, and you can get a beauty for $240, and the importer is local, so I can pick them out in person. I worry that the availability of ammunition will suppress their value; don’t know if that will actually happen.

Enjoy those snubbies. Marvels of engineering that they are.