cuchulainn
Member
What's need got to do with anything? (not that I'd buy S&W anyway)
http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2003/02/14/1044927798266.html
http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2003/02/14/1044927798266.html
More gun than anyone needs
February 15 2003
Gun buyers in the US can't wait to get their hands on the latest revolver. Ralph Frammolino reports from Los Angeles.
Even the most ardent firearm lovers admit that Smith & Wesson's new .50-calibre Magnum revolver is more gun than anyone needs.
It has double the power of most assault rifles in the US. Its kick can send a grown man reeling while a single bullet can drop a raging grizzly. It is so heavy and long that police say no criminal would dare try to hide it in his waistband. It will cost up to $US989 ($A1660). And gun buyers across the United States can't wait to get their hands on it.
Speaking at the Shooting, Hunting, Outdoor Trade Show in Orlando, Florida, Smith & Wesson Corporation chairman Bob Scott said: "The initial reaction has been even stronger than we had anticipated, so we're ramping up production to meet the demand."
The creators of the .44 Magnum of Dirty Harry fame, unveiled its offering on Thursday as the world's most powerful commercially produced revolver.
Executives of the country's second-largest firearms manufacturer said they hoped the gun would help regain lost market share by generating excitement among an important, albeit "niche", market of big-game hunters, collectors and recreational target-shooters. But even before the gun's wide distribution, scheduled for next month, forces on both sides of the firearms debate are taking aim at its social impact.
Gun control groups condemned the Model 500 as an example of the industry's "deadlier-is-better" mentality, predicting the model would soon find its way to the streets.
"A hunting weapon? That's a joke," said Luis Tolley, director of state legislation for the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence. "What we have here is a weapon that's designed to appeal to people who just want to make a bigger hole in whatever they're shooting at and, hopefully, they're not living next door to me."
Violence Policy Centre executive director Josh Sugarmann said: "This gun is not being made for hunters in Africa. It's being made for bored white gun owners in America. Why are they putting so much fire power into people's hands?"
The real question, say some gun experts, is why are people demanding it?
Adam Firestone, editor of cruffler.com, a gun collector website, said he viewed demand for Smith & Wesson's new product as more of an outgrowth of America's obsession with size and status, rather than an indicator of growing paranoia over crime or security.
"We are phenomenal at buying beyond our needs," he said. "And with regard to the firearm industry, if it is bigger, if it is more expensive we will line up around the corner to buy the darned thing, regardless of the fact that there may be six other guns that cost half as much and do the job just as well."
Smith & Wesson officials hope the new offering, one of nine new models introduced at the Florida gun show this week, will put it back in the good graces of a gun-buying constituency that is angry over the company's decision in 2000 to sign agreements with the Federal Government promising locks on all firearms it sold. That backlash served as a double whammy, taking away sales from Smith & Wesson even as the entire industry was in decline.
Mr Scott, of Smith & Wesson, said: "We're in the process of winning back market share or business that was lost as a result of negative reaction by consumers to the decisions by the previous ownership."
Smith & Wesson has built its reputation by building bigger guns. The .357 Magnum, introduced in 1935, was considered a breakthrough because of its muzzle energy that delivered impact at 535 foot-pounds, said Roy Jinks, the company's historian. Developed at the behest of hunters, the weapon gained favour with police during the mobster era because it could shoot through a car's engine block, he said.
In 1956, Smith & Wesson introduced the even more powerful .44 Magnum, the gun made famous years later by Clint Eastwood in his movies as San Francisco cop Harry Callahan. With Thursday's unveiling, the company leapfrogs ahead of its competitors, who had surpassed the .44 Magnum with more potent weapons.
The Model 500 uses a bigger frame, takes a new .50 calibre Smith & Wesson bullet and packs a muzzle force of 2600 foot-pounds. While there are single-shot, custom pistols that use larger ammunition, the new gun is the largest production firearm with a multi-bullet chamber.
According to Garen Wintemute, a gun expert and director of the Violence Prevention Research Program at the University of California, Davis, at .50-calibre, the bullet is about a centimetre wide but is more powerful than other such ammunition because it is longer and can pack more powder.
He said the gun's cartridge had about twice the muzzle energy of most rounds for common semi-automatic assault weapons used in the US, such as the military style AR-15. He predicted it would be a smash with gun enthusiasts, who could order one with a barrel as long as 25 centimetres.
Marc Halcon, owner of American Shooting Centre in San Diego, said the allure of the weapon "has something to do with the artistry of creating a mechanism that will do something that no other will do. It's another step in science and engineering."
- Los Angeles Times
Copyright © 2003 The Age Company Ltd
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