Modern Guns Stink!

[davidkachel]

(I love a provocative title, don't you?)

Just musing early on a Sunday morning...

It occurs to me that all the guns (handguns at least) that will ever be worth collecting already exist and there won't be any more.
Few would disagree that the pinnacle of form and function in firearms is the Luger. It is simply something magnificent to behold. Of course there are lots of other firearms that are beautiful too, but nothing I can think of being made today (except modern copies of older weapons of course).

What makes a firearm collectible? Beauty (but, sometimes ugliness), scarcity, oddity?...
I think lots of factors make a firearm more or less "valuable" to a collector, but only one thing makes a firearm desirable in the first place: appearance.
It's the form of the weapon that makes it appealing. Everything else is just icing on the cake.
Some collectors may want to own every minor variation ever made of the XYZ pistol, but they want it in the first place because the look and feel of the weapon appeals to them.
Of course there are a few who couldn't care less about the things they collect because they view them as only an investment. But they are able to make this investment only because what they are collecting is appealing to someone else.

We collect firearms because of their appearance: beautiful, ugly or odd.

What do modern firearms from Glock, Kahr, Walther, S&W, etc., look like? They're all virtually the same gun: a plastic box with a metal lid. They all have essentially the same unappealing rectangular shape, made of the same materials with the same finish. They are not beautiful, ugly or odd. They are just there. They are function devoid of form. I cannot imagine anyone ever putting one of these guns under glass and showing it off to friends as part of a "collection". They have no visual appeal whatsoever. They are just shoe boxes that go bang.

Hence my supposition: Gun manufacturers (handgun at least) are no longer producing any new designs that will ever hold any appeal for collectors, and are not likely to change that trend in the future. The age of the handgun as sculpture is gone. There will never, ever be any shoebox collectors. Therefore all the guns that will ever be worth collecting have already been manufactured and there will not be any more in the future. When collectors fully grasp this, prices will probably go through the roof.

Waddya think?