Butt Hurt Forever

Sung to the tune of the Motorhead song "Stone Dead Forever"...

Once a gun person gets offended by a company, they tend to stay offended forever.

I've got my own list of companies that I don't like to do business with too.

This is not a comprehensive list; just a list of my personal peeves.

Colt (said much of this recently):Colt tossed the civilian AR buyer under the bus. Unshrouded bolt carrier. Oversized hammer and trigger pins. Front take down screw. Lower receiver block. No muzzle device. No bayonet lug. Some now say that Colt was strong-armed into the decision by members of Congress threatening their military contracts; it sure seemed voluntary from where I was watching. It's also funny to hear people saying that if they hadn't done the neutering, they would have lost their mil contracts and gone bankrupt. In 1992 they went bankrupt anyway. In 1994 they were sold to new owners who dropped almost all of their non-military products from the line-up. Then came the smart-gun crap and the CEO being an idiot. That led to a boycott. They still don't cater to the civilian market. Long gone are their double action revolvers and their other handguns are boutique offerings.

I don't buy from Colt for two reasons; 1. They really don't offer me what I want at a competitive price. 2. The goddamned furry kool-aid drinkers.

Smith and Wesson:
In 1987 S&W was purchased by Tompkins PLC. During the Clinton administration there were many lawsuits against gun manufacturers attempting to hold the manufacturers liable for the criminal misuse of their products. In 2000 the company made a deal with the Clinton administration to become exempt from those suits. The terms of the agreement would have led to some unpleasant effects on gun dealers who wished to carry S&W products on sales that had nothing to do with S&W; so a boycott started. In 2001 Tompkins PLC sold the company to Safe-T-Hammer.

There are still people who will not do business with S&W because of the 2000 deal.

Safe-T-Hammer made many changes to the design of the iconic S&W revolvers. The inclusion of the locking mechanism is what offends most. There is a small keyway on the side of the gun. A little tool that is included with the gun can be used to lock the mechanism so that the hammer cannot move. This feature has failed in some guns to the point where the gun would not fire without major repairs. These failures were very well publicized, but seem to be exceedingly rare.

Many people refuse to buy a S&W with a lock. The backlash from this is large enough that S&W has recently introduced (reintroduced?) models without the lock.

The lock doesn't bother me and while I joined the 2000 boycott, the Safe-T-Hammer people's repudiation of the the Clinton deal was strong enough for me to forgive them their trespass; especially since the people responsible for the deal took a gigantic loss selling to STH!

Ruger:
Where to start? I guess it can best be summed up with two words, "Bill Ruger". He had some, shall we say, unique ideas about gun ownership for someone who owned a gun company. He very definitely divided his customers into government and non-government groups. I think it's best summed up here: http://www.thegunzone.com/rkba/papabill.html at that dead link...

He's dead now. I still won't buy Ruger. Why? My Mini-14 wouldn't hold a zero. There are claims that they've fixed this issue with them, but they are also now more expensive than an AR. Their AR is more expensive than measurably better ARs. Much like Colt, they just don't make what I want at a price I want to pay when their competition does.

DPMS
Most people cite their quality when they refuse to buy from them. I don't like their requirement that I fax a form promising I am a good person and their refusal to sell me a shorter than 16" barrel. Only mil and police departments can buy short barrels from DPMS. There is nothing inherently illegal about owning a short AR barrel. An AR pistol doesn't even require any special paperwork and a short barrel rifle is readily legal to people in most states once they've filled out some paperwork. Flat refusing to sell these people parts because they are not from the government offends me.

Bushmaster
One; they are liars. Two; local sales tax.

I've been lied to them on three things now.

First was getting a replacement part for Geff's M17S. The person I talked to told me, several times, that it would ship "tomorrow". It took three weeks of tomorrows to get it shipped and then two more weeks of shipping. I got told when I complained that since they gave it to me for free (warranty claim) I should be happy I got it at all. Considering I originally called to buy the part; I was pissed off by that.

Second was the status of my lightweight barrel I needed for my SBR project. Since the gun I was cloning didn't have a bayonet lug and would be shortened by 4.5" I ordered a "post ban" barrel. Then the shit-storm from the 2008 election started. After six weeks, I called to ask about the status of my order. "It will be a month." So I called in a month. "Just another month, we're swamped with orders." So I called back in a month... but this time I had been reading about people who'd ordered after me receiving their orders! "Oh, those were preban barrels, not post ban like you ordered." Can I change my order to a pre-ban? "Sure, but it will be like 90 days." Ninety days later, I call asking about my barrel. "We've been swamped!" I don't fucking care, you've been telling me to wait for six months now while I read about others getting their barrel orders filled. (Finally he tells the truth) "We're tooled up to make M4 profile barrels and we're selling all we can make of those so we don't want to lose the money lost while changing over the machine to what is, to us, a limited demand item. So wait us out or find someone else." I opted to wait, but got my barrel a week later.

Third lie was about the local sales tax. They charge state and local sales taxes on internet orders. They claim they are required by law to collect it. If that were true, they would also be required to remit it back to the state/local tax offices. They don't. They are padding the bill 7% in my case and pocketing it. If I want to pay sales tax, I can buy local; from a competitor: Spike's Tactical.