$5000 Handgun

How would you like a $5000 pistol?

Sounds nice?

What if it were not a gift… you need to get a pistol, and the only one you can buy costs $5000?

Kinda sucks huh?

That could happen… and we could be the victims of our own arrogance in allowing it to manifest.

The other day I had a unique opportunity to over hear an exchange between two clients.

We had just finished up a Defensive Shooting 101 class.  The vast majority of the students had never held a gun before.  By the end of the class they had established an appreciation for firearm safety, learned how to check themselves to make sure they were operating consistent with the Four Rules of Firearm Safety,learned how to properly present the firearm, and learned the basics of marksmanship.

Two things had taken place during that class: First,… new shooters were schooled in the importance of safety, Second… they had a good time!

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Two other clients that were far more advanced were working on scenarios on another simulator and would occasionally glance over to see what these new students were doing.

I had to take some trash out to the dumpster and overheard the two advanced shooters talking by their car.

“Yeah… well those guys are probably all going to head straight to the gun store and buy a Glock”.

“Another group of gunslingers thinking their badasses.”

Both chuckled as they got into their car.

Wow.

Let’s think about the economic implications of that.

Imagine you love hamburgers.

I mean really love them.

You have a passion for hamburgers that actually affects your lifestyle.  There are others that share this passion to be sure.  You’ve met them.  You go onto internet forums to communicate with them.  You and your other hamburger aficionados have even developed a language and protocol when dealing with hamburgers.

In a sense you have created a culture.

Cultures can either be inclusive or exclusive.  Your hamburger culture has members that vacillate back and forth in this dichotomy.

They love to tell non hamburger eaters about the merits of their food choice, and even relish (no pun intended) in taking a new hamburger eater to the restaurant to show them the finer merits of this epicurean delight.

Still, when you see someone just haphazardly order a burger at McDonalds you shake your head.  You swear at those that without any thought, just order the #2.  Worse,… those that have never eaten a hamburger that are interested in trying one are put off by your patronizing approach to their interest in expanding their diet.

Here’s the thing… the people that make hamburgers… they base the cost on an economy of scale.

If everyone everyday ate a hamburger, the supply of hamburger makers would explode, and the innovation in the hamburger market would expand exponentially.  In addition, the cost of the hamburger itself would decrease, as the supply met up with demand.

The reverse is also true.

Imagine if most people chose to have chicken instead.

Now, the hamburger manufacturer has less competition as other producers exit the market place.  Their bulk buying also decreases as they no longer need the robust supply they once did.  Still, they want to maintain their profit margins… so the twelve hamburgers that sold to generate a dollar in profit is now replaced by two hamburgers that must generate the same profit.

Less choice, less innovation, and a greater cost per unit.

We gun owners must NEVER allow that to happen to us!

We must constantly look to expand our market.  We must always welcome… no… actively recruit new members to our ranks.   We must not only allow access to our culture, but that culture must, without question be a welcoming one.

Good natured competitive digging is fine, we are human and as long as that approach is not powered by animus there is no harm done.

When we allow ourselves to measure up against the neophyte and draw a conclusion of our own prowess we are both fooling ourselves, and potentially excluding others.

We want,… no… we need… to produce a robust market of new shooters so that existing manufactures, and those that would enter the marketplace to compete with them, produce newer  more innovative firearms for us.

We also want those firearms to have a degree of price stability.

I want to purchase a $5000 firearm, because I want the unique quality and craftsmanship of a $5000 firearm… not because it is the only gun available.