New handgun names sometimes make me wonder…

[Condorcet]

I see it as trying to attract younger people to buy their product. I think they took a cue from vehicle manufactuers that have been doing this for a very long time with names that can be down right silly in a lot of cases. Geezers like me are perfectly happy with model numbers and don't need goofy names for guns. Model 700, 15-22, etc. are enough for me.

I'm an old Geezer myself so anything older folks say is liable to come across as "Fudd crap" to the young whippersnappers.

That said, I've been a Fudd way back since my 20's. Couldn't bring myself to buy attractively priced Tanfolglio clones of the CZ guns because the name "Witness" made me think - back in the 1980's in El Paso when drug cartels were making hits on local attorneys, federal agents. and a federal judge - that the only "witnessing" that name would be associated with was a mob hit on a prosecution witness.

Which leads to another point. Though I don't follow the lawsuits too much, I believe the latest gun control groups strategy is lawsuits around the marketing by gun manufacturers.
A gun named "Punisher" might well be attractive to some nerd who figures he's been stuffed into a locker one too many times.

 

[Condorcet]

I was pointing out how silly it is to say product names say who you are if you own them.

Having said that, the last generation of the Mercury Cougar was re-released the same year, 1999, that many sources say was when the term Cougar was made popular for older women that "preyed" on younger men. Coincidence????

Ahem. It was already known in the late 1960's among my fellow college students that there were such things as human "Cougars", but I personally discovered as a 26 year old in 1977 after I got out of the Navy, that they tended to hunt in packs.

 

[MrChicken]

Ahem. It was already known in the late 1960's among my fellow college students that there were such things as human "Cougars", but I personally discovered as a 26 year old in 1977 after I got out of the Navy, that they tended to hunt in packs.

Agree it was earlier, however 1999 was the only date i could source with a quick google.

 

[jar]

Yes; too many names these days simply turn me off. I cannot imagine buying a "HellCat" or "Yeet Cannon" or "Equalizer". I admit though I'd have no problem with the names as long as they did not appear even in the small print on the firearm.

 

[CapnMac]

What gets lost in all this are when companies like FN put out simple-named things like the Element.

 

[Condorcet]

What gets lost in all this are when companies like FN put out simple-named things like the Element.

Let's not get too basic here. Certainly there's still room for up to date, exciting names. There's certainly nothing wrong, to my way of thinking, in naming a firearm the "Golly Gee Whizbang 3000"

 

[thunderbyrd]

"Yeet Cannon". Good Golly, Miss Molly.

 

[Trashyshoots]

Here ya go, a Hello Kitty Glock, looks friendly, has a heart on it.

Please tell me that's not factory, or I'm going to have to find one.

 

[johnjohn]

Maybe I missed it but don't think anyone mentioned the "Combat Masterpiece".

 

[jar]

Maybe I missed it but don't think anyone mentioned the "Combat Masterpiece".

Different time. Is S&W still roll marking any as "Combat Masterpiece"?

 

[Rodfac]

Maybe I missed it but don't think anyone mentioned the "Combat Masterpiece.

Good point John....I'd submit that was the last, really good gun name....or maybe another Smith that went by the moniker, "Outdoorsman". Rod

 

[.308 Norma]

Different time. Is S&W still roll marking any as "Combat Masterpiece"?

Not sure about "Combat Masterpiece," but my fairly new Smith Model 69 is marked "Combat Magnum." That's why I jokingly stated in that recent thread about assets a "fighting revolver" should have is, it should be called a "Combat Magnum."

 

[Terry G]

I thought the CZ P-01 was a pretty harmless name, but then I thought could a lawyer say it means PI**ed Off One?

 

[riverats]

Remarkably, after 50 posts, this had not been mentioned:

And the sinister sounding Black Widow

Nor this … though not a handgun (there was a short-barrel version), the short-lived 12ga. Cobray ‘Street Sweeper’, a clone to the Rhodesian, Armsel ‘Striker’.

“In the United States the gun was produced by Cobray and called the Street Sweeper, made and marketed from 1989 to 1994 with slogans like, "It's a Jungle Out There! There Is A Disease And We've Got The Cure." And "Make your streets safe and clean with the help of 'The Street Sweeper'!"
(https://www.rockislandauction.com/riac-blog/street-sweeper-shotgun-cleaning-up)

 

[Gork10]

Cobray also had one called the terminator. It's not just the names that can be a problem. Sometimes it's an association with an act or a person that can damage the image of a firearm. Such as son of sam using a Charter arms Bulldog. Tuff sounding names for firearms is nothing new. Names like the peacemaker, regulator, combat masterpiece and magnum. The Colt snake guns, the lighting, the thunder. It's all just marketing .

 

[.308 Norma]

It's all just marketing .

Yep. And it doesn't have to be "tuff sounding" names either. Take "LadySmith" for example.
BTW, I've handled a few of those LadySmith (Model 3913LS I think) 9mm semiautos, and I kind of like them, while my wife has never liked them.

 

[Mike J]

I honestly don't think this is worth worrying about too much.

