About three months ago I traded into a crappy gun. I had transitioned from being a detention/armed transport officer for a sheriff’s office in Montana to sitting behind a desk in DC. With no more on/off duty restrictions placed on what I could carry, I realized it was time to trade in my trusty XD40 service for the gun I always wanted: JMB’s 1911.
Firearms can be an expensive hobby though and I don’t have an excess of money lying around. Living in the DC metro area puts some stress on anyones expenses. Add in two kids under two years old and now we’re talking about John McClane showing up to see your estranged wife and end up fighting terrorists bare foot levels of stress. Used polymer doesn’t go for much in this day and age, especially when the market is flooded with it. But I did my research, made some calls and found a used 1911 for a little more than I was being offered for the XD.
Needless to say, I took the bait. I went to the gun shop and after holding that 1911 in my hand, I knew that we were always meant to be together. She came with XS big dot sights, some Wilson Combat upgrades and an action so smooth I thought about running away with her to Vegas right then and there.
Imagine the horror when I showed my friends that I had acquired…a Charles Daly EFS. The you’ll be sorrys, those guns are horrible and jam-omatic comments flew. All from friends who had never owned or shot one. It was after these conversations that I realized; who are we to judge what someone carries?
If someone wants to carry a Sigma or a RIA because it was inexpensive and works for them, why do we feel the need to ostracize them? I know I can’t afford to go out and buy that AR or new Sig. Unless I start selling body parts. With that lack of funding I find myself drawn to guns that people in the internet community have labeled as low quality.
Pull up any gun forum and try to start a post that starts with the words Hi-Point or Taurus and you’ll see what I mean. The thing I find so interesting is most of the criticisms come from people who have never shot one of these guns. They had a friend who had one or read a post about this one guy who had a horrible experience with one.
I’m not saying that some of these criticisms you see aren’t warranted. They are bad apples in every bunch. But why does it seem that the bad apples are always much more criticized when they’re “economical”? If a higher end 1911 starts having ejection problems like it’s in a flat spin headed out to sea, then it’s just going through a “break in period”. If a low end 1911 starts having issues than it’s a hunk of junk.
Well this hunk of junk has now eaten everything I’ve thrown at her, from Tula steel case to Hornady hollow points. I have yet to have a mechanical failure through hundreds of rounds and seeing as this 5 shot 15 yd grouping below is the norm, I haven’t heard a disparaging comment in a long time from my HK or Les Baer carrying friends. “Gladys” is accurate, reliable and only ran me $450. Who can argue with that?
We need to shift our thinking as gun owners. Instead of running around the internet, flaming people’s weapon choices left and right; we should support our brethren that are exercising their rights responsibly. Whether they’re carrying a crappy gun or not.