Czechnologist
Concerned Citizen
- Mar 9, 2016
- 6,531
I'm not the oldest guy on MDS, but I've been shooting and reloading since the late 1970's. US Army, IHMSA, IPSC and now mainly just for fun.
I was reading thru a back-issue of Shooting Illustrated about the Sig P320/M17 the other day and I got to wondering:
How long will it be till safeties on a striker fired gun becomes the next "big thing?" It may not. But think about people who buy guns. Forty years ago not many of us were interested in double stack 9mm DA/SA semi-auto pistols. Then, the FBI said "9mm is the greatest thing since sliced bread". Then everyone was buying them. LE, US military and a bunch of shooters who previously had little use for that type of firearm.
Then, Glock came along. No thumb safeties. Plastic frame. While the US Military didn't jump on it LE departments across the country did. What happened? People who never would have bought a plastic framed semi-auto without safeties started buying them, too. For years people laughed at guns with safeties as being unnecessary because a Glock doesn't have a safety (just buy Glocks, right?)
Then, the US military wanted something to replace the Beretta. And the replacement had to have safeties. Even Glock offered trial pistols with safeties. The pistol that won the competition is a polymer framed striker-fired pistol with things that didn't use to be necessary: external safeties!
Now people are buying them up. All over the internet forums you see pictures of the new plastic framed semi-autos with safeties that people bought. Did they buy them because they are really better? Or because that's what the military is using?
How long will it be before other companies, who make polymer framed semi-auto striker fired guns, start making them with safeties to get in on that market-craze? Yes, I know we've been able to get M&P's with safeties for years.
Might not happen. But, it seems to me, people like it when the gun company marketing departments tell them what to buy, along with the military, LE, video games and pop culture (movies, TV).
I mean, LOOK at red dots on pistols. How long ago was that just not seen on EDC guns? Now many of the handgun manufacturers are making factory pistols set up for red dots or coming right out of the box with a red dot already installed.
It's a big part of what fascinates about the gun business. In 2016, Ruger came out with the Precision Rifle and it flew off dealer's shelves as fast as they could get them in stock, lots of times at full MSRP or above if it was in 6.5 Creedmore. Was that because Ruger recognized that Precision Rifle competition was becoming more and more popular or was it a calculated risk on their part?
2017 was the year of the mouse gun: Sig P365, HK VP9SK, Walther PPQ-SC, etc. Suddenly, everyone had to have an easily concealable, ten-round + capacity sub-compact 9mm pistol and gun manufacturers were happy to oblige. I'm guilty. I ran out and got one, too.
I was reading thru a back-issue of Shooting Illustrated about the Sig P320/M17 the other day and I got to wondering:
How long will it be till safeties on a striker fired gun becomes the next "big thing?" It may not. But think about people who buy guns. Forty years ago not many of us were interested in double stack 9mm DA/SA semi-auto pistols. Then, the FBI said "9mm is the greatest thing since sliced bread". Then everyone was buying them. LE, US military and a bunch of shooters who previously had little use for that type of firearm.
Then, Glock came along. No thumb safeties. Plastic frame. While the US Military didn't jump on it LE departments across the country did. What happened? People who never would have bought a plastic framed semi-auto without safeties started buying them, too. For years people laughed at guns with safeties as being unnecessary because a Glock doesn't have a safety (just buy Glocks, right?)
Then, the US military wanted something to replace the Beretta. And the replacement had to have safeties. Even Glock offered trial pistols with safeties. The pistol that won the competition is a polymer framed striker-fired pistol with things that didn't use to be necessary: external safeties!
Now people are buying them up. All over the internet forums you see pictures of the new plastic framed semi-autos with safeties that people bought. Did they buy them because they are really better? Or because that's what the military is using?
How long will it be before other companies, who make polymer framed semi-auto striker fired guns, start making them with safeties to get in on that market-craze? Yes, I know we've been able to get M&P's with safeties for years.
Might not happen. But, it seems to me, people like it when the gun company marketing departments tell them what to buy, along with the military, LE, video games and pop culture (movies, TV).
I mean, LOOK at red dots on pistols. How long ago was that just not seen on EDC guns? Now many of the handgun manufacturers are making factory pistols set up for red dots or coming right out of the box with a red dot already installed.
It's a big part of what fascinates about the gun business. In 2016, Ruger came out with the Precision Rifle and it flew off dealer's shelves as fast as they could get them in stock, lots of times at full MSRP or above if it was in 6.5 Creedmore. Was that because Ruger recognized that Precision Rifle competition was becoming more and more popular or was it a calculated risk on their part?
2017 was the year of the mouse gun: Sig P365, HK VP9SK, Walther PPQ-SC, etc. Suddenly, everyone had to have an easily concealable, ten-round + capacity sub-compact 9mm pistol and gun manufacturers were happy to oblige. I'm guilty. I ran out and got one, too.