 

[SterlingBullet]

In light of the Bud Light and other corporate blunders, these firearms names are not surprising.
The corporate CEOs inhabit another world; Ivy League schools, corporate perks, First Class, Business Class, three hour lunches, country clubs, vacations in Aspen and Europe.

They wouldn’t know how the average person feels about anything.
Most of them spend no time on the factory floor. Most never speak to ordinary customers.

It is doubtful any corporate CEO understands the mind set or current family circumstances of the average Joe with three kids, daycare costs, home prices far above affordable in most cities, monthly health care premiums unreachable for middle class families, monthly care payments over $700.

 

[RetiredUSNChief]

It's not going to matter to the gun control crowd what they're named. You could call them "Fluffy Bunny Slippers" or "Tender Heart Bear" and they'd still go after them.

The average person who doesn't have any skin in the game either way won't care.

"Equalizer" actually isn't a bad name at all, if only because that's what firearms finally did...put the common man on a level playing ground with those nominally more powerful than them. Firearms are what ultimately allowed human society to evolve political systems which actually moved power to the common man as opposed to just a handful of elites who controlled by their own force of arms.

As for some of the more outlandish names...meh. They don't do much for me, and I suspect a significant portion of others who own firearms, but they do sometimes make me chuckle. I have never actually heard anybody complain about their names. Kind of a non-issue.

 

[MikeInOr]

Night stalker doesn't offend me too much but I generally agree there are a lot of bad names. "Hellcat" is pretty awful.

"Hellcat" always brought up images of the WWII Grumman F6F Hellcat fighter for me (I probably watch too much History Channel). It never seemed like a bad name to me.

Just curious, what in the "Hellcat" name puts you off?

I am old enough to remember the eighties... I never would have associated "Night Stalker" with an infamous serial killer. But everyone has their own frame of reference (The OP must be watching the True Crime channel while I am watching the History Channel?)

With the "Equalizer", my first thought is always of the Edward Woodward version, though I don't think he uses a gun at all in the show. I do like Denzel Washington as the character in the movies. I've never watched the Queen Latifah version, and probably won't.

The Equalizer (1985 TV series) - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

That is my association with the name "Equalizer" too. I loved that show when I was a kid!

 

[crestoncowboy]

Even without the killer, the name night stalker would still mean "a person who harasses or persecutes someone with unwanted and obsessive attention" during the night. Or at best "one who hunts game stealthily" which could easily be linked to vigilante justice by some prosecution.

The old AC/DC song "night prowler" got them in a bunch of crap all the way back in the 70s.....before Ramirez

You never hear a prosecutor saying how the defendant gunned down the bad guy while dual wielding his sport orange czechmate and rossi pink princess. But idk. Night stalker is pretty iffy

 

[CDW4ME]

Nor this … though not a handgun (there was a short-barrel version), the short-lived 12ga. Cobray ‘Street Sweeper’, a clone to the Rhodesian, Armsel ‘Striker’.

“In the United States the gun was produced by Cobray and called the Street Sweeper, made and marketed from 1989 to 1994 with slogans like, "It's a Jungle Out There! There Is A Disease And We've Got The Cure." And "Make your streets safe and clean with the help of 'The Street Sweeper'!"

I'm 56 - so I'm aware of the Street Sweeper.

Bonus info you may not know if you never listened to rap.
Lyrics from Country Grammar by Nelly, the song is about 23 years old now:
I'm goin' down, down baby, yo' street in a Range Rover (c'mon)
Street sweeper baby, cocked ready to let it go
Shimmy, shimmy cocoa, what? Listen to it pound
Light it up and take a puff, pass it to me now
I'm goin' down, down baby, yo' street in a Range Rover
Street sweeper baby, cocked ready to let it go

 

[Ks5shooter]

Targeting the not in the loop newbie I think.Mentor a newbie I say and save them money ,time and headache.

 

[Carl N. Brown]

Maybe a "Tisas Night Stalker" handgun is like a "Marlin Goose" shotgun, named after the intended target.

JTQ: With the "Equalizer", my first thought is always of the Edward Woodward version, though I don't think he uses a gun at all in the show.
bannockburn: I believe on some occasions he packed a stainless steel Walther PPK/s. Don't recall if he ever used it or not. ....
I used to watch that with my late wife back in the 1980s. I had to look it up.

IMFDb.org Internet Movie Firearms Database
The Equalizer, Robert McCall (Edward Woodward)

"Throughout the series, Robert McCall (Edward Woodward) carries the Walther PPK/S as his sidearm. McCall always cleanly dispatches his foes with one well-placed shot usually after giving them some chance to surrender."

In various episodes he also uses the Desert Eagle Mark I, Browning Hi-Power, Remington 870, Walther PP, M1 Carbine, Micro Uzi, Smith & Wesson 639, Taurus PT92.

 

[halfmoonclip]

Gece Takipçisi.

Doesn’t exactly sound cool.

(Although this translates to night follower as I don’t think there is a stalker in Turkish. )

Actually, 'Saladin' sounds pretty cool; even Richard the Lionheart thought well of him. Yeah, I know he's not a Turk, but still...
Moon