100 years from now?

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In 100 years will people look at the guns of today like we look at the guns of the last 100 years, with an appreciation and a bit of nostalgia?

If the past 100 years (or past 1000) are any indicator, I would say yes.
Lots of quality and precision out there today and I don't think those values go out of style.

JT
 
A revolver (or semi-auto for that matter) will kill just as efficiently in 2120 as today. So will be just as suitable for self defense or as an officer’s badge of rank. And probably in that year, the latest and greatest will still use some kind of powder exploding to propel some kind of metallic projectile out of a barrel. That hasn’t changed in 700 years, give or take.

Once we developed the means to give 6 shots instead of 1, all subsequent developments were more in the realm of refinements than real improvements in function. And it’s hard to see how anything could be faster to load or more convenient to operate than our existing guns, which themselves haven’t changed much in a century. The 1911 was adopted 109 years ago. The 9mm cartridge was adopted in 1902, making it approximately 118 year old tech. The K frame hand ejector revolver has been on the scene for 120 years. All of them are little changed and work as well today as they did when new, and are still admired and used.
 
Mmm. *If* we private citizens are still able to possess firearms... sure. They will be viewed as masterpieces.
 
I suspect revolvers will be seen as novelties only, but antique lovers will value them.

I think the revolver market will come back around. A good revolver is like a Glock except with steel, style, and soul. I just want an accessory rail on a full underlug, a decent set of sights, and grips you can actually use with speedloaders.
 
I doubt it. We really can't imagine 100 years out.

Think about Heinlein writing about flying spaceships by slide rule.
 
I doubt this country will even exist in 100 years. Let alone allow gun ownership of any kind. If someone had told me back in 1970 when I graduated from high school, that by the time I retired I would see this country this completely screwed up, I would have laughed in their faces.... Yet here we are. Just 50 years ago when I turned 18, our government wanted to send me to Vietnam to kill communists. Today they want me to vote for them.

After the Baby Boomer generation dies off, liberal socialist progressives will take over and destroy what's left of this nation. Even if Trump wins in November, he'll be gone as President on January 20, 2025. By then the progressives will outnumber traditional conservatives. They're almost there now.

In another century, (assuming this country even exists anymore), you'll have to go to a museum to see a gun. As Ronald Regan said so eloquently, "Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction". Boy was he ever right.
 
I have thought about this very thing. I see what we look at to day as classics, being the classics 100 years from now. What we look at are buying these classics for now, does not exist in what is being made now. These firearms were made during a time when there was hand fitting and finishing by true craftsman, that for the most part built one at a time. That will never be again unless it is a high end production firearm, Freedom Arms or the likes, or an all out custom. Starting in the 1950’s Ruger came about and really made the other firearm manufacturers have to cut back and make cheaper firearms, just to sell them. Ruger put the nails in the coffin of the Colt Woodsman. As they caused Smith and Wesson to cut conners with the dash behind the model number. Colt came out with the Trooper mark iii and had never made a firearm that way before. The firearm market changed along that time span, especially with revolvers. The firearms manufacturers had to change. It has went downhill from there. Twenty years ago you could go in the same gun shops you go in today and the racks and shelf’s were filled with walnut and steel, to day they are filled with aluminum, synthetic and polymer. They are all trying to make the cheapest firearm they can, that works. They are not bad guns and they do work, but the craftsmanship is gone. I don’t see these firearms being looked at the way the older Colts and Smith and Wesson’s are. You can take a Smith and Wesson revolver made in the fifties up until the nineties and put it beside what they are making now and it is not the same revolver. They are not the same. I had much rather buy older, good condition than anything new. In 100 years from now the classics we have today will be super classics and what is being made now will be junk.
 
IMHO, private ownership of firearms will be a thing long in the past for the citizens of 2120. Firearms will only be viewable in museums, behind unbreakable glass, plastic, force fields, or whatever they're using by then. Visitors will view and speak of them in hushed tones, as if speaking of something not morally or socially acceptable.

Now I like firearms and their history. So I look at 100 year old guns as archaic, but historically interesting, artifacts of a bygone time. But I don't think public attitudes about firearms will resemble mine 100 years from now.......
 
