gun fads 2 of 2

GUN FADS 2

Ah, gun fads.  The needs of the manufacture and the banker placed before your need for a life saving tool.  The needs of your social group, your peers, based on the gun fads of the groups they take their cue from, before that of a life saving tool.  Yesterday I told you a large part of the pimping of AR’s has to do with how cheap they are-relatively speaking-to produce.  And with all that competition, they become cheap to the consumer which reinforced the fad itself.  Fads in the gun business can be fueled by consumer cheapness as well as the frugalness of the manufacture.  Did plastic furniture become popular because it was superior, or because it was cheaper?

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Go back to the 70’s and 80’s.  Remember the gun fads then?  The Cocaine Wars had a lot to do with that.  Remember the Ingram’s?  The Uzi’s?  The shotgun became even cooler.  It was all about high volume short range weapons, and wood furniture for the first time was becoming less de regueur.  The FBI and local LEO’s were getting in on the fad.  They might have thought they were “fighting fire with fire”, but I would say that there was very little tactical consideration and more jumping on the cool boy toy bandwagon. 

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And then there was the backlash to all that, and the HK91 became the de facto survivalist rifle.  Screw those puny AR’s and Mac-10’s, we want a manly rugged full size rifle!  Thirty Cal, baby!  Of course, that was older guys with older views on what constituted a combat weapon, as they upgraded from the old M1 Garands and M14’s and went ultra modern ( with plenty sticking with the old guns, just because ).  They knew a limp wrist pussy gun when they saw it, the 9mm and the M16 for the new feminized military. 

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But what was the Garand, if not a fad in tactics?  Spray and pray is ONE tactic, but it isn’t the BEST one.  The Germans did just fine with turn bolts, because infantry are just support personnel for artillery.  Too many survivalists didn’t get that memo.  They think tactics are more important than logistics, and they seem to confuse which weapons dominate the battlefield in which eras.  Did it ever occur to them that the reason the Garand was used was not because it was a superior weapon or tactical tool, but simply that is utilized mass consumption?  We fought WWII with ONE consideration.  Mass industrialization feeding the maw of cannon fodder. 

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Throw enough men into battle or into aircraft training, and human wave tactics overwhelm any superior training eventually.  Not only were human wave attacks the most effective way for green troops to predominate, the whole point of THAT was to get our economy back on mass production.  The Great Depression was caused ( besides the issues with our central bank ) by overproduction without customers.  War created demand, and we fought the war by overproduction.  From covering the oceans in ships, the air with planes and the immediate space above the battlefield with a wall of lead. 

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But the fad of semi’s lasted long after we were capable of mass production, didn’t it?  Now you have preppers thinking that ONLY semi’s can win their war.  Screw logistics or resources or energy availability.  Changing focus, look at the fad caused by the Clinton gun ban.  Suddenly, the SKS was the newest gun fad.  It was affordable, ammo was a nickel a round, and the poor peasants could still fight with that all important semi-automatic.  Any gun relying on imported ammo is problematic, but that didn’t matter as China-Marts across the land opened for business.  Why, if disposable guns and disposable ammo doesn’t go with disposable everything from big box stores, I don’t know what does.

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It seemed that once the SKS was in, the AK was the next fad following on its heels.  Here is the problem with the AK47.  It is an assault carbine.  Which is nothing more than a submachinegun with a better cartridge.  It eats a LOT of ammunition, being much more resource hungry than its smaller pistol ammunition forebear.  Survivalists usually don’t have those resources.  And if they do, they will burn through them too quickly.  But the bigger problem with the AK was that of its limited supply and its inability to be produced outside of a large industrial concern. 

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Most AK’s came from the deep arsenal stockpiles of the Soviet Union.  They flooded the market, cheap as talk.  Then when every African guerrilla and every Eastern European fighter, every middle eastern new state army and every survivalist was armed, that supply dried up.  Well, as far as affordable ones.  Now they aren’t near as cheap anymore, and that fad has indeed passed.  Why would you pay the same amount for sheet metal receiver assault carbine when you could almost get a battle rifle for the same price?  The fad came without any tactical or logistical consideration, then lost its momentum on financial grounds.

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Another Russian gun fad was the Mosin-Nagant.  I have no problem with the concept of equipping a squad for super cheap.  If the apocalypse or the civil war breaks out tomorrow, it was nice knowing your band could have a rifle and a Spam can of ammo apiece, all for $200 each.  If nothing else the gun could be a “butter knife special”, a crappy weapon designed to liberate a much better one from the enemy.  But the gun had zero appeal as a weapon and only as a financial deal was it enticing. 

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Granted, it is a niche market, but what about the fifty ( and comparable ) caliber sniper rifle?  Total fad.  How many real snipers are out there compared to posers with Gear In The Rear?  I don’t imagine the company survives on military sales alone.  Fat and lonely middle age men flock to the gun store to partake in the fad of patriot sniper, a fantasy burned into everyone’s brain most likely by the book Unintended Consequences.  How many hunting rifles are sold on the fantasy as Manly Mighty Studly Hunter?  How many purchases are fueled by the fad of Big Game Hunter, far too much power for the average ability?

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If you think about it, most survival gun advice out there is fueled by fads rather than sound thinking.  Many fads are founded on a demand, such as frugality, but don’t let that cloud logic of overall and comparable feasability. 

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