Erin’s Mom has now test-driven her newly laser-equiped Ruger LCR. She’s 72 and has arthritis and failing eyesight, and she dusted up that target right proper.
Erin was asking me why some people seem hesitant about lasers on guns.
There’s a few reasons that come to mind.
First: Good ones aren’t cheap! They need to be precise, rugged, and hold their zero even under recoil….none of those things come cheap. A lot of people can’t stomach putting a $100-$200 laser onto a $300 gun.
Second: Gunnies are resistant to change. I remember when Glocks first started showing up. People didn’t like the idea of a “Plastic Gun” (hell GIs in Viet Nam started a rumor that the synthetic stocks of the brand-new M16s were made by the Mattel toy company!) got people nervous…but also people didn’t trust the Glock because it didn’t have an exposed hammer or a manual safety to manipulate….tho revolvers with those exact features had been around for almost a century when the Glock 17 first hit the market. People still carry revolvers and 1911s even tho they are now considered VERY old technology. Do you know anybody who drives a Model A Ford, or works on a Tandy computer? Yet there are people carrying guns made from OLDER technology than those things.
That’s not saying that these old tried-and-true guns don’t work like a champ, because they do…but gunnies do have a habit of thinking older is better.
Last: Lasers have come a LONG way in relatively recent years. Just read this this crazy story on how the laser sight on The Terminator’s AMT Hardballer long-slide worked. The site was so jury-rigged that Arnie actually had to flip the sight on with his off hand on the battery pack in his pocket that was connected to the gun by a wire!
Another one that comes to mind is the SMG in Cobra, that sight IS HUGE! And who knows how well it works or how long that MONSTER battery pack keeps the laser shining.
Also both of these guns depended on the laser because it obscured the sights, so when the battery died you’d just have rely on point-shooting.
Essentially lasers on guns in the 80s and 90s is a similar Hollywood showmanship as people holding guns sideways…it may look cool to the uninitiated, but its total garbage to anybody who actually shoots.
Of course this isn’t the case anymore. Today’s lasers last a long time, they’re small and unobtrusive, and if the thing stops working you always have the sights, and you can even use BOTH sighting systems at the same time.
What do you think?
Also: Revolvers versus Auto Loaders.
I have a friend who is a big revolver guy. And to be fair he is very skillful with a snubbie. But he will take any fault or jam in an auto loader of proof of “revolvers are just better” and any jam or stoppage in his wheel-guns as a “Well I screwed up.”
Which isn’t a bad attitude itself, but does show how our own biases work.
Now if you need me I’ll be cleaning my 1911s.
Heh, just got my 1911 out of the tubby m’self! 😀
Yeah I prefer auto-loaders myself, but I also keep a few wheelies around too, and they’re great guns.
I’m a live-and-let-live sort of gunnie. I prefer auto-loading rifles too…but I wouldn’t turn my nose up to a nice SMLE if the shit hit the fan.
Me too. I don’t mind his razzing. It at least keeps me honest.
Course I’m not one of *those* gunnies now, so I have a logbook of all of my malfs (and everything else) anyway.
I should get a 45 acp wheel gun. And send the cynlinder of my Schofield revolver for clip conversion. *sigh* so many things.
Some of us are just old fashioned sumbitches that don’t trust anything other than iron sights. Optics break. Red dots need electron supply sources. The laws of perversity follow everywhere, and if you can’t shoot with iron sights then you have a problem when Lord Finagle shows up.
And the beta decay of gaseous tritium will eventually cease. Or the container can break.
But aye, there is something for simplicity and robustness. If you have to use your arm for reals, then Murphy’s already shat on your bed.
Still this does couple a bit with both sides.
Yep Iron sights are hard to break….but modern lasers don’t interfere with them, nor do tritium vials. If everything breaks you can still line up the irons.
Just make sure you know how to use them!
For me it’s ONE word… Batteries… They ARE going to fail at the worst possible time. Seen it way too often, and I am NOT willing to bet my life on the sight/laser/flashlight turning on when I need it. Also a laser, just like tracers points out EXACTLY where you are to the bad guy!
Weer’d,
I think you barely touched on a major issue when you said today’s lasers are ‘unobtrusive’.
From what I’ve read and seen; many people resist lasers on their conceal carry firearms especially but on most because of the added step it previously took to utilize them.
Look at how natural the activation of the Crimson Trace grips compares to the Lasersights that replace rear sights. Which one is selling more?
It is my understanding that a set of CT Lasergrips can turn a J framed S&W from a “bad breath” gun into something able to consistantly hit a 25 yard target. Anyway, my plan is to eventually put this to the test.
In some ways it is like red dot optics on rifles…
Follow the link and read my article, Joe. With the addition of a Crimson Trace, my mom went from “Could barely hit the target and wouldn’t let me take a picture of it” to “All rounds center mass” at 25 feet.
And she’s 73, wears trifocals, and has arthritis in both hands.
So yeah, I’d say “myth confirmed!” 😀
to be fair a snub nose revolver is no less accurate than a long barrel variation.
But with snubs you have a short grip, short sight radius, and while the sights on most of them are great (especially if you compare a 60s era J-frame with a pocket pistol of the same vintage…there’s a reason why they used to teach the FBI to point-shoot back then!) they are made to be snag-free first, good sights second.
So while the gun is accurate, all these factors are going against the shooter printing the page as such.
My natural inclination is to say that unless I can see an obvious and huge improvement, I don’t know why I need to change something that already works. And I’m a cheap bastard.
My excuse is silly.
First sub to ping loses.
First plane to go active search loses.
Emitters announce your position and get you dead in submarines and airplanes.
It’s irrational and I have a standing offer to let Crimson Trace or whomever send me some sample to convince me otherwise.