The way I have seen it, it depends on the era that defines the 'classics'.
Right now, we look at the mid-20th century and find nearly every firearm made in that era to be a work of art. And it's true, the 1950s -1980s, revolvers were immaculate, rifles had to be made with class or else they wouldn't sell, etc.
But look at past decades. Like 1900-1930 era. Only a handful of guns from that period that we truly consider collectible. There are heaps of guns made during those years that you can find for under $200 bucks.
Same with 1866-1899. There is definitely a catalog of 19th century arms that cost a decent fortune, but those are the tip of the iceberg of the various firearms that existed back then. Most of them weren't anything special, and have turned to a rusty finish all over and parts been misplaced the past century or so.

It's the well made guns of each era that specifically become collectible. Mid 20th century we became spoiled and think that all guns become valuable when old, but that actually isn't so. Right now, I see the M9A3, Colt Cobra, Sig Legion series, and the competition rifles becoming the sought after collectibles in the future. I see something like the Glocks becoming a curiosity as well, only because right now 1st Gen Glocks are collectibles.
 
"I much prefer the classic look of melonite and polymer..."

As one pulls out the modern day version of burbon out of the replicator, "The pictinny railed top, matched with the rare key-mod slots are a testament to the human workers operating the simple CNC tools at their disposal. I'm so happy I finally acquired the once maligned but rarer key-mod railed AR15 for my collection. I can just envision the manual labor involved of piecing together all the parts, if only we still had gunsmiths today of their caliber."
 
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I do see Glocks definitely becoming a collectors/historians interest, because after all they replaced the 1911 in mass public/military use.


Maybe this is how I talked myself into liking Glocks, I don't know... but if Gen 1s are worth $1000 now, our police Gen 3s are gonna become the next Rock Island Auction mag features.
 
I think the guns will be valuable but the true value will be if you have the gun and the ammunition for it. I suspect brass case will go by the wayside and replaced with disposable unreloadable polymer case, marking the end of the "sport." Slowly the ammunition will disappear or become cost prohibitive. Imagine, a collector just paid $1000 for 45 rds of .38 spl., almost a full box! I can see somehow ammunition becoming firearm specific meaning that the police in your town have only .26 caliber handguns. I dont have the confidence in the future generations. I believe guns and ammo will become taboo and treated like toxic waste. People call the police and they rush out to the house to secure a rusty 1911 like its unexploded WWII ordnance in Germany.
 
I certainly didn't mean for this thread to become sadly negative. I can only hope that future generations will see the absolute necessity of preserving the 2A.

I believe there will be a lot more of the guns from today in working order 100 years from now than we have from 100 years ago. Few people leave their trusty S&W revolver on a shelf in the barn these days. Whether some of us are forced by local law to store our guns in a secure location or we do it by choice I feel like we probably take better care of them than they did in the past. So there should be more "survivors" from today.
Just a thought.
 
I certainly didn't mean for this thread to become sadly negative. I can only hope that future generations will see the absolute necessity of preserving the 2A.

I believe there will be a lot more of the guns from today in working order 100 years from now than we have from 100 years ago. Few people leave their trusty S&W revolver on a shelf in the barn these days. Whether some of us are forced by local law to store our guns in a secure location or we do it by choice I feel like we probably take better care of them than they did in the past. So there should be more "survivors" from today.
Just a thought.
You're making a big assumption - that 100 years from now the US as a nation will still exist as a Republic, and that civilians will be allowed to own guns.
 
Most of us revolver guys look at a classic or an antique revolver and see something special. It may be the fit and finish of a bygone era, or that perfect bluing of an original Python. Maybe we admire the gorgeous coloring of a classic Color Case Hardened SA frame. We appreciate the guns of days gone by whether it's an antique S&W or a Colt or a Ruger from the 60s.

In 100 years will people look at the guns of today like we look at the guns of the last 100 years, with an appreciation and a bit of nostalgia?

How do people look at a fine Samurai Sword...?

...and someone who knows how to run one right.




GR
 
A hundred years from now -- assuming that guns are still legal -- people will look at revolvers the way we look at muzzleloaders. (Note that technological progress is not linear, but tends to accelerate and snowball.) By that time, reproductions of classic revolvers will be made for collectors and nostalgic competitions. They won't be taken seriously as weapons.

As long as there are people who teach or learn Tap Rack Bang drills, revolvers will be serious weapons.
 
So who will come out with the first K frame reproduction? Uberti? I’m interested in the fantasy guns... the stuff we want now and nobody makes. And I’m hoping they figure out a good solution to use bottlenecks in revolvers.
 
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