An Accepted Standard of Quality

[Bobson]

EDIT: I should have titled this thread, "An Accepted Universal Standard of Quality", as that much more clearly describes my intention in this.

I was out walking about an hour ago, just kind of zoning out, and it occurred to me that guns vary in price tremendously (obviously... ). You can go out and get an NIB .45 ACP handgun for less than $200 (Hi Point), or you can go get an NIB .45 ACP handgun for over $4,000. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to know there's going to be a significant difference in the level of quality between these two pistols. Here's a short list of what some of those differences are:

1) One with be very visually appealing, one will look like your dog's chew toy
2) One will be capable of very impressive accuracy, the other will be noticeably less accurate
3) One will be made using very high quality parts and exquisite attention to detail, while the other will be made of arguably mediocre parts and something more likely to resemble an assembly line
4) One will be reliable for more years than you're likely to live, while the other isn't likely to outlive your German Sheppard.

(More to come to this)

 

[EddieNFL]

Nomex?

 

[Larry Ashcraft]

My response to all four of your contentions is:

Not necessarily.

 

[rogerjames]

You may have been walking and you were probably zoned out.

I disagree with everything after that...

 

[GRIZ22]

Your "differences" are so broad they are way off base. I disagree with all of them.

 

[Bobson]

@ GRIZ: The "differences" were meant to serve as broad, generic examples of differences in firearms, which is why they're broad and generic. If you're saying you disagree that firearms have differences, I have to assume you've never owned a gun.

As for the rest of you, feel free to be patient, I made it clear that my post wasn't finished. Moving on.

Sorry about the delay, I know that's pretty unorthodox here (at least from what I've seen so far), but something came up at work and I had to leave the area for a while.

As far as the list of differences, obviously there are many that I haven't yet begun to touch on, but the point is made. Everyone knows - even expects - that two firearms with a price difference of several thousand dollars will have a lot of differences; in fact, depending how you look at it, there's probably only one thing they have in common - which is that they're both guns, so both are expected to go Bang! when the trigger is pulled.

While almost everyone knows that differences exist, a smaller percentage of gun owners know exactly what those differences are, and an even smaller number know how those differences actually effect things like accuracy, reliability, typical lifespan of a weapon, etc. For example, I know very little about 1911 pistols, aside from visual familiarities. Among things I do know is that they're typically made and assembled with more care than the average handgun, they're generally dependable for a very long time, and they're well-known for being very accurate. Unfortunately, I don't know why any of those things are the case. But does it really matter why they're accurate and dependable? Some might say no, but I disagree, and in this, I believe I am one among the majority.

To me, knowing why my gun performs the way it does is one of many steps on the road to being a responsible gun owner. It also makes me a much more effective consumer. Without this knowledge base, my only measure of quality is the amount of money a product costs:

[quote author=Mr. Smith]Product X and Product Y are the same type of product, but made by two different companies. Product X costs $500, while Product Y costs $800. Clearly, Product Y is superior in quality and design! I shall choose Product Y, and share my wisdom with my friends. [/quote]
Most people, at being present during Mr. Smith's reasoning, would quickly reach the conclusion that Mr. Smith is an idiot. It would be difficult for me to disagree.

The fact is, without understanding the technical differences in the manufacturing of products we buy (especially when we're buying many of these types of products, and those that we buy are often made by a variety of manufacturers), we're all making our decisions in a fashion very similar to Mr. Smith's obviously flawed (while exaggerated) "process."

More to come.

 

[Jorg Nysgerrig]

This piecemeal posting is too confusing, perhaps you should compose it all offline and paste it at once when you have completed your thoughts.